Challenges... and Tragic Realities

Where to begin?

At the start of this year — having evaluated the crappiness that was 2024 — I set myself the challenge to "up my game" in 2025 so as to get back on top of our financial situation, at least to a point where we are keeping up, rather than slowly falling behind.

All that's needed is just a little more work...

Let's put a temporary "bookmark" there...

So I ran into a friend at the supermarket yesterday... somebody I hadn't seen in a year or so.

Turned out the reason she had been off the radar was that she became homeless last year, after the small bookshop she was working for went out of business and she couldn't get another job quickly enough to keep up with her rent and living expenses.

So she wound up living in her car for a few months; then "biting the bullet" and moving in with her 70-something parents for a while... until finally being able to rent a room with two other women who needed to "split the bills" even further, in order to stay in their rental house.

$1,250 a month for a room and shared facilities in a house.

This might not sound so unusual... if we were talking about university students or young adults... but college educated women in their 40s and 50s?

Back when Mrs. Denmarkguy and I had our art gallery and gift shop downtown, I would walk daily down a stretch of road from the "downtown merchants parking" to the shop, passing lots of parked cars.

Most people likely wouldn't notice, but you can spot cars that people live in quite easily... and there were alarmingly many. I would know, because I have also had to live in my car for a while, many years ago.

Living in your car at least offers you lockable shelter, but it's not much above being on the street.

Which brings me back to the "challenge" I set for myself... and the potential futility of it:

There comes a point where there just isn't any more "you" to apply to working more, because living expenses are just too high. Which is how we end up with something you see more and more — like my friend — people who are actually fully employed but their incomes are insufficient to sustain a life that actually involves living in an apartment or house.

I watched a documentary a couple of months back, about growing homelessness in California. The surprising thing was that quite a few of the people interviewed were well-educated professionals, including a couple of doctors, each of whom were living in their minivans because they couldn't afford both rent and their student loan payments.

An 8-year university education, working 60-70 hours a week, and you still can't afford life?

Granted, this was in the San Francisco area, and the problem was that an apartment would require first and last month's rent plus a security deposit up front... to the tune of about US $12,000.

Which leaves my personal challenge of catching up looking like a rather futile and tragic attempt to overcome a reality that might not be... possible to overcome.

But I gotta try, right?

Thanks for stopping by and have a great remainder of your week!

How about you? Do you ever feel like you're going backwards, financially? Have you ever been homeless? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 2025.02.05 22:40 PST
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