RE: Late Night Reflections... and Reminiscence (Ulog No. 11)
Sometimes the best thing I can do is just write some of this stuff out and just "toss it out there" and other people (such as yourself) step in and we all swap stories... as a result of which we realize we're not alone, and so the burden becomes slightly easier to bear.
One of the things I fear many of us are facing is "creeping elegance" which is basically a form of "hidden" cost of living expenses. They say "the economy" is doing really well, and yet so many are struggling.
Here's a good example: Our homeowner's insurance renewed a couple of months ago. It was $980 or something, or basically just a few percent more than last year. Fine. As per every previous year, we chose the "Down payment + 9 monthly payments" option. Still fine.
HOWEVER, new this year is a $3.50/payment "convenience fee" for the automatic monthly withdrawal. ALSO new is that there is now a "premium" for the payment plan. It's 10% higher if you do the monthly payment thing. So ACTUALLY, our insurance didn't increase by about $30, it increased by something $170!
But here's the rub: As far as "the economy" and the formal "cost of living" is concerned, it will still go into the history books as having increased $30 or a few percent. The fees will not "exist" in the economic status reporting because ON PAPER the insurance could have been bought for $980.
Our home owner's insurance is always doing something—we have it bundled with auto, so that price for the umbrella seems to go up every year—houses burn down somewhere, we get to pay higher premiums—for a while, they had our daughter-in-law on our insurance, even though she had her own insurance. They'd lived with us for a while, and so the insurance company just went ahead and added her, but not my son.
Seems like the economy has gotten better somewhat, but there's probably a lot more to go. I heard on the radio yesterday that they're predicting another recession by 2020—just in time for another presidential election, which probably has as much to do with the prediction as anything.
re: toss it out there
I agree. Conversation starters make for good posts, as far as I'm concerned. I have enough accumulated experiences now, there seems to be something that will fit most topics. :)