Poor Man Survival
Self Reliance tools for
independent minded people…
ISSN
2161-5543
A Digest of Urban
Survival Resources
15 Frugal Habits You Need
in Your Life
We
live at a time when the middle class is shrinking and most families are barely making
it from month to month.
The cost of living is steadily rising, but paychecks are not, and that is
resulting in a huge middle class squeeze. I really like how my good
friend MN Gordon made this point in his most recent
article…
The
general burden of the American worker is the daily task of squaring the
difference between the booming economy reported by the government bureaus and
the dreary economy reported in their biweekly paychecks. There is sound reason
to believe that this task, this burden of the American worker, has been reduced
to some sort of practical joke. An exhausting game of chase the wild goose.
How
is it that the economy’s been growing for nearly a decade straight, but the
average worker’s seen no meaningful increase in their income? Have workers
really been sprinting in place this entire time? How did they end up in this
ridiculous situation?
The
fact is, for the American worker, America’s brand of a centrally planned
economy doesn’t pay. The dual impediments of fake money and regulatory madness
apply exactions which cannot be overcome. There are claims to the fruits of
one’s labors long before they’ve been earned…Below you’ll find a variety of
useful tips and resources we’ve garnered that will save money for your
family. Remember to take advantage of
our special FREE report featuring more than 110 ways to save and/or make extra
money!The
economy, in other words, has been rigged. The value that workers produce flows
to Washington and Wall Street, where it’s siphoned off and misallocated to the
cadre of officials, cronies, and big bankers. What’s left is spent to merely
keep the lights on, the car running, and food upon the table.
Frugal living used to be practiced from necessity. Now? Frugality is almost trendy as more and more
people embrace a less wasteful, more mindful existence.
Living frugally doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice everything
you love, however. Truly wealthy people often embrace
frugality while also enjoying the finest things in life. These things don’t
have to be mutually exclusive.
Looking to be more frugal in your daily life? Ahead, find some
easy frugal tips anyone can copy.
Use everything until it
dies
Have you ever seen someone with a six-figure salary driving a
beat-up Toyota Camry? There’s a reason for that.
People who practice frugality as they build
wealth know that using an item to its full potential is crucial.
That’s why spending a little more on a high-quality item is usually cheaper in
the long run. Whether it’s a car, a cup, or a couch, using things until they
wear out is an important part of being frugal.
Whole
Foods' Prices Barely Reduced One Year After Amazon's Hype to Lower Them
It
is now exactly a year after Amazon promised to lower prices at Whole Foods.
According to a new survey by the man who has been tracking prices there, a
basket of 108 items purchased just before the takeover last year cost $412.76.
Today, those same groceries only dropped in price a
total of $3.39. And, if you are a Prime member, you would
only get an additional $1.50 in savings. [Note, the NY Post story has factual
errors - they compared the cost of the March 2018 basket to the current one,
rather than the August 2017 basket.]
More Older Americans Are Turning to Marijuana: Members
of the generation that came of age in the era of marijuana are reaching for
weed in their golden years. NPR, Sept. 12.
5 Great Gig Economy Jobs for People 50+:Here's
how to match your personality with the right side hustle. Source: Next Avenue
U.S.
consumer confidence for the year is the highest it's been in more than a decade. Unemployment is as low as it's been in almost 20 years. The
stock market is once again approaching record highs, bouncing back from its
correction early in the year.
Listening to talk radio, you hear people talk about how strong the economy is now. And this confidence is being reflected in consumer spending. Americans spent more than $12.8 trillion in July 2018, a new record.
But this consumer confidence is coming with a price. Even though 90 percent of wage earners saw an increase in take-home pay after the recent tax cuts, real wages remain low. The average hourly wage today, though almost 10 times what it was 40 years ago, has the same purchasing power as it did in the 1970s. But the reality is different…
Listening to talk radio, you hear people talk about how strong the economy is now. And this confidence is being reflected in consumer spending. Americans spent more than $12.8 trillion in July 2018, a new record.
But this consumer confidence is coming with a price. Even though 90 percent of wage earners saw an increase in take-home pay after the recent tax cuts, real wages remain low. The average hourly wage today, though almost 10 times what it was 40 years ago, has the same purchasing power as it did in the 1970s. But the reality is different…
The Average American's Income Is
Falling
There is compelling evidence that the average American family is
still in worse economic shape than in 2007 and that income is falling.
If you’re worried about higher prices…
if you've been worried about inflation, stop
worrying. Inflation isn't coming. Inflation is here! And it looks to
heat up going forward.
Gas prices, housing and transportation costs all jumped in
the past year, taking a bigger bite out of people's paychecks.
Speaking of camels nosing into tentsLet me give you something to really worry about. Adjusted for
inflation, wages are going down …
·
Roughly 75% of
Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck, with essentially zero savings (according to a recent
study by Bankrate).
·
JPMorgan Chase has
just predicted that economic growth in America over the next few years will
be a paltry 1.25%.
The world is changing very fast, and for many it’s scary.
Wealthy people own valuable assets.
The middle class and poor simply rely on salaries.
Household debt has never been higher, corporate debt has doubled since the last financial crisis, state and local government debt is at record highs, and the U.S. national debt is wildly out of control.
U.S.
consumer credit just hit another all-time record high. In the second
quarter of 2008, total consumer credit reached a grand total of 2.63 trillion
dollars, and now ten years
later that number has soared to 3.87 trillion dollars. That is an increase of 48
percent in just one decade.
#2 Student loan debt has
surpassed 1.5 trillion dollars for the first time ever. Over the last 8
years, the total amount of student loan debt has shot up 79 percent in the United States.
#3 According to the Federal
Reserve, the credit card default rate in the U.S. has risen for 7 quarters in a row.
According
to Professor Larry Kotlikoff, our unfunded liabilities are well in excess of
200 trillion dollars right
now.
If
individuals, corporations, state and local governments and the federal
government all stopped going into more debt, we would plunge into the greatest
economic depression in U.S. history immediately.
David Stockman warns that the global economy has reached an
"epochal pivot", a moment when the false prosperity created from
$trillions in printed money by the world's central banks lurches violently into
reverse.
Stockman's
main warning is that there's no bid underneath this market -- that when
perception shifts from greed to fear, the bottom is much farther down than most
investors realize. In his words, it's "rigged for implosion".
- The Signs Of
Limits Are All Around Us
- Depleting
resources, stagnating wages, weakening economies
- Few See The Signs Though
·
There
was a dark side to the Progressive Era—middle-class reformers often adopted
patronizing attitudes toward the poor; in their zeal to root out corruption in
elections, white, native-born Progressives overturned political machines that
were among the few ways immigrants achieved power; they supported literacy
tests that disenfranchised black voters; and many backed eugenics, helping to
legitimize the forced sterilization of tens of thousands of “unfit” people. The
evils done in the name of social improvement should remind us that the voices
of the most vulnerable must always be heard when developing policy geared
toward making everyone’s lives better.
·
California
today provides a model for America as a whole. This model of politics and
government is by no means perfect, but it is far ahead of the nation in coming
to terms with the inexorable digital, global, sustainable transformation of our
era. It is a thriving work in progress that gives hope that America can pull
out of the political mess we’re in. California today provides a playbook for
America’s new way forward. It’s worth contemplating as we enter 2018, which
will be a critical election year.
·
The
mood in America is arguably as dark as it has ever been in the modern era. The
birthrate is at a record low, and the suicide rate is at a 30-year high; mass
shootings and opioid overdoses are ubiquitous. In the aftermath of 9/11, the
initial shock and horror soon gave way to a semblance of national unity in
support of a president whose electoral legitimacy had been bitterly contested
only a year earlier. Today’s America is instead marked by fear and despair more
akin to what followed the crash of 1929, when unprecedented millions of
Americans lost their jobs and homes after the implosion of businesses ranging
in scale from big banks to family farms.
·
As
a result, the rate of bankruptcy among Americans over age 65 has doubled over
the period studied by the researchers. "For an increasing number of older
Americans, their golden years are fraught with economic risks, the result of
which is often bankruptcy," their report noted.
Certainly gives one points
to ponder…
Your Free Middle Class Survival Kit
SAVE
& MAKE Money
Researched by our editors and
include 100s of tips, tricks and insider methods of saving money, earning extra
money [many from the comfort of your home], the best places to live, How
to find little-known freebies, discounts and other benefits-over 2,000
programs!
or…
BONUS REPORTS
11 Unusual Uses For Milk That Can Revolutionize Homestead
Life
Milk
can provide other benefits beyond its use as a beverage. Here are 11 unusual
uses for milk if you’re a homesteader.
Essential Survival Prep You Can Do Right Now For FREE
Gear is great, but knowledge and practice are more important. Here
are five free survival prep practices you can do to be better prepared.
A Final Note…
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