391–400 of 918 posts
Some random things I've noticed in my personal experience during the last few weeks that are inflated at way above 8.5%: Gasoline (gallon) - 3.00 last summer, 3.75 today (25% increase) Towing a Car (~50mi Round Trip) - 125 last summer, 350 today. (180% increase!) Bag of Dorito's - 4.50 last summer, 6 today (33% increase) Can of Spray Paint - 4.25 last Summer, 6.50 today (54% increase)
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The official measures have always been BS. Its obvious to everyone now. Hedonic adjustments + flat out replacing expensive items for cheap items was always retarded
But they have to do something like this right? I mean, consumption patterns have obviously changed since the 1960s. I understand maybe the way they adjust isn't correct but if you think this is a really easy problem you probably haven't considered it enough
Great. All I know is I'm trading a lot more time for money this year. Way less takeout, avoiding toll roads unless it saves at least 30 minutes, fewer streaming services (will renew on a show-by-show basis), and food is getting so crazy I might start going to multiple stores to try and save money instead of my one consolidated trip to Wegmans. I'm also stuffing my freezer with meat and have a year's supply of non-per…
If you live in the USA, a Costco membership is very worth it.
Great. All I know is I'm trading a lot more time for money this year. Way less takeout, avoiding toll roads unless it saves at least 30 minutes, fewer streaming services (will renew on a show-by-show basis), and food is getting so crazy I might start going to multiple stores to try and save money instead of my one consolidated trip to Wegmans. I'm also stuffing my freezer with meat and have a year's supply of non-per…
If you live in the USA, a Costco membership is very worth it.
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Seems like EV uptake rate, while still just a fraction of total sales, is probably high enough to contribute to demand destruction. Gas prices have come down pretty fast. I wonder if EV adoption goes fast enough that we'll see a period of time when gas prices just crater for a while. A sweet spot of owning an ICE vehicle, but then gas stations will start to close up and ICEV owners could face the same problem EV owne…
When ppl talk about EVs overtaking petrol all I can do is shake head. Infrastructure is not there and is not going to be there for EVs for a long time. Its not only gas stations but also power plants, transit cables, personel, supply chains, technology, laws and other. If we make good investments it will take around 50 years in some developed EU countries to reach appropriate infrastructure levels. In less developed…
(1) HOME CHARGING. In sparser areas where people live in houses with garages, duplexes, and even to some degree rowhouses, it's easy to run an extension cord and get a full charge nightly.
(2) STORE PARKING LOT CHARGING. In denser places where people live predominantly in apartment buildings and perhaps some rowhouses, there is enough density to have rapid chargers in store parking lots. You drive to the grocery store, park for half an hour while you shop, and you have enough charge for the rest of the week. There is also enough density that daily milage is much less so you can get away with charging once or twice a week instead of daily.
(3) OTHER TRANSPORT CHOICES REDUCE RANGE ANXIETY. Also at least in the USA TONS of households have multiple cars -- especially in sparser areas that are more car dependent and have plentiful parking. This creates an easy in for the plugin EV -- if one of your (typically two) cars is still ICE or hybrid, you don't have to worry about range anyway (while still putting most miles on the EV). Conversely, in denser areas (USA or EU) it is common to own zero cars or one car that isn't even used every day because public transit covers some of the transport needs. In either case, range anxiety becomes not much of a problem because the EV isn't your sole option for getting around (but, at 250mi range, range anxiety is kind of obsolete anyway)
So once again, whether you're in a sparse or dense area, there are dynamics that make it easy for many people to get started with an EV. Does it work for 100% of people, today? No. But that's how change works. Once a lot more people, starting with those who can easily do so, get EVs, it becomes more normalized, and there's more infrastructure, and the cycle continues.
Good plugin EVs like the Bolt or Leaf with 200+ mi of range are now in the $20-$29k range. It's starting to become pretty practical. They're not competitive with getting the cheapest camry shitbox you can find on craigslist and running it into the ground, but they're competitive with a lot of ordinary cars ordinary people buy.
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I'm doing the same (mostly just to buy a house) and I've been using YNAB to budget money: https://www.youneedabudget.com/ It's really good, knowing where you're money is going ahead of time removes so much guilt and anxiety.
Oh yeah, I use Mint for the same. It's really fun watching my cost-cutting measures getting eaten alive by inflation in real-time :) I also find myself slowly sliding down Maslow's hierarchy. I used to be focused on achieving my dream job, now I'm strongly considering work I don't like because it pays more (being the sole income for my family is a major factor there as well). "Good enough pay for awesome work" is not…
YNAB is much nicer than Mint IMO. Mint feels more like a toy.
With YNAB you do something called "envelope budgeting" (just a digital version) https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-envelope-budgeting-129368...
I've found being obsessive with tracking expenses is a good way to lose motivation (like going to the gym) so it's good to have a simple pattern to get used to.
What are the actual metrics they use to measure inflation? My electric bill is 33% higher than previous years, my gas bill is similar. City/Water/Sewer doubled. Trips to the grocery store are up close to 20%, and gasoline doubled. Everything you actually purchase day-to-day is up far more than the inflation benchmarks, so much so it’s beginning to feel like propaganda. I overnight went from thinking “I make good mone…
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And for those of us in apartments / condos? My HOA were all born in the 40s and think EVs are simply a fad that doesn't need supporting.
In CA, they aren’t given the option to deny you to install a charger. Easy legislative fix.
I'm sure everyone noticed .. but the ONLY index that actually deflated (decreased) this past month was gasoline. .. Not energy (electric, nat-gas, gas).. JUST gasoline.. It declined nearly 8% (significant) net-nulling the rest of the indexes which all continued to increase (food, building, all-other-energy-forms).
What are the actual metrics they use to measure inflation? My electric bill is 33% higher than previous years, my gas bill is similar. City/Water/Sewer doubled. Trips to the grocery store are up close to 20%, and gasoline doubled. Everything you actually purchase day-to-day is up far more than the inflation benchmarks, so much so it’s beginning to feel like propaganda. I overnight went from thinking “I make good mone…
The 1980 and prior CPI calculation is still calculated here: http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts As inflation was measured in the 1970's, we are experiencing ~15% consumer inflation.
[1]https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/3zik5t/shadow...