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US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

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Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#161

Post by cyanydeez »

dmoy wrote: post #144
breakpointalpha wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this point of view. $140k in a LCOL is a fantastic salary. Median US household income is $83k/yr. It feels more likely your investment account gains are driving your decisions. Stock gains are also driven by inflation though! I can sort of understand the feeling though, I just recently got a 2.5% raise for "inflation", which hardly feels like it's making a dent.

I don't think that OP meant to say their wage income was low. I think OP means that once their investment returns starts exceeding their wage income, their motivation for continuing to work drops. Which, I kinda get. If you don't really like what you're doing, it's harder to stay motivated at continuing to work when your bag of money makes more money than you do. It sounds like OP is already planning on some amount o…

Y"eah, the same reason we're going to have a trillionaire soon is why even if someones making a great salary, their 401k is inflating faster than they need to earn a living in a low cost of living area.

Absolutely absurd, but if you got the upswing between 2010-2020, you might be in an upper class while still living in lower class, meaning your 401k is all you need to survive on while the billionaires continue to pump the market as a defacto monetary instrument and leave the dollar for the poors.

Think of it like bitcoin, but instead of owning electronic worthless hashes, you own LLCs that own stocks and take out loans on behalf ot he LLC against those stocks.

Then you just trade those LLCs around as tokens of wealth.

Welcome to the great new oligarchy.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#162

Post by Symmetry »

mjamesaustin wrote: post #50

Prices have doubled since 1999!? Restaurant prices near me have doubled since 2015, easily. And that's not counting delivery going from free to 25% of the meal cost.

Except for a brief spike during Covid unemployment has been below 5% for a long time which has led to more wage growth for cooks and waiters than for programmers.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#163

Post by sleight42 »

mrtksn wrote: post #35
bluGill wrote: post #7

Remember this next time you get your yearly review/raise. 4.2% is what you need to stay even, anything less is a pay cut.

It means you already had the paycut, you need to have at least %4.2 rise + reimbursement to make even. In high inflation countries you often get a revision every 2-3 months and you get a rise that is higher than the official inflation, as a result this solidifies the inflation and boosts the economy as everyone immediately buys whatever they can before it becomes more expensive. It's a vicious cycle.

Argentina, for example. Coworkers there told me about this. Madness.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#164

Post by win311fwg »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #160
win311fwg wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that we're specifically talking about value in the context of currency and how that pertains to CPI, I am not sure where "benefit you're getting" would apply. CPI is definitely not interested in "the benefit you got". However, if we are to change gears, the benefit you get out of a restaurant isn't constant either. Aside from maybe those trying to serve the elderly population, where there seems to be a viable n…

> Given that we're specifically talking about value in the context of currency and how that pertains to CPI, I am not sure where "benefit you're getting" would apply. CPI is definitely not interested in "the benefit you got". ...yes it is? It's seeing how many dollars you need for some specific goods. > the benefit you get out of a restaurant isn't constant either It's not exactly constant but it's pretty close. Espe…

No...? Price is what we use to "see how many dollars you need for some specific good".

To be sure, the P in CPI stands for price, but that doesn't mean it is the same thing as price. The C and I are also there to indicate that it is something else.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#165

Post by jbmchuck »

Salgat wrote: post #153
dw_arthur wrote: post #93

Paradoxically, inflation has contributed to me taking a sabbatical. While I live in a LCOL area and made ~140k/year it just no longer felt worth it to work as I saw my retirement accounts start to match and exceed my salary in yearly gains. I do plan on going back to work in a part time manner, but inflation has killed any reason for me to work hard at a job for that level of salary. Furthermore, the feeling of "what…

You're still cutting your annual income in half though. That's pretty big no?

I have the same feelings as the original poster as I get further into middle age and have a good retirement nest egg - for me there are things more valuable - free time and the things I want to do with it but can't get paid to do - than making more income than I really need.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#166

Post by Dylan16807 »

win311fwg wrote: post #164
Dylan16807 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given that we're specifically talking about value in the context of currency and how that pertains to CPI, I am not sure where "benefit you're getting" would apply. CPI is definitely not interested in "the benefit you got". ...yes it is? It's seeing how many dollars you need for some specific goods. > the benefit you get out of a restaurant isn't constant either It's not exactly constant but it's pretty close. Espe…

No...? Price is what we use to "see how many dollars you need for some specific good". To be sure, the P in CPI stands for price, but that doesn't mean it is the same thing as price. The C and I are also there to indicate that it is something else.

It's using a fixed value of goods and measuring the price of that basket to measure the value of a dollar.

The price of a dollar is one dollar. That's a useless statistic.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#167

Post by dw_arthur »

ZeWaka wrote: post #103
dw_arthur wrote: post #93

Paradoxically, inflation has contributed to me taking a sabbatical. While I live in a LCOL area and made ~140k/year it just no longer felt worth it to work as I saw my retirement accounts start to match and exceed my salary in yearly gains. I do plan on going back to work in a part time manner, but inflation has killed any reason for me to work hard at a job for that level of salary. Furthermore, the feeling of "what…

Are you assuming yearly wages not increasing to match/exceed inflation every year? The logical point here doesn't make much sense to me otherwise.

My salary has not kept up with inflation over the last 15 years. The industry I am in, which is not related to tech, has undergone massive consolidation leading to 2-3% raises some years and no raises other years.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#168

Post by dw_arthur »

Salgat wrote: post #153
dw_arthur wrote: post #93

Paradoxically, inflation has contributed to me taking a sabbatical. While I live in a LCOL area and made ~140k/year it just no longer felt worth it to work as I saw my retirement accounts start to match and exceed my salary in yearly gains. I do plan on going back to work in a part time manner, but inflation has killed any reason for me to work hard at a job for that level of salary. Furthermore, the feeling of "what…

You're still cutting your annual income in half though. That's pretty big no?

I don't have a family, so it's manageable. If I had kids there is no way I could work part-time.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#169

Post by win311fwg »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #166
win311fwg wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No...? Price is what we use to "see how many dollars you need for some specific good". To be sure, the P in CPI stands for price, but that doesn't mean it is the same thing as price. The C and I are also there to indicate that it is something else.

It's using a fixed value of goods and measuring the price of that basket to measure the value of a dollar. The price of a dollar is one dollar. That's a useless statistic.

> It's using a fixed value of goods

The CPI basket is definitely not fixed. It is constantly evolving to ensure that the metric is useful. Consumption habits are not fixed.

> The price of a dollar is one dollar.

Technically true, just like the price of one iPhone is the price of one iPhone (assuming equivalent specs), but in the real world price is used to compare the value of different things. Currently, the price of an iPhone 17 Pro is 238 bushels of corn.

Re: US Consumer Price Index up 4.2%

#170

Post by w10-1 »

dw_arthur wrote: post #93

Paradoxically, inflation has contributed to me taking a sabbatical. While I live in a LCOL area and made ~140k/year it just no longer felt worth it to work as I saw my retirement accounts start to match and exceed my salary in yearly gains. I do plan on going back to work in a part time manner, but inflation has killed any reason for me to work hard at a job for that level of salary. Furthermore, the feeling of "what…

I would never, ever leave work regardless of the pay.

Regardless of your skill and reputation, time off can quickly put you below the bar for even getting a call-back, and you lose access to relevant lessons.

You'll be shocked at how irrelevant you become, and how quickly the retirement accounts will give up the gains of the last 3 years (particularly when this 2026 IPO summer terminates US equity markets).

The feeling of "What's the point" might have little to do with work, and more to do with (finally) losing faith in ambition. If so, don't worry: the best comes after we put aside dreams.

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