Mineral Man Reminds DUmp He Has a Few Bucks

[BannedFromDU]

Star Member MineralMan (142,672 posts)

Homes Cost Too Much! Everything Costs Too Much!
Why, I remember the time when I bought a cute little cottage in a small California town near a Pacific Ocean bay for just $20,000. I lived in that house for 30 years. I fixed it up to become an adorable little beach town cottage because I loved living there and because I could write magazine articles about all of the remodeling and decorating jobs I was doing.

But now, the cost of a house in my new state of Minnesota is much, much higher. My wife and I paid $240,000 for a townhouse in a four home quad, just last year. 12 times what I paid for that first house. Outrageous! How is that possible? I need to think about that for a bit.

...thinking...thinking...thinking...

Oh, wait...never mind. I just remembered. In 2004, I sold that $20,000 cottage for $337,000 dollars. And it was the cheapest home that sold in that little beach town that year. My wife and I moved to Minnesota, and bought a much bigger house there for $174,000. That's the one we sold last year to buy our current place, after living in it for 17 years. It sold for $209,000. Not much of an increase, but there was that real estate slump in there, and it wasn't in a particularly desirable neighborhood.

Everything costs more now than it did back in 1974, when I bought that first house. In 1974, for example, a brand new 1975 Ford Pinto cost just $2292. A small car, to be sure, and not a very desirable one. Now, a brand new 2021 Chevy Trax, another small, unpopular car, cost us $24,900 less than a year ago. Outrageous.

In 1974, I could fill up that Pinto for $0.53.9 per gallon. Now, many people are paying $5.39 per gallon for gasoline.

Back in 1974, the minimum wage was about $1.60 per hour. Where I am living now, there are many entry-level jobs that pay $16.00. Neither was or is enough for a family to live on. I don't think the minimum wage was ever enough for a family to live on.

Funny how that works, isn't it? Inflation. Things cost more and more. Wages lag behind inflation.

It's not fair. But, it has never been fair.

It's a struggle. It has always been a struggle.

It's been a few days since everyone was talking about Mineral Man, so he posts a humblebrag about being in good positions at good times...

Bleh. Not worth bringing over responses. Yes, Mineral Man, you have enough money to live comfortably. Go buy yourself a cookie.

[fatboy]

All this is comforting to the DUmmies that have $65,000 student loan debt but no degree and work part time at the dollar store.

[FiddyBeowulf]

Star Member MineralMan (142,672 posts)



But now, the cost of a house in my new state of Minnesota is much, much higher. My wife and I paid $240,000 for a townhouse in a four home quad, just last year. 12 times what I paid for that first house. Outrageous! How is that possible?

Getting off the gold standard and devaluing our currency.

[BannedFromDU]

Getting off the gold standard and devaluing our currency.

     But they'll take the proposed stimmy to help with inflation. I mean, how impossibly stupid can people be?

[DefiantSix]

     But they'll take the proposed stimmy to help with inflation. I mean, how impossibly stupid can people be?

Don't ask. 

Every time somebody does, the primitives seem to take it as a personal challenge and add another sub-basement to the bottom of the well. It's getting so bad that sites like the 'Bee are finding it harder and harder to be satirists instead of prophets.

[Texacon]

And he still doesn’t thank his folks for the money they left him. So much so that he bought that $240k house before he sold the other house because he could and he wanted to fix it up before the sale. He paid contractors to do that.

KC

[Delmar]

From thrift store scrounger to real estate magnate, an inspiring Horatio Alger style rags-to-riches story.  Take a bow Rock Head, success is the best revenge.

[SVPete]

MM is reflecting on Jimmy-Carter-esque inflation?