+1 .. I kind of wonder how far things will go before something gives.

It's actually pretty scary. I'm one half of a two person household and we both bring home decent coin and at the end of the day after all the bills are paid and money is put away for retirement my thought is now what? There isn't much money left to do anything without taking on additional debt or playing Keeping up with the Jones'.

I watch my peers get raises and bonuses and run out and spend them on bigger houses and newer cars and I wonder how I can't avoid this new normal of debt, debt, debt.

I feel most saddened though for my female peers as I'm becoming more and more aware of how this is negatively impacting their opportunities to start families. I have three friends who have all cited their lagging "middle" class incomes as their barrier to being able to consider children. It's really hard to function on a single income here and the apparentness of such is creeping into my daily life more and more.

You can simply not go out and buy a new house and/or car :biggrin: In other words, who the frak cares with the Jones' are doing. Do your own thang :biggrin:

Agreed, and I don't, but wow is it ever the trend at least downtown. Although it is often sometimes the trend is to forget to check your skirt isn't tucked into your panties though...so yeah... :lol:

I still go to work on light duty

Shouldn't be anything permanent, the muscle damage hurts more than the fractured bone especially in the pelvic area. ATM my muscles arnt strong enough to move my leg

Don't get me wrong, I do agree that cost of living is going up a lot faster than it traditionally has, for various reasons. I do also see the same trend that you mentioned about keeping up with the Jones'. Last year one of our friends purchased a camping trailer. Then this year another friend bought one but a much more expensive one with more bells and whistles. Now the original friend who got one wants to sell theirs to upgrade. At a dinner table last weekend both friends asked me when I would be getting a camping trailer. WTF?? I'm perfectly happy with my 15 year old camping TENT, thank you very much. :biggrin:

The new term is called "Working Poor" because it is so easy to get virtually anything you want on credit and the problem is most families on a dual income average $85-120,000 per year which in therory should be enough for most people to live off of but mortgage, usually 2-4 credit cards, line of credit, Store credit/debit cards, vacations, loans and your standard bills all add up to the point where you can't afford to live henceforth the tem "working poor".

Sadly I know so many people like this including my brother and his wife they think they are being money smart but have already declared bankrupcy once and are close to it again yet its not their fault its the banks fault as they tell me

It kinda boggles my mind actually. Excuse me for playing the 'old-man card', but when I was growing up and I didn't have enough money to buy that new G.I. Joe super aircraft carrier, I did one of two things. 1. Accepted that I can't afford it and move on. 2. Asked my buddies if I could do their newspaper routes while they were on vacation so that I could pick up some extra cash. I wonder if part of the problem is that some people are blurring the lines between needs and wants. If you focus on living with what you need, life isn't actually all that uncomfortable.

For the record, I am an immigrant whos parents came to Canada with absolutely nothing but the shirts on their backs and young children in tow. I know all about living at the poverty level while mostly all of my peers lived well above the poverty level.

Sorry to hear about your leg my friend. Hope you heal well & fast Tyler.

BTW, got the rabbitfish yesterday & look good.

Anthony