If you were to set up your budget just a mere year ago, based on these CNBC findings, your net income per year would be recommended to look like this: Needs (50%), Wants (30%) and Savings (20%). Doesn’t matter if your income is $50K, or $100K or $25K a year. The percentages (50/30/20) should be the same.

Today, thanks to high inflation, soaring gas energy prices and food shortages, most people’s budget would look more like 100% of their income is being used just to cover their needs. That’s how it is for my immediate family (husband, wife and dog). Our entire monthly income is being used to cover our essential, immediate needs. None of our wants are being covered. There is no going out to eat in a restaurant nor is there take-out. No entertainment (unless it’s free). No new clothing (make due or buy used) and there is absolutely no cable TV (either antenna or ROKU). We do have a category for our RV as we used to travel south for the winters and camp out in the summers. That’s not feasible for us anymore. Based on the rising costs of fuel and rising camping fees, we’re waiting to see if we can permanently re-locate our RV to Florida. Think of it as our ‘Florida Get-A-Way Condo’ (because the odds of us ever buying a vacation home has been reduced to zero!) If that’s not possible then the unit will be sold (probably at a loss….however, some people are using RVs as their home, so it might retain some sellable value).

My housing category (no mortgage) includes property taxes, home owner’s insurance, repair and maintenance, utilities (electricity, propane, wood pellets, cellular service, internet access). Medical insurance includes Medicare Part B for my husband and myself, as well as supplemental insurance, Part D (drug care), co-pays, deductibles, vitamins and monthly prescriptions. Food and clothes is self explanatory. We currently drive two cars (no car loans). We both carry life insurance. We’re not driving so much as many things we want to do or need are within a 10 miles radius of our home. And lastly, we have 1 smallish pet (only weighs 11 pounds) and we carry a must-have pet insurance policy because small dogs, when ill, can be very costly to cure. We have no credit card debt.
I consider our RV loan as a vacation expense category. The monthly payment is minor and if need be, I do have the ready cash in savings to pay off the loan immediately. As it stands now, however, should we sell it, I might have to cough up the difference. I have no idea what’s it value is anymore. It depends on how it’s sold: recreation or residence (the latter being more valuable).
Lastly, since we are already retired, we are no longer putting money away into a retirement savings account. Nor are we invested in the stock market so the roller coaster Wall Street values do not affect us. Our savings, while not making great financial gains, does compound, is consistent and is guaranteed not to be worth less than what we have put in. However, based on the current horrific, worldly financial economic profile, any extra cash that comes our way gets deposited into a liquid FDIC savings account. Should our current income no longer cover our basics, we understand the need for an additional savings account.
This is not the way I thought my retirement years would be: worried and scrambling for survival. Keeping a roof over our heads, food on our table and gas in our car tank in Prime Number One now. I wasn’t expecting on how to keep warm in the winter, cool in the summer and how to keep operating when a sporadic power grid goes down. We did not do this to ourselves. It was done to us by others. We no longer have control nor freedom over our lives. All our futures are going to be survival of the fittest. NOT a good place to be in retirement. Please don’t fool yourself. Things are not going to get better any time soon. This is a worldwide, deliberate attempt to take over our lives and force a new world order upon us.
And please don’t think that the coronavirus is under control. If any of us Americans would take the time to sit down and read the periodicals coming out of the CDC we would soon realize that each and everyone of us is going to get covid-19. You can wear a mask from here to kingdom come, get every vaccine invented by man, they can not control it. Covid-19 will be with us forever in our lifetimes. Every living thing right now has covid-19: the birds, the animals, the humans…..There is no escape. Every single one of my neighbors currently has covid-19. We’re all vaxxed and boosted. Even a recent new homeowner, his wife and new-born baby came down with covid-19. We think we all caught it from one of our neighbors who refuses to get vaccinated. He went to an indoor party in NYC and brought an unknown variant back to this block. One by one, as each neighbor spoke to another neighbor, the entire road I live on has now been infected. And we will catch covid-19 again and again and again. Till death do us part.
I’ve changed my whole prospectus on my life now. I see how ridiculous I have been all these years. You work hard, you save your money, you try to do the right thing, live a good honest life….and all….for what? We’re nothing. Just pegs in a poke easily cast aside. Our only importance is to our family and friends. No one else cares about us. We’re constantly being lied to. Ask yourself: are you better off now than you were a year ago? Do you believe it when President Biden says his administration is doing all it can to lower gas prices, lower food prices? Have you looked in the harbors lately? All the supply ships are gone. All the crap has been unloaded. Have any of your prices come down on anything? Use your own eyes. See for yourself? Are you richer or poorer? Are you healthier or sicker? Are you safer or are you living in fear? We have to worry now about our children in schools, taking the subway or mass transportation….will we be shot and killed when we are at church, shopping in a mall, walking down the street or just sitting in our living rooms watching TV. Do you believe or trust in anything?
I no longer have any desire to travel or see the world. Thank God I did it all when I was young, strong, solvent and healthy. I pity anyone who waited their whole life to retire and finally enjoy life because guess what? Your days of ‘enjoying life’ are limited. I’m perfectly content to stay home. I have 3.5 acres to roam around in, grown my gardens and practice my skeet shooting. I have my bird feeders in the back and I love to sit outside and watch the birds pick at the seeds as my new entertainment. I have the deers, the wild turkeys, the squirrels, the ducks, the turtles, the black snakes, the chipmunks, the Norwegian mice, an occasional bear or bobcat. I guess God knew long ago (21 years to be exact) that this would be the perfect place for me to live out the rest of my life and die. Everything I want or ever need is no more than a 10 miles radius from my front door.
Instead of planning for my future, I’m going to write my memoirs. At 71, it was a life well lived. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.
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How are you feeling Cindi? You seem agitated when you should be resting. We will all be able to live with Covid, just like we did with other viruses. Our bodies will be immune, eventually and it will end up like the common cold. I’m not just saying it, but am reading about it in medical journals.
You always come out on top with your finances, and this, too, shall pass, but only if you RELAX. Your blood pressure must be through the roof (you can blame that on Italian passion, right?). Anyway, praying you start feeling good soon!!!
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Sharon I had a really rough time. Not nick. He was up and running in 2 days. Plus it was a holiday weekend and I couldn’t get in touch with my dr till Tuesday. Today, Wednesday is the first day showing some improvement. Little steps. Neither I nor Nick however can leave our home till the 6th. Ugh. Just to be sure.
Thanks for your concern. Def a learning experience.
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Sharon, Nick’s friend is a pharmacist and manager of a big pharmacy chain. He gets the CDC reports daily and reads every single word. Are those the medical journals you are reading? I don’t think these reports are open to the public. This pharmacist does not paint a pretty picture for our future. It’s rather bleak. We’re going to get the virus. Over and over again with each new variant. Right now, everyone on my road got the Omicron variant. A doctor’s wife down the block let us all know. She also said a new booster is coming out and we all should wait for it before taking the current booster. Nick and I are going to wait the extra month or so. All have advised that we must always wear a mask indoors, regardless. They all recommend an N-95. They double warned Nick that if he does insist to continue working, he has to also wear a gator and to never ever work in a crowd. If there are more than 7 people in a room, he should get out immediately. This is our new reality going forward. The America we know and grew up in is gone and she is never coming back. Isn’t it strange that Tom Cruise’s new movie, is the first Pro-American movie in decades. It was actually booed in some theaters. What a disgrace.
Time will tell what our lives will be like. No one has to believe what I am saying. The proof, as they say, will be in the pudding.
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No, I don’t trust CDC. I have an excellent endocrinologist who is part of a group that researches Covid. Mostly Israeli studies because they have a better handle on it with their population.
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Israel has done an excellent job with Covid.
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I think I have a different and hopefully more positive view (and I do agree it’s not easy at this time). Yes the current inflation is horrible. No one can understand or accept the more recent acts of violence. (Politics, whoa won’t touch that will a ten foot pole.). And then the trifecta! Covid, which probably will be more of an endemic but……. I take a look at history. I was just thinking about a movie you should watch, Country with Jessica Lange. We’re farmers, in the early 80’s farms were sold out, forced into bankruptcy, dairy farmers were pouring out milk in the fields because farm prices collapsed, in the 70’s farmers killed hogs off as that market collapsed cost more to raise then sell….., look at the housing collapse in ? 2008?, look at the stock market collapse in the 30’s the dust bowl years. I just feel tough times are here but as history shows those pass and people persevere. I have another perspective also, they say of the top 4 group of everyday millionaires they are teachers. I’ve made many financial mistakes and I own them. Those groups of people that worked hard, steady, saved, set things aside, and year after year contributed into the market generally are still doing pretty good. Yes inflation will take a bite out of them but they’ve done things the way that will minimize its impact. For a great number of people our age many had the opportunity of union or vested work with a pension plus savings options. I will say I worry about the next generation that that is not as readily available. I know this is getting long, but how I wish I had saved better and contributed to 401’s etc. but my saving grace is I was lucky to find a career (very hard work) that I loved and still do very part time. I have been working as a RN for now for 45 years. (I know you posted you never liked working) but that career find and the joy of doing it along with the relationships with others, patients and coworkers it brought me, I give so much thanks for (plus the great pension and my SS it’s given me). I’m trying to keep positive, it’s bad but it’s been bad before and sorry but still loving my country (but yes not the political stuff but not touching that mess).
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Jre, thank you for your comment. My new career is writing. I get paid to write about what I think and feel. Of all the subjects I took in school, I always got an A+ in English. Who knew?
What frustrates me more now than ever is the loss of my freedom. The government today controls everything. Their tentacles are in everything. Technically I can’t really write what I’d like to for fear of being taken down. Not cool.
Thank you again for your comment. God bless you!!
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I love this. And I agree with all of it. 🙂
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@JRE
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You tend to lash out & blame everyone but yourself for your current financial woes. You chose to stop working at 50, did you not? Had you continued to work & SAVE, possibly your current finances wouldn’t be so tight.
It’s easy to make choices, but hard to live with some of them.
You could sell 1 vehicle & make do with just 1. You could sell your camper There are still choices you have to help your tight financial situation.
I don’t have as gloomy of an outlook on our future as you. I will continue to live life & enjoy every day.
Be well.
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Hi Cindi, so glad you are feeling better. Did your neighbor that perhaps gave it to you all have worst symptoms since he wasn’t vaccinated?
I agree with JRE, when you are in troubling times it seems the worse but then we persevere, it passes, and we move on. I love my home and being able to see my kids and grandkids. I would like to do a genealogy trip, all the other travel dreams we did years ago. I didn’t get really seriously into genealogy till 2011.Unfortunately, I have postponed my plans for next spring until I get over the pain of heel bone spurs and can walk long distances.
Good luck on getting your budget under control. I just got an email from my electric company that instead of rates decreasing July 1st the supply rate is going up 72.2% from last July, 2021 rate. So this month’s bill of $26.15 my lowest ever, will probably be the last one in the twenties. Constant Change seems the only thing that is inevitable. Sincerely, Lara
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Lara, the neighbor who was unvaxxed is in his 50s. First his wife got sick with a sore throat. Then he got ill and tested positive. He says he is also suffering from allergies. So, I really don’t know what to make of him. This weekend he and his wife are flying to Paris. They’ll both have to pass covid testing, so we will see what happens.
When I inherited money from my father, I took my whole family (me, Nick and my 2 girls) to meet my dad’s family in Italy. They got to see their origins, where my dad was born, lived, studied and grew up plus they got to meet their entire Italian side of the family. It was a wonderful experience and so important for the girls to see.
I just got my current electric bill and it went DOWN as promised. We’re using less electricity and we’re saving money. That’s about the best one can hope for.
I am in such a bad mood with this covid thing. In the morning when I wake up I feel fine BUT as the day progresses I get sicker and sicker and sicker. I’m in communication with my doctor every day. All my vital signs are good but I have a terrible cough and I feel very tired. I can only do a little bit of my chores every day. All I can say is UGH! It’s been 9 days already. Whomever it out there reading this comment: you do NOT want to catch this virus. It’s awful.
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Yes, it was awful for me, too- two months of the cough, no energy, and six months of extreme tiredness. I hope you get over it quicker. I don’t wish it on anyone!
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Lara, my heart goes out to you. 2 months coughing? No energy? 6 months of tiredness? I’m so not looking forward to this. Thanks for letting me know. I realize now I have a tough road ahead of me. I look at people who are healthy and active and doing things now and I get so jealous! UGH!!
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So much truth in this post! I hope people are heeding your warnings and planning appropriately.
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I think a lot of people are in denial. They think nothing bad could ever happen to America!
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They are so wrong!
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Precious, I told them, in quite frank terms, not to come knocking on my door when they’re broke and hungry. Immediate family members…..maybe….but that’s it.
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