I am NOT an economist. This blog is from my personal desk, with my personal information, from my personal perspective. I’m not asking for you to agree with me. I’m just chatting with my people. Relax and read.
I mean… WOW. Five years ago I couldn’t have imagined paying more than $2.00 for eggs, yet I find myself grateful for the people I know that have fresh eggs and the access I have to the commissary on base for reasonably priced food. I hear the rumblings across the interwebs about chickens, bird flu, problems with feed, etc. that have all combined to make eggs in some places more than $5.00 per dozen. Let’s take a look at some things.
The Debt Ceiling
At this point, it is a pretty safe assumption that NO ONE has a firm grasp on how the heck this is working out. I must pay MY bills every month and no one is raising MY debt ceiling. So how the heck is the answer to mounting overdue payments raising the amount of debt you are allowed to accumulate? If my bills do not get paid, someone is going to be taking points from my credit score, turning my water off, coming to take my vehicle, and a host of other things. I’m just out here wondering who has control of the spreadsheet with the macro-enabled budget on it because they need to go back to basics.
The Federal Budget
Speaking of a budget, here we are again with this money thing. Why can’t we pay our bills? Because these people want to buy this and fund that, and those people want to buy that and fund this. You know what doesn’t happen? The things that “we, the people” see on a daily basis. We don’t see our Veteran’s receiving the care they’ve earned. We don’t see our children getting the education they need to contribute to our future economy in a positive way. We don’t see our elderly being stable in ANY way. We DO see the divide between the haves and the have nots growing wider every day.
Inflation
Oh. My. Goodness. There are so many woes in just the grocery store! Supply chain issues are STILL wild, and we are considered to be “post-pandemic” at this point. So why am I still paying so much for things that should be readily available? Because the system is still broken. Even though the supply chains aren’t technically broken anymore, the job market is. The people that lost their jobs during the pandemic have reinvented themselves for the better in a lot of cases and are no longer interested in supply and demand. Farmers are losing produce because it spoils before it can get to a place to be sold among other things. For example, if the port is backed up, it isn’t because of virus woes anymore, it has more to do with the lack of qualified personnel to unload cargo. See the connection.
The Job Market
Even though the unemployment rates aren’t as bad as the Great Depression, it’s still pretty depressing. I know, as a current job hunter, how foreboding the job market is. It’s frightening looking at some of the requirements out here vs the pay. I’ve seen employers that will absolutely tell you, “We can’t pay you that right now, but we will once we get going good.” I’m sorry… What? I’ve seen some requirements that would have me questioning my qualification for that job (if I didn’t know before reading the posting) that pay pennies. I’m not a $500k pay band employee by any means, but I’m way too qualified, experienced, and educated to be working for some of these wages.
The Bottom Line
If you’re not engaging in multiple streams of income, you’re crazy. People think it is a game out here. It is not. You should be doing something on the side to generate a few dollars and cents for you to store. This isn’t to pay your bills. Your bills are paid (hopefully) with your current bread winning construct. The side hustle is real. I have a couple of them. One of them made me $0.26 last month. Is that a lot of money, no it isn’t. So what am I doing about it? I’m cutting it off and focusing the efforts elsewhere. Some things need time to curate, and others do not. Make sure you’re doing your research and planning your moves. Otherwise, you’ll be out here wasting money (like I did in 2021) on a business idea that was from a good place, and horrible executed.
Watch your six my love. Things are changing. Smooches.
Who The Kel? 