Holy Cow! Things are Crazy!

Everything, and I do mean everything has gotten to be crazy expensive. Inflation is stifling this country. Supply chains, interest rates, stock market, fuel costs, and groceries have all been impacted and are touching every aspect of our lives. It’s hard to justify doing anything when you can’t put your finger on any one thing causing it all. There are some in the political world that measure their lives by political stimuli and the cause is obvious. It’s all Joe Biden’s fault! Some of it may be, you can’t continue to give free money in hard economic times without impacting the economy negatively. In defense, he and his administration at least have some plan to get us out of it. I guess that is why the so-called RED WAVE became a REDDISH DRIP. I hope the plans will have some curbing effect and maybe we are seeing some sign of it by inflation numbers falling, mortgage interest rates dropping, and the stock market seeing a little uptick. I’d love to see the current direction of things to continue, however I feel we have a long road to recovery ahead of us.

I read some time ago that the longest inflation tied bear run period was 11 months. I certainly believe that might have been true when it came to the stock market, but knowing the length of time rates were up before dropping six years back, I’d say the market is an unfair measure against the economy. Import and export taxes have been rising for years, market valuations were more respectable to a company’s worth versus their future forecasts of profit and market cap compared to the last ten years where it seems the metric changed and we falsely reported on a business’ profitability and projected growth. It is feeling much like 2008 with the drop in the market around 25%, only this time the world seems anxious to force a false recovery merely to provide short-lived days of encouragement in this endorphin driven generation. It is all masked by politics which seems to be the biggest sideshow in town stealing most of the attention and now in the third year since Trump lost, he is like a bad penny that refuses to goes away. Even with the obvious losses that MAGA suffered in the elections, the nut-jobs in the House of Representatives still stepped up and publicly announced their moronic agenda for the next two years. It doesn’t matter that serious people want them to do their jobs, they seem hell-bent on catering to their 20% trash base full of retaliation to the lawful people of the world for having the audacity to seek accountability of illegal actions for their dimwit orange Jesus leader. How dare everyone having morals and principals and not enjoying chaos within our judicial branches that they bring. This may be the most meaningless two years the country will ever have to endure.

I could rant for some time about the political circus, but it is merely a diversion to the real issues of livability for us all. Jen and I have been in some state of remodeling since 2018, now on our second house. Materials have certainly climbed in cost and that is if you can even purchase whatever it is you’re looking for. When you can find it, then you have to deal with the rising cost of labor of shipping costs and delays. Jen and I have entered into a time that causes more frustration than pleasure. But we have committed to achieving certain things that will ultimately provide enjoyment of the life we dreamed before retiring. We see that the end is just around the corner, but with the expense of things, we are also having to pace ourselves to allow time to recover from the monetary expense. Before this year, we mostly recovered all expenses or we net valued it into valuation of the house. Fortunately, we started at $108 a square foot in purchase cost and three years later are able to valuate closer to $250 a square foot. That has provided the incentive to continue with the equity stabilizing the cost benefit. We still are nervous though, albeit hopeful, for continued good fortune.

Like I said, we are starting to see some encouraging signs for economic improvement for the country. That should eventually provide us with enlightenment of having done the right things all along. We continue to move forward cautiously and hope that things fall in cost before next year as we have numerous trips lined up and projects to complete. We may have to look for the most economical means for taking the trips, but hopefully it won’t dampen the joy we have had in preparation for them. We hope for smarter people to run the government and that the buffoons go back into the dark corners they came out of. We can only hope, but we should also not focus on them and instead find things that balance us and provides stability to our life. I’m tired of having to live off-balanced!