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Comment by unethical_ban | Hacker News Reader

Didn't read the article, only this thread.

It's a lack of hope. There is no signal in sight that housing will go back to the affordability it had five years ago. The fed and corporations are making inflation worse, and while the government spending of the pandemic seemed wise to keep the circulation flowing while we were on pause, it does seem to have screwed the little guy with no house or stocks.

So if this is as good as it gets, why save or have hope? People getting by will just keep getting by.

At least that's my take.

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Yeah, what's the point of saving? You put money in your bank account, it'll be worth only two-thirds of what it is now, despite nerds on the internet telling you inflation is at 3.5% or whatever. And I look pretty askance at investing on corporations that are not what they used to be, but lumber on.

Obviously the smart thing is to try to make money and then turn around and invest it in Amazon. But to what end? I make pretty OK money but no amount of that will let me afford a house, and I already have a terminal degree. Better to use my money to spend more time with my child.

This is all assuming you have stable employment and a 6-month rainy day fund, not having those things is a little too much YOLO for me.

I feel like people that ask what the point of savings is are younger and haven't experienced a housing crash. Every boom has a bust and anyone who has gone through things such as the housing crisis, dot com bust, or previous crisis know that savings through a bust you will end up really well off on the other side.

Even just the most recent housing crisis as an example. Houses crashed hard and if you had saved you could afford a house. History says that there will be an opportunity to buy and just be prepared for when it is time.

Inflation isn't great for people with stocks, and high interest rates are the main thing that can apply downward pressure to housing prices.

People with lots of debt have it rough right now. The little guy with no house or stocks, but no debt, however, has more of a chance to catch up when hard-earned assets depreciate via inflation and high interest.

Inflation is actually pretty good if you have debt, the debt is in fixed dollars, your wage will likely go up.

the average US wage hasn't kept up with inflation since, like, the 1970s.

Doesn't matter it still goes up, the mortgage note you owe 75000 2003 dollars would cost you 126000 now. Because while it's true in 2003 you made 35000, and now you make about 60000, you're still slightly ahead.

If you had lots of debt and lots of assets even if in 2020 that was a net zero of you made it to 2022 you became insanely rich in the last couple years

I see some of that, but I don't think it's all that, there is a lot of YOLO too.

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