It’s becoming increasingly hard for myself and my family to survive in this economy. Myself and my family are teetering in the edge. I hope there’s some relief soon. I lost my job back in 2021 and went I to business for myself. 5 years ago under Trump’s economy I think I could survive and grow without a problem. Now… a trip to the grocery store costs $500 and running up cards left and right because our two incomes combined still isn’t enough. That doesn’t even touch on all the other things like our healthcare going up etc. 3 kids… I am praying people will make their moves soon to take this thing back and get it under control. I don’t know how much time I have left. I wish there was a relief opportunity for those of us who know and trust the plan to get by until it’s fixed. LoL
It’s becoming next to impossible for myself and my family to survive.
🧘Mental/Physical Health 🏋🏼♂️
I will pray for you and your family as well as OP's. I understand so well what you are dealing with. We are in a similar situation and I have posted about that here before. We'll have been in business for ourselves for 17 years next month. Until 2021 we saw steady and sustained growth. 2021 would have been the year that my husband and I finally were able to take some of our proceeds and use them fully on ourselves (ie, kids were grown, weddings done, etc.). We were planning on rapidly paying off the rest of our mortgage and were building up our savings in anticipation of a kind of semi retirement in a few years.
It seems like the day they installed Biden our sales tanked and have never recovered. We're probably doing a quarter of what we were doing in 2020 at this point. On top of this, our state implemented $15/hr minimum wage, so where we HAD been paying our employees (all family) a competitive wage for our area, we were suddenly just barely competing with fast food wages. We kept our kids employed far longer than we should have with the way our sales were going (probably 18 months too long) and fully depleted our personal savings to do so. When it came time for us to downsize, our kids despised us for nOt BeInG GoOd BuSiNeSs PeOpLe.If we had only been smarter and less stingy we'd not have put ourselves in that situation (not sure how they considered us stingy when we provided them with vehicles and jobs and school money and wedding money and helped with honeymoons, etc.- if you can't tell, I'm a iittle bitter about this part of our story and I hate the division that our financial issues have caused almost more than I hate the actual financial issues themselves.)
We've done a lot to stay afloat. Sold our home, lived in our work building for a while- we did buy another home, are working from there now, and are selling our commercial building. Sold off things we'd needed as homeowners like our tractor. We have one vehicle and are thinking of selling it and buying a beater so that we can get a little extra cash. We do NOTHING extra, I've not had a haircut in over a year. I have clothing with holes worn in them because I've not bought clothes in so long. It's devastating to work for so many years to build a business- when it's small and just you and family, you really pour your heart and soul into your work- and watch it just wither despite all your best efforts. We have one employee now and laying her off will be the next thing we have to do. My husband and I no longer pay ourselves a regular paycheck. Bidenomics, lol.
I DO believe that things will get better and that they can be good again if we can stay afloat long enough. It's been my thought that if we can just downsize enough to get through, things will be good again. But I'll admit- I'm almost 50 years old and the thought of starting over and rebuilding is just almost too much.
My biggest suggestion is prayer. I'm a Christian and I have seen God step in and save us at the last minute more than once. Praying for everyone in this thread.
It pains me to hear about people like you paying for cars, college, weddings, etc for your children. It seems like a great thing to do, but it is a disservice to your children. This is and was a big part of the illusion of the "American Dream", when it absolutely has nothing to do with the American Dream (which is all about opportunity for those who are willing to go get it). We have been fooled into thinking that giving away opportunity leads to anything other than pain and suffering for all involved parties. I pray that your are able to weather the storm and continue to put away enough for the winter of your lives. I hope you keep in mind the lack of understanding that your children have shown you in this hardship and steer any inheritance to any of your children that have shown you compassion. If it is none of them, then perhaps leave it to grandchildren or simply someone in your life that you deem worthy. You don't owe your children anything at this point, they took their inheritance when you paid for vehicles, college and weddings.
My husband and I both grew up and did what we did with our lives with literally zero support from our own families. We pulled ourselves up out of grinding poverty with our business, and when I say we were super poor, I mean it. Our business was 100% given to us by God and He's helped us so much. So I have faith that things will get better as far as that goes. He hasn't brought us this far to fail now.
We did the things we did for our kids- misguided or not- with the best of intentions and to hopefully keep them from struggling as hard as we did. I felt like God had been so generous with us, so we could- in turn- be generous with our kids. And as a woman who grew up without support of any kind from family, it was a true joy for me to be able to do for my own kids. I don't know if that makes any sense or not. But you can bet 1000% that our pocketbooks are closed now, and will stay closed for the very reasons you mention above. I also have faith that God can turn these grown kids' attitudes around just like He can turn our business around, though. I'm currently working on ensuring that I don't hang onto bitterness over how everything has turned out, and that's a really tough thing.
I completely understand what you are saying. I only feel the way I do because I did exactly as you did. I see how much harder I made it made it for the kids. They aren't self sufficient and are selfish and intolerant. One of the girls lives in New York City and is a complete liberal. The other hasn't been heard from in five years. I honestly have no idea how she is doing. I felt great because I grew up in a trailer on the desert in west Texas with a sister being raised by a single mom working three jobs. I thought I was being kind and generous and it honestly felt great.
I will pray for you and your family. And I am so sorry you're going through this, because this is such a painful thing to deal with. Please don't beat yourself up over it- because I think it's not just doing for your kids that produces this kind of division- it does play a part but I know so many families who have done more for their kids and don't see the same issues, and a few who have done far less and are also dealing with it. I think it's just that a lot of younger people these days feel entitled for whatever reason.