Hey Hey!! This thread has gotten 100 posts! Where do I put in for my medal, or at least a chest to pin it on?
Thanks to everyone for their contributions on this topic and to the spread of useful information. Your posts have been thoughtful and informative, and surely much appreciated by many.
I had the chance this month of April 2018 to visit the USA for a couple of weeks. Due to an illness in the family and some other circumstances I got an up close and personal look at the costs of health care, elder care, housing and daily living expenses like groceries.
First, as a side observation, the abundance that reigns in American society is really staggering. If you have not spent significant time living in a lesser developed or poorer place outside the USA you may not have had occasion to think too much about it, but to my eyes the grocery stores alone are a modern day wonder. Produce, meat, bread, dairy, home health, junk food (candy, soda, chips, cookies), beer/liquor, spices, prepared foods, frozen, fresh, boxed, bagged, organic, gluten-free and on and on. The cleanliness, the order, the automation, the efficiency, confidence in the products, the trust!! that allows one to so easily access it all. I could go on for hours. And if you know how to eat well and shop well it is not expensive.
The abundance extends to civil infrastructure, systems of credit, protection of private property, generally reliable legal systems, the opportunity to build personal wealth and so much more.
Now all this abundance comes with a societal cost in terms of commercialization of culture, significant waste, the tendency to under-appreciate, predatory lenders and pernicious lawyers and many other negatives. But there is no denying the basic material and especially alimentary abundance that pervades and is within reach of almost everyone.
I am only going to touch on a couple of points here, but I would be interested in how people manage the seemingly prohibitively expensive items like health care/health insurance, housing, and parochial or private education.
My observation is that if you shop wisely at a marvelous grocery store and prepare your own food, the daily cost of living and eating is extremely manageable. I prepared some excellent tasty, nutritious and abundant meals for two and three people for just a few dollars each. Of course I am a savvy shopper and an awesome cook, but from my ability to observe, the food aspect of a family budget is not, or at least should not be, problematic in the USA.
On the other hand, health care and elder care will ruin your ass quick if you are not well insured. Rehab or residence for an old person in a skilled facility, around $10,000 a month at least. How the hell is a family supposed to afford that? Hospital is worse.
Two bedroom one bath houses in mediocre neighborhoods in a midwestern city for $200k? Damnation that is a bite. Get out to the suburbs to a "good" school district and the price goes up 50% and the property taxes which never end cost as much as a bachelor pad apartment.
$10,000 a year for two kids to attend Catholic grade school? Grade school! Holy shit. Then of course there are the fundraiser auctions and supplies and activities which inflate that price. High school and college even worse.
These brief points merely scratch the surface, I know.
Many people don't save much because they are ill-informed or undisciplined. But it seems these basic costs sure do make it difficult for even a Mustachian to bank for a good retirement.
How do people handle these types of big basic things?
Once again thanks for participating in this thread.