Young households ‘crushed’ by recession

ny post ^ | 6-19-12 | PAUL THARP

[Claud]

However, keeping my head and finances above water is getting harder and harder. I have cut all non-essential spending and my dollar simply goes nowhere.

I hear ya. My wife and I laugh at all these "how to save money" articles. I saw one yesterday about how to save $1000 a month by dropping all the stuff that we already dropped years ago--like cable & Starbucks.

We are down to the essentials as well: mortgage, groceries and utilities--with the occasional treat like pizza/Mexican food a couple times a month. We could cut a bit more if we had to, but not all that much.

To your second point about regulations et al., what I fear most is if they start really tightening the noose on ebay and Internet commerce in general. We have been able to scrape up some extra pocket money selling things online, and it's been absolutely wonderful to put that money back into businesses with real-live human beings who care about service and what they are selling.

[EVO X]

Those who are able to continue saving and investing during this period (2008-12) are still doing at least OK.

OK is a relative term. I am doing OK but I am not exactly where I want to be with retirement. It looks like I will have to work 2 to 3 years longer than I thought. If things get worse like I suspect, it will be closer to 5 extra years..

[proxy_user]

It is a fine line. You don’t want to wait until you’re too old to enjoy your retirement, just to pile up money. Sure, I could wait until I’m 70 and save up 4 or 5 million, but I’d be too old to enjoy it.

[EVO X]

Sure, I could wait until I’m 70 and save up 4 or 5 million, but I’d be too old to enjoy it.

From what I've seen,70 isn't that old if your in good health.