PRICES

[bobm]

The new government is changing the rules very rapidly by the day. Here in our small town in SW Washington, we have a large truck driver population. There is one truck parking lot that has a capacity of 112 trucks and is full capacity with waiting list a mile long.. The parking fee was $100 per month ... on Jan 1, the new rental fee is $150 per month. Diesel and gas prices are inching upward almost dayly. I whent to several nurseries... they do not have the plants that I wanted or the prices have increased 50% or more on some plants . Fertilizer prices have increased more than double. The Feds now shut down the gas pipeline from Canada resulting in loss of thousands of jobs. The Feds want to raise the minimum wage. The corona 19 virus caused many small business to close and those working there are/ will be out of a job. So, guess what.... prices on everything will skyrocket. This will be especially hard on those of us that are retired on a fixed income. We will have to look for at least a part time job, if not a full time one. Those of us that are close to retireing ... re- think your plans as what you thought was a comfortable retirement is rapidly evaporating.

 

[seedcorn]

Fertilizer has went up due to several factors.
Commodity prices are higher than normal. Input companies taking advantage of that. Nitrogen went up over $40/ton over 2 days-on a $200 product.
Other countries buying inputs as they were at all time lows (using 2020 dollars).
Corn acres projected to be way up.
Fewer truckers as laws/Regs drove them out. Those running are bombarded with higher rates and jobs.
With Covid restrictions, people are spending money on home which includes landscaping-buying plants, fertilizer, etc....
It’s always been the problem with retirement that as money becomes less valuable as cost of living goes up, it hits those not working the hardest. As Dad said, sucks to be old. Got to be tough.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I'm going to be 66 and need a part time job. I accepted one with a merchandising company who does Wally's, but after on boarding and such, I took back my acceptance. $14.50 an hour, and able to lift 50 - 70 lb boxes did me in. Still looking for that job out there to help with the things that contribute to my happiness. (gardening, landscaping, remodeling, etc).

 

[seedcorn]

You had to lift 70# boxes. Thought that was illegal. Seed bags are not allowed over 65#-after that bagged 1/2 bags. Good paying part time jobs are hard unless you have a trade that is valued. Lucky for me I have a skill set that is valued.

 

[flowerbug]

haven't seen much change in prices here other than for gas. food prices have actually come down on many items that were in shorter supply last year. if you shop around you can find some good deals. the other day i picked up some adzuki beans for $2/lb that i normally was paying $4 or more per lb. pinto beans were in stock at the big box store for about $1.25/lb but i have such a big pile of old beans here already that we need to eat up that i talked myself out of buying them.

i don't buy fertilizer or many of the other things you mention. yes, be sure to stock up on things you consider essential and important, but overall, i'm kinda like, eh, ok, whatever.

if you haven't noticed, the entire economy has been propped up for the past 40 years or more by various monetary practices by the central government. cheap money, bailouts whatever, if you want to get upset go talk to your governmental representative and tell them what you value. to me as long as the money i have invested is keeping up with general inflation (it is) i don't see any reason to get upset or to worry beyond the common sense things. if the entire system goes bust, well, we're all going to be in that together, i'm not really worried too much about that either. we have a pretty large network of people who are friends who we work with to feed and take care of and they do so in return. i suggest doing that sort of network building locally if you've not considered it before.

 

[baymule]

We filled our diesel tank before it went up any higher. Going to plant a big garden again. Ordered 2 batches of Cornish cross chicks, 3 weeks apart of 50 each. 40 are pre-sold. We are stocked up on groceries. With the printing presses rolling off dollars, things will keep going up as our dollars have no value.

 

[Zeedman]

Food prices here have been rather strange. Canned goods have actually come down for the most part, and stayed that way. Meat prices are fairly low, but fruit has been climbing steadily. We are putting in quite a few fairly large fruit trees, but don't anticipate getting anything substantial from them for a few years. I do wish I had a larger property; I'd like to become more self-reliant for our grains, and it takes a large area to get a meaningful amount. I could grow some grains in our rural garden (which would involve some expansion) but because that is not our property, we can't count on that for subsistence.

 

[seedcorn]

In general, this is a fairly conservative group. It’s the people that spend every dollar of their income (& long time retirees) who will be hurt. Have family that ask IF they can make payment now that need to be asking if something happens, can they take the hit & is this something they want to be hurting over. Desire over need.
Hope everyone realizes there is no such thing as 0% interest. It’s figured in on the up front price & disguised in the payments.

 

[flowerbug]

i always think of it this way There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. which to me just mirrors the general physical laws of energy as best we currently know them.

in recent times the policy of easy money from the government is very easy (the lending rate of the government to the banks is someplace between zero and a quarter percent right now: let me check):

Prime rate, federal funds rate, COFI

	This week	Year ago
WSJ Prime Rate	3.25	4.75
Federal Discount Rate	0.25	2.25
Fed Funds Rate (Current target rate 0.00-0.25)	0.25	1.75
11th District Cost of Funds	0.47	1.04

"

ok, yep about what i expected.

in effect this long-term policy of easy money has been a part of a shift in wealth from people who save to those who don't (older v.s. younger). as people get older they tend to be more conservative with their spending and also have less disposable income while older folks tend to spend most of what they earn from investments along with whatever Social Security they get. this shift in available money flying around is a marketing blood in the water event for the sharks who will do whatever they can to get some of that chum while it is there.

no i don't consider our government of the past 40 years to be anything "friendly" to those who save or people who are on fixed income. the opposite rings more bells to me. now with government debt being there at the level it is the government and policy makers have more incentive to keep interest rates low no matter what happens with inflation. the idea of making a decent and livable income off of bonds or other more conservative investments is pretty tough one when you look at things, you end up realizing that if you aren't in the stock market (with all the games and BS and shown quite clearly recently) you are probably not able to keep up with inflation. to me that is a horribly rotten position to be in. short of buying land and somehow figuring out how to pay taxes and fees with inflated money you may find harder to get each passing year or investments in other assets like gold, etc. well, i dunno. i spread my investments out over the entire world but that won't do much good if a huge war breaks out. no real easy path here, but keep your powder dry and watch what you spend and keep working on things in your local community to make it more supportive and stronger towards everyone and not just the priviledged few (because eventually as you get older you may be at the lower end of whatever ranking scheme "they" come up with).

ok, off my high horse here...

 

[bobm]

In this morning's e-mail box.... a real estate agent sent a new listing that should sell fast. Located about 15 miles next to another small town away from us. 20 acres with a 22 year old 1850 sq ft , 3 bedroom 2 bath, comp shingle home on it with a small barn. Photos show a rolling , fairly steep side of a hill, some pines and cottonwood tree groves scattered around the field and around the house. The bargain price is listed at $ 7,000,000. This property would support about 10 goats or sheep , maybe a couple of feeder steers or a couple of horses. Growing field crops or fruit trees would be dicey. In other words GASP !