Four years ago; better off or not?

Same here.

 

Not me. I'm younger, faster, and have the best hair of my life. Thanks Biden!

 

Personally - I have 4 grandsons now that I didn't have then - so much better off but I'm also 4 years older, creakier, and closer to the big eternity - so worse - but still able to hike these mountains and walk alone through their beauty and splendor -so better - and have time to volunteer locally to help kids - so better. I have made a few more friends and enjoy them (sometimes). Despite the obvious downsides of aging I choose to be positive so personally better off.

Financially - better off.

Don't know how much effect, if any, the President has had on the things I value - (as long as its not trump).

 

Riffing on that . . . the Gator football team is certainly worse - thanks Biden!

 

Not really a fair question for me. My inheritance came in in 2020 and my dad was worth about 20 times as much as I was when he passed away. So I went from having to watch my spending to being able to purchase what I want not just what I need.

 

Financially better off but emotionally not and it has nothing to do with either economy as I’ve been comfortably retired since 2007. The wife and I spent a lot of money on our daughter who was in poor health and addiction. She passed last April 15th. For that reason alone our finances have greatly increased per month. For the first time in years we’ve had extra money to put in CDs, etc., or spend on pleasure. Having a choice, I’d rather have her back than the extra money, by far.

I voted for Trump twice. I won’t do it again. I can live with another 4 years of a democrat president with the USSC being conservative.

 

The stock market has average 25% per year since March 2020 ...

 

Call it what you want but “the squeaky wheel” gets the oil. It’s all for a reason.

 

Sharp people adjust to the circumstances. Inflation, pandemics, wars, stock market, etc. I quit worrying and change as needed as best I can. Being retired with only the wife, it’s much easier to do than while working and having kids at home.

Another reason to hate boomers. lol

 

Not sure how anybody not locked into a 30 year fixed under 4% could say they are better off. If you're currently renting, needing to buy or have bought a home in the past year, your housing expenses have nearly doubled since March 2020. That's why I just laugh when they say "transitory inflation." The single most expensive tangible asset 99% of people will ever own has increased in cost by ~20% each year under Joe Biden. Good for homeowners who locked in before and during early stages of Covid? Not really, because if you ever want to sell, your purchasing power still isn't what it was 4 years ago. Unless you are purposely downsizing, you'll pay back that rate of appreciation on your new purchase and if you need to finance, well, good luck to ya on that interest rate.

 

On the global front, we are not better off than we were in March 2020. President Trump was able to keep us out of the wars and maintain global order for the most part. He took heat for bringing the troops home from Syria. Understand that, for as long as we have boots on the ground in foreign lands actively shooting at foreigners, we are inevitably creating a new breed of enemies for our future. Trump did what he had to do with ISIS, took out Soleimani. Both of those were no brainers.

To be completely fair, President Biden seems to grasp this concept better than his former boss and the woman he had to take a backseat to in 2016. Stating up front categorically that we will not have boots on the ground in Ukraine was a good thing. Following through on the withdrawal from Afghanistan was a good thing. (although his handling of that withdrawal was a complete disaster). However, we are still creating future enemies with proxy wars. We have a major war which has broken out for the first time since WW2 in Europe and we have the human catastrophe that is happening in Gaza. The world is on much shakier ground in 2024 than it was in 2020.

 

Let me see, live on the water and my investments are doing well.
Turn off the tv, go fishing and have a good bourbon. Life is good.

 

Yeah, if Trump had any sense at all he'd say screw this crap, see ya on the golf course. I really don't get it.

 

A lot of lies in this post… rent hasn’t doubled since 2020…. Not even close… Average rent in 2019 was 1658, now it 1836 in 2023 and actually came down.

Average home sale price was 384K in 2019, now its 511K.

Home prices fell in 2023 due to higher interest rates, so the best way to play that is buy during the dip, then refi next time a Republican is elected president, the economy goes to a shit, and interest rates fall.

 

90% of mortgages are under 6% and nearly 80% below 5%. All of those people have boatloads of equity. Housing prices going up helps the economy more than it hurts.

Having said that rates need to be cut and we need to build more high density housing.

Nearly 9 in 10 US homeowners have mortgage rate below 6 percent: Report

 

Also. You don’t know what transitory inflation means. If you think it means that prices will drop. Nope. It means inflation rates will settle into normal levels after it adjusts to the system shocks. Ta dah. We are here.

 

We aren’t in any wars. We are in one less than Trump was in. You’re entitled to your opinion but not your made up narrative.

Biden has seen a small fraction of the soldier deaths Trump oversaw.

 

As a na

As a nation, we are worse off, but it has nothing to do with Biden IMO. This is due almost exclusively to a band of idiots on the far right in the GOP. As for lifestyle, mine hasn't changed one iota. As for that of the "lower classes", since when has the GOP cared about them? The GOP is as hypocritical about the plight of the common man as they have been about border reform.

 

Yes, because it benefits almost exclusively the top 50%, and I'm being generous. I don't discount the anger and dissatisfaction in America at this point in our history, but as I've said many times, it's due primarily to increasing income/wealth inequality. There's reason to be concerned, but to blame it on Biden is just partisan BS.

 

You carry your own happiness within.