Can You Beat the Age of Inflation?

More and more conversations I have these days go like this. There we are, a group of friends. One says, “Man, times are tough. We’re really struggling these days.” Another one says, “We are too. What should we even do?” And a third one points at me and says, “ask him, he’s the economist.” And I prepare to give my little speech about… Beating the Age of Inflation. Can it be done? Is it even possible? We’re going to discuss something I don’t usually get into much, which is personal finance, though I imagine we can talk about it more if you like. There are a few rules in times like these — in fact, timeless rules, really. Now, before I begin. A couple of caveats. These rules are going to seem really simple. Almost…trivially simple. The hard part is applying them. In sequence. And doing it consistently. Over time. Instead of giving up in frustration, or out of sheer neglect. And if you’re really living hand to mouth, well, sadly, even these rules won’t help much — you need to have at least some wiggle room to make them work for you. So. Rule number one. Increase your income. I know, I know. That sounds like an idiotic thing to say. But let me tell you why I say it. Most people don’t ask, nearly enough, for what they deserve. To earn. Over time, that adds up to be ruinous. Across a society, when enough people don’t ask for more, and it becomes a norm, you get what’s happened in America — prolonged, social-scale stagnation at the median. <a href="https://eand.co/can-you-beat-the-age-of-inflation-f3df2cc8a122">Read More</a>