Sunday, 15 May 2022

Yeah, About Moving Back Home

 I sat and read through the WaPo article.....topic: with all this inflation going on....yeah, it's time you move back in with Mom/Dad.

If you'd come to me and challenged me to write a piece like this....I would have laughed.  It'd take a lot of gin-sours to get me to a 40-line essay on good reasons to move home.

First, it only makes sense if Mom and Dad aren't bad off.  Maybe Dad is still working and he wasn't making stupid irrational decisions of borrowing $80,000 for a French literature degree.

This might be the moment where you look at Dad's 24-year old Oldsmobile 88 and wonder why he still drives it, or gazing at Mom's 14-year old Honda Fit....thinking it looks 'old'.

Then you notice that Dad mostly drinks Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR), which is the cheapest beer made in America.

Then you notice that while Dad has cable...it has the basic package only, without Showtime, Netflix, etc.

Then you notice that Mom and Dad only eat out once a month, but grill every Friday evening with cheap meats.

The problem here, if you sit and ponder upon it.....this inflation period might be around for two or three years, and I'm pretty sure Dad's hospitality is only good for about six months.  Eventually (just a couple of months into this).....you will be looking for a plan 'B'.

For reference, from 1929 on....it was four consecutive years with inflation (reaching near 10-percent in 1932), and only going to positive numbers in 1934.  

So, my advice....if you've dug a pretty deep hole on debt....maybe a one-year stay in 'Hotel-Dad' makes sense.  But along about day 60 of this 'hotel' stay.....your enthusiasm will start to evaporate, and you better start to plan on leaving by the sixth month.  

Hint: You might improve your stay, if you washed Dad's 88 weekly, or painted the garage during this visit.   

2 comments:

  1. I'm a Boomer. One of the comments my father made to me on more than one occasion was "I was a child of the depression" when asked about his spending and practices.

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  2. I've heard that 1930s lecture about 5,000 times in life. A baloney sandwich and a Coke was a feast...out of a general store. At least twice a year, we'd stop off with shoes to be reheeled at the local shoe repair shoe. A county fair was the 'biggest' show on Earth.

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