Over the past couple of months, I\u2019ve heard, or read, several reports that our economy is improving. Those reports leave me wondering if they are simply a political ploy orchestrated by politicians looking to be re-elected because I don\u2019t see the economy in the world I live in showing many signs of improvement. I don\u2019t know how many Record readers feel the same way I do, especially the retired ones living on fixed incomes, but when I walk down the grocery store aisle where the meat is displayed I walk by, look at the prices, and shake my head in disbelief. I simply can\u2019t afford to pay $22 for a steak that wouldn\u2019t feed more than one person. I cringe when I need butter because it\u2019s almost $5 for a pound. I could list more, but since nearly all of us shop for groceries, it isn\u2019t really necessary. I\u2019m not sure I could name a product in a grocery store right now that feels like it\u2019s priced reasonably and I spend a lot of time looking for items that are \u201cbuy one, get one\u201d so money can be saved. I am unaware of what a gallon of gasoline costs back home in Minnesota, but the price here is in the $3.50 range and hasn\u2019t fluctuated too much. It\u2019s sad to me that I feel good if I find a gas pump where the price is marked closer to the $3 per gallon mark because that\u2019s still close to double what it was a few years ago (before COVID). I\u2019ve learned quickly that Florida is probably one of the highest-priced areas when it concerns insurance \u2013 both for home and auto. Just the other day an email came to me that told me I could save on my auto insurance. Naturally, I was interested, so I clicked the link. Within seconds I had insurance agents calling me. I didn\u2019t need to talk to more than one, but what I learned was this: I can get cheaper auto insurance if I reduce my liability coverage to $10,000. I\u2019ve always bought good coverage, so I asked the agent to quote me for 250,000\/500,000 \u2013 I was glad I was seated. The price I can expect to pay for that coverage upon renewal will be $337\/month if I don\u2019t lower my limits. It\u2019s sad, but most people on fixed incomes cannot afford that much for auto insurance, so I will be forced to look at lower limits and higher deductibles because I figure, without much doubt, that my Social Security payments are not going to go up enough to cover that cost, and I know I can\u2019t go without insurance. If you\u2019ve been through a drive-thru, or out to eat, you know those prices have gone up too. The funny thing is, it\u2019s not the restaurant owners\u2019 greed, higher prices are because everything is costing more, including labor, and the restaurants are forced to charge more to keep their doors open. More examples point to a disconnect between what we\u2019re being told about the economy and what the economy actually is, but if you pay your bills, you already know what they are. I wish I had the answer, but something has to change. **** Isn\u2019t it hilarious that some in our government call Social Security a \u201cbenefit\u201d \u2013 if you receive it you and your employer(s) paid into it any time you were employed. That money was collected by our government, but it belongs to us.<\/p>\n
Have A Good Week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the past couple of months, I\u2019ve heard, or read, several reports that our economy is improving. Those reports leave me wondering if they are simply a political ploy orchestrated by politicians looking to be re-elected because I don\u2019t see the economy in the world I live in showing many signs of improvement. I don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corner-copy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/cornercopy.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions\/466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}