![](https://veritasdomain.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/image.png?w=590)
Note: This is a guest post by Tom. Tom is a dear brother and friend on Worpress and I appreciate his faithfulness and ability to write so many posts on here. His blog be found here.
There’s an older couple in our extended family that’s struggling a bit. They’re in their mid-70s and living on very limited income. The husband gets an average-size monthly Social Security check, but the wife’s work history is shorter and her check is much smaller. He supplements their income by driving a bus for a local school district, but won’t be able to continue because of increasing physical problems. They live in a two-bed apartment and their rent is being raised from $1750 to $2000 per month. They anticipate having to scale back to a single-bedroom apartment. But even with that change they will struggle without his bus-driver income.
Many families across the nation are facing financial challenges because of the rising costs of rents, mortgages, food, and other basics. Prices and fees jumped up during COVID-19 because of major supply-chain issues, and didn’t return. New home construction companies continue to build McMansion developments forcing median income folks to outbid each other for existing homes. I read recently that fast food and chain restaurants are finally reducing prices because former customers are having a hard time paying the rent or mortgage let alone paying $20 for a hamburger meal.
Close to fifty-years-ago, my father-in-law had a man-to-young man chat with me. He was an executive at a local manufacturing plant and was participating in a project to move some of the company’s capacity overseas. He said, “I feel sorry for your generation, Tom. Most of the manufacturing in the U.S. is going to be shipped overseas and the middle-class is going to disappear. You’re going to see it.” I had just started working at Eastman Kodak and business was booming. “Pshaw,” I thought to myself. “I’ll never see it.” His words were prescient. The bottom began dropping out of Kodak ten-years later. Rochester, once a thriving high-tech manufacturing center, is now one of the poorest cities per capita in the nation..
As the world’s economies continue to move towards equilibrium, we can expect the standard of living in the U.S. to continue to decline.
With all of our financial challenges, I’m mindful of believers in other parts of the world who get by with a lot less than what we’re currently accustomed to in the U.S. Financial prosperity can be a dangerous circumstance because it may create the mindset in some that a person is self-dependent and doesn’t need God.
“And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” – Matthew 19:23-26
Finances are shifting sand. We definitely can’t take it with us. Let’s seek to serve the Lord first and be good stewards of what He does provide. He will take care of us. Earthly kingdoms rise and fall, but God’s Kingdom continues forever.
2000 a month? Where does he live? That amount would pay my rent here in the Philippines for over two years.
And when we moved here there were three of us, and we got along on $521 a month for six years.
I lived in Milwaukee, Wis. 15 years ago, and my rent for a nice, large, two bedroom apartment was 625 with heat and parking included. Now its probably 850 – 950.
you are a lucky boomer. I’m paying 2,200 for rent in NY.
Thanks. I just looked online and a March 2024 report shows the average apartment rental fee in the Greater Rochester, New York region is $1400 per month. This is skewed by lower rental fees in the inner city where amenities are less and the crime rate is high.
The picture invoke a lot of emotions with this post
Thanks! I’m glad I stumbled across it because I thought it fit well with the message I was trying to communicate. I’m seeing a rising number of elderly folks continuing to work to make ends meet, some doing very physical jobs. Our local grocery store chain is good about hiring seniors for part-time positions, but some do very physical work like returning shopping carts back to the store. Even cashiering is difficult with filling grocery bags and lifting the heavy, full bags back to people’s carts.
I see more seniors working McDonalds lately
Thanks. Yes, I have also.
Insightful.
Thank you!
Thanks for the great insight. Now that I live on Social Security, I understand the challenge.
This is it: “with God all things are possible.”
Thanks! Yes, my wife and I have lived on SS the last 18 months and rising prices are a challenge. The Lord will provide.
Thanks brother for writing this post and also for commenting interacting with others! I appreciate it very much!
You’re welcome, brother! My blessing!
This is helpful.
Thank you!
Good reminder:
“Let’s seek to serve the Lord first and be good stewards of what He does provide. He will take care of us. Earthly kingdoms rise and fall, but God’s Kingdom continues forever.”
Thanks, Frank! The New Testament is full of exhortations to set our sights on Christ and the spiritual rather than on temporal circumstances.
It is very sad how cost of living is escalating. No wonder there are so many retirees are choosing the RV lifestyle. May the Lord help us. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, it is sad to see that many families, especially those on fixed incomes, are scrambling trying to pay the bills. There are periodic reports on the evening news and it will only intensify. It’s in struggles and uncertainty that hardened souls become soft towards Jesus’ calling.
Amen.