{"id":84633,"date":"2024-09-14T01:00:09","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T08:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=84633"},"modified":"2024-09-17T08:11:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T15:11:15","slug":"black-coffee-14-sept-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id84633-black-coffee-14-sept-2024.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: Worse and Worser"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe …<\/em><\/p>\n

Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance.<\/p>\n

I hope everybody had an enjoyable week. Without further ado, let’s get right to this week’s commentary …<\/p>\n

Never give up. Today is hard and tomorrow will be worse – but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– Jack Ma<\/strong><\/p>\n

Credits and Debits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? Since 2020, food costs<\/a> in American homes have risen by 22%, while restaurant prices are up 27%. We don\u2019t know about you, but our experience is that prices have risen more than that. And not just with food and housing …<\/p>\n

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Credit:<\/strong><\/span> On a positive note, despite more money being spent on food, the average 401(k) contribution rate<\/a>, including both<\/strong><\/em> employer and employee contributions now stands at 14.2%. Even so, 70% of retirees wish they had started saving earlier. Obviously, that’s because with age comes wisdom. Unfortunately, for many it comes far too late.<\/p>\n

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Debit: <\/strong><\/span>In other news, the latest jobs report<\/a> was released last Friday and it reveals that, since last June, the US has added<\/em><\/strong> just over 2 million part-time jobs, but lost<\/em><\/strong> 1.5 million full-time jobs. I know … but if you think that’s<\/strong><\/em> the sign of a job market that’s going in the wrong direction, well … you’ll probably want to take note of this<\/strong><\/em> too:<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> But wait; the job situation gets even worse. Well … at least it does for native-born Americans. Get this: The US added 635,000 foreign-born workers, while losing 1.3 million<\/a> native-born workers – in just the past month<\/strong><\/em>! No, really. In fact, that’s the biggest one-month drop in native-born workers since the covid crash! Now for the punchline: The report does not<\/strong><\/em> differentiate between legal<\/strong><\/em> foreign-born Americans and those who aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n