{"id":85868,"date":"2025-01-11T01:00:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-11T09:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/?p=85868"},"modified":"2025-01-15T08:41:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T16:41:29","slug":"black-coffee-11-jan-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lenpenzo.com\/blog\/id85868-black-coffee-11-jan-2025.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Coffee: Living on Borrowed Time"},"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

Time is the coin of your life. It’s the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– Carl Sandburg<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Did you see this? A new study has found that raising a child in the US is more expensive than ever<\/a>. (Surprise, surprise.) It turns out that adding one child to a two-adult household increases required annual expenses by an average of $22,000 – that\u2019s a 40% increase in expenses. As for families with two kids, the financial impact nearly doubles, with costs rising by $39,000 on average – and that\u2019s<\/strong><\/em> an increase of more than 70%. It’s just too bad that’s also encouraging more than a few naive people out there to clamor for a nanny state – and we mean that literally:<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> In other news, we see that the recent flood of new inventory<\/a> in the US housing market has brought the number of homes sitting vacant and waiting for a buyer close to levels previously seen only during the 2008 housing bubble. Despite this fact, for-sale speculative (spec) homes are being built at the second highest rate ever. The only other time there has been more builder spec inventory was right before the 2008 housing bubble crash. And on a somewhat related note …<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> You\u2019d be forgiven for believing that, despite soaring 30-year fixed mortgage rates, US home prices would be falling – but they just hit another all-time high<\/a>. Yes; that’s good news for people looking to sell. But it’s a nightmare for first home buyers struggling to enter the market. So just how high are home prices today? Well \u2026 they\u2019re now almost 55% higher than they were five years ago – and a whopping 142% higher since 2012. We know what you’re thinking: Who, exactly, is responsible for the obviously-broken housing market?<\/em> Well … there are plenty of suspects. And if they’re ever held to account, they’ll know who to call:<\/p>\n

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Debit:<\/strong><\/span> Hey … it’s not just the middle class that is struggling with high prices. Believe it or not, even the wealthy<\/strong><\/em> are beginning to feel the inflation pinch as rising gold costs are rippling through luxury markets. Rolex says it is increasing their prices in 2025, with all of their gold watches increasing 14%<\/a> while their steel versions will see just a 3% increase. For instance, Rolex\u2019s gold GMT-Master II that went for $42,550 in 2024 now has a price tag of $45,950. The large price increase gap between Rolex\u2019s gold and steel models primarily reflects surging precious metal costs. The good news is, even the steel models can result in a very fine return on investment.<\/p>\n