How were normal people poor ten years ago.

Outside of life events like fires, accidents, etc. How was a normal adult working a normal job unable to pay off their house or condo within ten years.

I'm legitimately baffled. I live in the midwest near a city. Housing prices have gone way up but they're still achievable. As in, if I work for 20 years I can't see how this won't be paid off. Which is how it was explained to me 10+ years ago. But there's a problem with that.

I make 40k a year and my job only required some time at a community college. 40k a year is not impressive. But the wages haven't kept up with the market. Even if I were only making 20k a decade ago, that's more than the price of an entire condo from back then.

Where did these peoples' money go. When I was growing up we knew a family that went on vacation 1-2 times a year. This was because "their house is fully paid off so they have more money to spend."

My whole life I kept thinking about how smart they must have been with their money. Motherlover, how was this not the default state of every mentally stable adult? I could outright buy a shitty 2 bedroom house (from ten years ago) in my hometown right now. I've only meaningfully saved for four years.

I've heard some excuses over the years but now that I have perspective they're all dumb.

>"The more money you have the more expensive life gets."

No it does not. Do you know how much I spent on groceries five years ago? A couple hundred. Do you know how much I spend on them now? A couple hundred + inflation. When you are making 80k a year you are not obligated to buy some r-slur subaru new off the lot every summer. You can keep buying normal used cars. You actually don't need to go to a steakhouse every weekend. That was a joke but I knew a family that went to rainforest cafe every weekend because "the kids like it." They LOST THEIR HOME, got hooked on coke, and died. Bi-weekly visits to gamestop and Toys R Us too.

>"I just like to spend on myself, so I have less savings."

What in all that is holy could you possibly be buying that eats up tens of thousands of dollars a year. Especially in current year. Literally what. I don't even have a guess. Am I naive and all my small town midwest neighbors are secretly crackheads?

>"We're being responsible and putting it into savings."

Oh okay good that's great why are you still working into your 60s and 70s again where the absolute frick did this money go.

>"Insurance, bills, blah blah blah."

What insurance policy do you have that eats up 10k a year. Are you just blasting your hose and space heaters 24/7? I used to take hour long showers almost daily. My water bill was not financially crippling. I heard this excuse so much that I was afraid to go to the doctor or dentist for years once I was on my own insurance. The job I have covers it. I pay $0 to have my teeth cleaned twice a year. I am not obese so I don't have crippling ailments.

>"Kids."

This one might be feasible but based on how much utter bullshit was behind literally every other excuse I've heard this also seems like it could be a stretch. Again, if the kid is not crippled in some way where could the money possibly be going. I easily spent less than 1k on myself over the past year for fun. You're telling me that you can't pick up some toys from a garage sale and maybe buy them a console/ bike every couple of years? How much do youth leagues cost for sports, $80 a season?

WHERE DID ALL OF THESE PEOPLES' MONEY GO???

This whole rant was made assuming someone lived in a single-income house and I just realized that it's even worse than I thought because all these families I'm remembering were dual income.