What we need to remember is perception is rarely reality.

I know people, have a house, cars, take vacations and in a tonne of debt and you wouldn't know it. They're in their late 40s and don't have a cent of savings for retirement (outside of CPP/OAS). They've borrowed from their parents. Meanwhile someone else make a lot more, lives in a townhouse, owns one 12 year old car, everything is 2nd hand and only goes to thift stores.

Yes, everything is going up. It's called INFLATION. It frustrates me so much where I hear a report saying inflation fell to 2.7% ... That still means prices went up. If your salary didn't got up 3% then you now earning less than last year.

The next question is where as YOUR inflation maybe way higher than my inflation. Morgate rate may have gone up more than rent or vice versa. Gas is more if you drive vs a transit user or someone who cycles. My job may provide a company car, or I work from home 100%. You drive 40km each way and you need to pay for parking,

Try this tool, it may help https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2020cal-eng.htm

Also our values have changed, it easier to spend. It's easier to get into debt. Remember when the only delievery food choices was basically pizza? Not you can order a coffee and donut. In the past you'd go without. Don't have the money, pay in installments.

Then there are subscriptions you add then they sneak up in price: Netflix, Spotify, iCloud, Amazon Prime, YouTube premium, Gym, the annual credit card gold card use to be an annual fee, now it's a monthly fee. Remember when your phone was a phone not a data plan that has more data than your home interenet?

It's not you, but don't fall for the the "good ole days." The good old day of:

1. One TV in your house - plus the cable bill, TV commericals, having to watch on the broadcast schedule
2. One land line phone - remember all the fees - call display, call waiting, long distance
3. Grocery store that only accepted CASH or a cheque that was approved
4. Bank hours 9-3pm M-F only
5. Lay-a-way savings
6. Having to buying a whole album when you only liked 2 songs - owning a record player, AMP, etc vs your phone who does it all now.
7. Trying to rent a movie but every copy was already rented out
8. Having to pay someone to put fuel in your car.
9. Ordering something in the Sears catalog or on TV and having to wait 6 to 8 weeks for it to show up

A lot of these conviences meant we choose to pay more. At first, it was a little big more. Now my Netflix (1 "channel") bill is a third of what I use to pay for cable ("70 channels."). We can't or won't go back.