An investor called $140,000 the new poverty line. Experts disagreed but said he had a point.

[Sympthsical]

39. To be fair, we are insane

We hosted Thanksgiving this year (32 people, also insane). Included were a lot of cousins and things I've only met maybe once or twice over the years. Somehow conversation after dinner got to housing. These cousins are in their 30s mainly, and they were despairing ever owning a home like the one we have. And to be fair, a few circumstances colluded to allow us to have our house. We're fortunate in that way.

But the conversation centered on the fact they have jobs and careers, and they're simply priced out. Many of them have no children, because what will they do with them? They don't want to have kids while living in a small one or two bedroom apartment. Many of these cousins (and most of my nieces and nephews) live with their parents or grandparents despite being in their late 20s and two of them in their early 30s. They all work.

For the nieces and nephews who are younger that we're more or less responsible for, we've been banging the drum. "Go into healthcare, whatever that looks like." Most of our side works in healthcare. Partner's a manager. His siblings are in nursing. I'm going into nursing. A niece is going into nursing. We finally got a nephew to start an MA program. It's very much, "Figure out what you actually might want to do with this later, but set yourself up for a stable financial situation." My nephew's 25 year old girlfriend just bought a house. She's now an oncology nurse.

Tech is not a guarantee anymore. I have friends who were laid off two, three years ago and are still searching for stable work. With AI, I cannot imagine that's going to get any better.

I legitimately don't know how people manage anything in NorCal. I do know my in-laws are on track to secretly run every hospital system in the Bay Area, tho.