A recent Reddit post captured the frustration felt by millions of workers in today’s economy: that Fred Flintstone-like feeling of running faster and faster just to stay in the same place.
The post shared on the r/middleclassfinance subreddit, which netted over 2,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments, tells a tale that is both personal and universal. Seeking advice, the author wrote that after three years at their company, they finally received a raise that added about $400 a month to their paycheck. “I was excited, thought we’d finally breathe a little easier,” they wrote. “Then reality hit.”
Their rent renewal jumped $250, utilities spiked another $100, and the relentless climb in grocery prices consumed the rest, the original poster wrote. In a single month, the raise essentially vanished.
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“It’s frustrating because on paper I’m earning more, but in practice nothing changed,” they wrote. “I’m still calculating gas down to the dollar and putting off repairs on the car.”
The post ended with a question that kicked off a chorus of commiseration in the comments section. “Has anyone else had that moment where your big financial ‘win ‘ just vanished under rising costs? How do you keep motivation when progress feels impossible?” they wrote.
A Shared Misery and Economic Anxiety
The top comment offered a bleak silver lining. “On the bright side, at least you’re not negative $400/month.”
The comment section by and large though embodied the “misery loves company” adage. Although some replies admitted “lifestyle creep” played a role as their income grew gradually, commenters flooded the replies sharing their all-too-familiar woes of inflation near-instantly erasing their hard earned promotions and raises.
One commenter wrote that after six years, a promotion took their salary from $80,000 to $120,000, but they were left with the same buying power as when they started, attributing it to high inflation. Another commenter wrote that “over 10 years my salary doubled and rent quadrupled. For a while, I was poorer on $50k than I was on $25k.”
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The Structural Problem and a Potential Solution
Amid the pity party though, a potential personal finance insight emerged: staying loyal to one company may no longer be the most effective path to financial growth.
“Unless you work for government or are in a good union job, it seems like many people have to bounce from job to job every few years to get a raise,” one commenter wrote.
This was echoed by another who offered direct advice. “Gotta job hunt, my friend. Raises to current employees will never do more than match inflation, at best… even those internal promotions will pale in comparison to external job hops.”
Worth noting though, is that while job switching has long been the conventional wisdom for higher earning power, some of the latest data bucks that trend, as power shifts back toward employers in the job market.
The thread also highlighted the value of union contracts that include Cost-of-Living Adjustments, with one reply writing that they “thank the people who came before me every day” for negotiating them.
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Finding Motivation When Progress Stalls
While most comments centered on their shared frustration, a few attempted to actually address the OP’s question about maintaining motivation. One user suggested a conscious practice of gratitude.
“My motivation certainly rises and falls, but what keeps me going is thinking about the things I have that I’m grateful for,” they wrote. “On the bad days, sometimes I’m just grateful I didn’t get hit by a bus or attacked by an angry donkey. Anyway, I find reframing this way helps me to keep going when the going gets rough.”
The Reddit thread all-in-all was a stark, real-time case study on the impact of inflation and rising cost of living, illustrating that in the current economic climate, a raise is often not a step forward, but merely an adjustment to keep pace. And for many, the financial treadmill continues to speed up.
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