How do you think our lives will change...
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...under the incoming administration?
And what, if anything, do you plan or hope to do to protect your lifestyle?
Since we are unsure of how the changes will manifest in our day to day lives, we are endeavors ng to make ourselves more nimble and adaptable--increasing our cash and reducing our market exposure, getting all our paperwork in order, and getting our house ready to sell or rent, should we decide to leave.
How about you? And what changes to our daily lives do you foresee?
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If its anything like the UK, probably nowt really changes very much over a few years.
I mean, we gave 6 billion to Ukraine last year in our 'proxy war' with Russia and what do I recall?
A few people protested about some things, like wages not keeping up with inflation, or some world injustice.
But taxes, illegal immigration, price of a tin of soup? All go up a bit as usual. Climate change doesn't affect us.Newish LabourDem Starmer government will be the same as the old boss.
I've completely stopped worrying, often have little whinge at the news (often aimed at young males who haven't a clue), then go do something like play with the dog.
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We’ve been thinking about this a lot and last week we went in to overdrive - cleaning, mending, maintaining, cooking, preparing the yard for winter, bringing paperwork up to date - all sorts of tasks that kept our minds busy and needed to be done at some point anyway. It was the reason I started the thread “Order”.
But having thought about it more, we’ve now decided that little will change, at least not for us, which is the same thing that happened last time. Grocery prices might rise but at this point in our lives we don’t buy many groceries or really anything else.
The market is the big question, but last time the market did fine and there isn’t much we can do about it anyway.
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I work in higher ed and most of the grad students in my program are international students. So one thing I’m worried about is the impact of policies on my job.
My spouse is not a US citizen, although he has a green card. But I do worry about immigration issues. And even if immigration polices don’t affect us directly, the crime things that I foresee happening hurt my heart.
There are other things, but these are at the top.
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@ShiroKuro said in How do you think our lives will change...:
I work in higher ed and most of the grad students in my program are international students. So one thing I’m worried about is the impact of policies on my job.
My spouse is not a US citizen, although he has a green card. But I do worry about immigration issues. And even if immigration polices don’t affect us directly, the crime things that I foresee happening hurt my heart.
There are other things, but these are at the top.
Sk, the NYT had a piece today about expected impacts on higher education. I think that's where I saw it. Yes, an op ed by Masha Gessen. (Byline is M. Gessen).
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This Is the Dark, Unspoken Promise of Trump’s Return https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/15/opinion/donald-trump-orban-putin.html?unlocked_article_code=1.aU4.nhn0.KduUZzxGTthH
fear is the thief of dreams
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@Steve-Miller said in How do you think our lives will change...:
last week we went in to overdrive - cleaning, mending, maintaining, cooking, preparing the yard for winter, bringing paperwork up to date - all sorts of tasks that kept our minds busy and needed to be done at some point anyway
We did the same, including a bit of grave shopping in the township cemetery four blocks from our house. We were just looking and didn't buy.
But I did stumble upon a sad story that I was previously unaware of that's related to some graves in that cemetery...one just never knows when your last day will be...
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@pique well that is distressing.
Some of those details I knew or was tracking, some were new, but reading it all in the same place is awful.
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@ShiroKuro it was that op ed that I think, subconsciously, prompted me to start this thread.
I am trying to walk a tightrope between being informed of the facts, so we can face them, and protecting my nervous system, which doesn't have a lot of reserves at this age, and after many traumas.
I've started doing Somatics, which is a form of exercise that helps you get out of your thinking brain and into your body and the present moment. Something I've never been great at. It really helps with everything, including horseback riding. Practicing full present moment awareness is something that horses do naturally. It can really refresh you and give you more energy reserves.
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Here's an article that is more hopeful. This is falling in line with our thinking about making a move to MA.
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I'm doing my best at "Grant me wisdom to know what I can control" and focus only on that! Most of the changes to our lives last time were emotional. Living in a big (mostly Blue) city, I expect there to be plenty of strife and sadness to go around as targeted "punishments" are enacted..
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I think it’s important to remember the threats and chaos from the previous Trump administration vs. what actually happened to average folks. Tariffs and the tax cut is all I remember.
These guys are not good at follow through.
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I'm in a deep blue state. People here are shell shocked. I doubt people are worried because of that privilege and other privileges.
My most direct concern is that one of my daughters might need an abortion. If medication abortion becomes illegal or there is a 15 week ban, I'd have to fly them to Europe for care, assuming that is not also illegal.
Regarding work, well . . . Use your imagination. I am afraid to say anything publicly. I do plan to stay, but I can imagine scenarios where I would have to quit. These scenarios are not outlandish.
I am not worried that federal workers will be fired en mass. You would just need one favorable ruling from one federal judge to get a nationwide injunction. And I think the biggest targets would be Education and EPA.
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@Cindysphinx re your comment about your daughter -- exactly. I am too old for it to be relevant for me, and I'm not a parent, but as a teacher, I care deeply about what happens to my students. Who are primarily 18022 years old, may get pregnant, may identify as LGBTQ... May not have papers. May have parents that don't have papers....
These I think are more immediate than the threats to higher ed, which I think are real but will be slower to take shape.
I am also deeply concerned about something like attempting to do away with the 22nd amendment....
That's where I hope @Steve-Miller
These guys are not good at follow through.
is right.
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@wtg You win the internet today. Grave shopping. We just looked. We didn't buy anything. Lol.
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Mutual funds do not have a great history of surviving crises. Thinking of moving funds to stocks.
I don't have a public profile and I don't go to gay bars anymore. I expect more violence against gays, but expect it against the
very visible. Thought about keeping a low profile, but I could hardly be more low profile.
Some asset values were going up very nicely. They settled back down. Commodity and cotton prices are down and, therefore, my income is down a considerable amount.
I expect Jimmy Carter level inflation, possibly higher. Don't want to be liquid. -
@CHAS okay color me clueless but aren't mutual funds often stocks? What kind of mutual funds are you talking about?
A few days ago Mr Pique told me he'd moved a large sum out of stocks and into cash. I chided him for trying to time the market. He said "it's going down." Well looky here, he was right.
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@Steve-Miller said in How do you think our lives will change...:
I think it’s important to remember the threats and chaos from the previous Trump administration vs. what actually happened to average folks. Tariffs and the tax cut is all I remember.
As far as a personal impact, I doubt a Trump administration will have much of an adverse affect on me.
The rest of the country and the world? I don't like what I see coming. And am trying to figure out how I can contribute to preventing what I think will be unhealthy changes for the world.
These guys are not good at follow through.
He stumbled into the presidency in 2016. I think it's "game on" this time around and the people surrounding him have agendas and now have the power to move forward to implement them.
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@pique There are many kinds of mutual funds. Stocks are one kind.
I try to avoid mutual funds. If I buy and hold an individual stock and its value increases over ten years, I will owe capital gains tax when I sell. No other taxes or admin costs.
Say I buy a successful mutual fund and hold for ten years. Each year, the manager buys and sells stocks within the portfolio. I owe taxes on my piece of the action each year, not just at the end. I think I also owe tax when I sell at the end. And there are administrative costs too.
That seemed to be the situation when I stopped buying mutual funds. There was one year in the 90s when our mutual funds threw off all of this taxable income. I was so annoyed that I now buy and hold individual stocks.
I still use mutual funds for retirement accounts because those don't have immediate tax consequences.
Everyone, please correct me if I'm wrong. I might be.
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I'd offer a detailed reply, but it's just too damned depressing. Suffice to say that we expect our lives to change dramatically, and we've had serious conversations about what the trigger would be for us leaving.
