Anyone stocking up specific items in anticipation of prices sharply increasing?

Oh, been there. Today I made carrot pickle because I bought carrots forgetting that I already had a bunch! :woman_facepalming:

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I don’t know anyone my age in the US who has a pension, so I don’t have any wide knowledge. The university I worked at in the late 1980s early 1990s ended their pension system during those years and everyone had to convert to stock market-based retirement savings accounts, and that’s where the university’s contributions to employees went.

I think people born before I was (1955) and worked at businesses (not non-profits like universities) may have grandfathered pensions.

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My sister retired from teaching a few years ago, she and her hubby, a retired federal worker, are the only two I know with pensions. Well, except mom, who still receives dad’s federal pension.

Come to think of it, my BIL was given the choice of pension or 401K when he began working for the government in the early 80s. He’s probably one of the last wave of hires with that option.

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Pensions used to be defined benefit - you got a guaranteed amount regardless. Companies have run away from that model, to put it mildly. Defined benefit pensions basically don’t exist anymore in the private sector. You now have defined contribution plans- which have no guarantees as to what the pension, which is investment based, will ultimately pay you.

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I wonder what I would/will get if/when we move back to Germany. After all, I paid into social security there for over a decade.

Born in 1950, I worked for Bell Labs and was in that sweet spot that got a pension and had a 401(K). However, the pension had no cost-of-living increases, so it is gradually losing purchasing power. Oh, and there’s also Social Security, which does have a cost-of-living increase. Folks ten years younger had no pension. (There was also a stock purchase plan that pre-dated the 401(K) and went away when that was instituted.)

Which is to say that in some cases the older folks are better off. Those who have no pensions or savings plans, though, are going to get hit hard.

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The amount will depend if you also paid into the system when you lived in the US. There is a treaty between Germany and US that your social security and/or Rente will be calculated based on your payments in both systems

The @Harters method of brown-glooping it. :wink:

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Practice makes perfect. :wink:

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We have an upright and I have a magnetic dry erase board & marker on the front of ours. It is a necessity.

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Good reminder, thank you.

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Ich habe keine Ahnung :joy:

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They won’t have a hard time staying in business unless customers don’t think the increase in ingredient costs should be passed on to them.

Which would be an odd thing, when the reason is not a mystery.

A Sri Lankan American chef I follow posted to social media that her suppliers notified them of a 44% increase in ingredient costs.

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After looking around my place, especially in the freezer and the cabinets, I’ve decided not to stockpile any more. Why? I have too much stuff already. I need to work through that stash; in the meantime, my cash won’t be depleted so I won’t have to sell any stocks, which IMO are going to still decline. I started adding to my cash back in the fall. I’d like to hang on to as much of it as possible. And I’ve got a whole bunch of Penzey’s gift cards anyway. :joy: In my mind, there’s a difference between unavailability (like during the pandemic) and price rises. And, I might need that cash for an actual emergency purchase - repairs, appliances, car, etc.

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Yes, I’m aware of that. I’ve not held a lot of jobs here that included SS.

If you’re self employed and paying taxes, you’re paying into it.

Yeah, I know. Not a lot there, is all.

I have one friend my age (late 40s) who has a pension - he works for Johnson and Johnson, and started there just a year or two before they did away with their pension program. It’s a blessing and a curse, though, as it functions like golden handcuffs keeping him at J&J even though he hasn’t been super happy there for quite some time.

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At least the supplier was transparent😣

Unfortunately, a lot of people have ideas of what things “should” cost that they don’t want to exceed, and a lot of other people will be reducing non-essential purchases as prices rise and their net worth falls. Some people seem to think that restaurant owners make tons of money and are gouging customers every time they raise prices. I’ve seen plenty of commentary about ‘not worth it for the price’ here and especially on my neighborhood blog, whether it’s 50 cent eggs, $5 pastries, $10 chocolate bars, or $20 burgers. I struggle with this myself as both a consumer and a producer and have to keep reminding myself that it’s not 1995, minimum wage is now $21 in Seattle, and our median household income is well into six figures. Sometimes it’s not worth it to the buyer - the execution was off or it was over-hyped or the service was lacking - but it still costs what it costs to produce.

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