Cost-cutting, quiet guilt and the inflation generation

In this economy it is boom times and doom times all at once. The statistics aren’t really capturing it. K-shaped only goes so far as a metaphor. So … we asked you to help. And you delivered! One one hand, the stock market is on a prolonged, upward trajectory. Unemployment is low and inflation has come down from its peak. But on the other hand, inflation is frustratingly sticky and higher than we want, job turnover is extremely low making looking for work an endless grind, and more than 75% of Americans say they’re stressed about money. So we asked you – our listeners – how is the economy working for you? We got a range of responses. Some people are going to great lengths to save money and make ends meet, others are thriving and feel kind of guilty about their good fortune. We also heard from a new generation being shaped by this economic moment into hyper cost-conscious shoppers. You might call them the inflation generation. Each story helps us understand what’s actually going on in the economy and what the stats aren’t capturing. Read: Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life https://lnk.to/i3AukBdD Our Game: Sell Me A Sasquatch https://www.explodingkittens.com/products/sell-me-a-sasquatch?srsltid=AfmBOoqh0lg9W7NlEUAvarSJ4E6RCE7sUnuUa1cohEZiz_xN5oFTqj3O about the hilarious chaos of monstrous dealmaking. Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletter https://n.pr/3zrFvUB Our weekly Indicator round-up newsletter https://www.npr.org/newsletter/indicator Follow: Instagram https://n.pr/3FqLuws TikTok https://n.pr/3sGZdrq YouTube https://lnk.to/iCVDaW3C Facebook https://n.pr/3h92GwS Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more atplus.npr.org http://plus.npr.org/. This episode of Planet Money was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Alex Goldmark. Reporting help from Charlotte Isidore. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez. Special thanks to all our listeners and all of you who wrote in to let us know how you’re doing. Music: NPR Source Audio - "What I Need," "Feel the Love," and "Red Line" See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This message comes from Apollo. CEOs and CFOs need more than capital. They need a financing partner with the scale, flexibility and certainty to help them execute. That's where Apollo comes in. Learn more at apollo.com/capital.

• 0:17Speaker 01

  This is Planet Money from NPR.

• 0:22Speaker 02

  How are you doing? We know what it's like out there. We've seen the stats on the economy. We also know the stats don't fully capture what you're all dealing with.

• 0:29Speaker 01

  We know this because we asked you to tell us how you've been doing. And we heard back from many of you.

• 0:33Speaker 03

  Hello, Planet Money. I'm Alan Miller.

• 0:35Speaker 04

  My name is Lindsay Cole. I'm a professor.

• 0:38Speaker 05

  I'm Rick Schultz. I'm retired.

• 0:40Speaker 06

  My name's Stephen Lloyd. I'm 24.

• 0:42Speaker 07

  My name's Josh Buck. I'm a truck driver.

• 0:44Speaker 02

  The economy is treating so many of you or listeners very differently right now. It is boom times for some, bleak for others. It's kind of like the everything all at once economy.

• 0:54Speaker 01

  77% of Americans say they're stressed about their finances. But if you own assets like stocks or property, you might be feeling good right now. Homes have appreciated so much. And if you're open to selling your home.

• 1:06Speaker 07

  That was a huge win when I sold it. I got quite a, quite a nice pocket full of cash.

• 1:11Speaker 04

  Nice.

• 1:12Speaker 02

  Unemployment is also relatively low overall, but the people who are unemployed right now are unemployed for way longer because turnover is so low right now. It's hard to find a job or leave a job.

• 1:24Speaker 06

  It is just absolutely brutal. Like, I have so many applications out there that I've just gone absolutely nowhere.

• 1:31Speaker 01

  Wages are up a tiny bit, but not for everyone.

• 1:34Speaker 04

  So my entire paycheck only covers my childcare payment and my student loan payments a month. That is it. And then it is gone.

• 1:41Speaker 02

  Inflation also down from its peak to 3.4%, but that still means that prices are 3.4% higher than they were this time last year. And this is an average, right? So the price changes for specific goods can be much less than that or much, much more.

• 1:59Speaker 03

  Two years ago, I could get a two liter of brand name soda on sale for a dollar. Today, it's on sale for $3.50. That doesn't feel like 3% or 4%. You know, it feels like 8% or 15% or in some cases, 100%.

• 2:16Speaker 01

  After hearing from you, a few themes popped up. The economy is pushing some people into hyper price consciousness and others into the most comfortable period of their lives. And then there are those whose entire economic views are being shaped by this moment.

• 2:30Speaker 06

  Like, I was just, like, thrust into a world like that.

• 2:33Speaker 02

  This is 17-year-old Leo Vamaka, who spends so much of his time thinking about?

• 2:38Speaker 06

  Honestly, spending money, how much money I have.

• 2:42Speaker 02

  We're going to spend a little time with Leo, who is part of the newest generation of consumers.

• 2:47Speaker 01

  Leo's a high school senior and he has two jobs.

• 2:49Speaker 06

  I've been working since, well, I guess I've been working since I was 13. But a lot of it was under the table, I would say.

• 2:57Speaker 01

  Uh huh. You sure you want to tell us that?

• 2:59Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah. You know, like, scorekeeping hockey games and stuff. That, that was a lot of, like, what I was doing.

• 3:05Speaker 02

  When Leo started working, making money and spending money, it was four years ago when we had peak inflation, inflation that so many of us had never seen in our lives.

• 3:16Speaker 01

  So much of what he's known is this era of inflation.

• 3:19Speaker 06

  Even as I make more money, I'm like, where is it going? Where is it going? Because the prices increase, you know?

• 3:25Speaker 02

  Oh, well, you know.

• 3:26Speaker 01

  Leo says he and his friends have started doing some old school coupon clipping.

• 3:31Speaker 06

  It definitely caught on this year and it's become much more of a thing.

• 3:35Speaker 01

  Are you guys like a coupon crew then?

• 3:37Speaker 06

  Yeah, I mean, you could say that. We'll go to, like, the same CVS, right? We'll, like, caravan over there together.

• 3:44Speaker 02

  The latest price-conscious inflation generation has entered the economy. Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Sarah Gonzalez.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  And I'm Erica Barris. And we are checking in with you, our Planet Money community, because we're all trying to figure out this confusing economic moment.

• 4:01Speaker 02

  Today on the show, we hear about your extreme cost cutting, the quiet guilt you're feeling from your own economic luck and consumer habits forming in the younger generation.

• 4:12Speaker 01

  When you grow up around economic volatility, it can affect your beliefs and your behavior for the rest of your life.

• 4:22Speaker 00

  Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from BetterHelp. BetterHelp is in-network with more than 125 health plans with an average copay for eligible members of just $23 per session. Don't have eligible insurance? You can still get 10% off your first month. Visit betterhelp.com/NPR to explore your payment options. That's better H E L P dot com slash NPR.

• 4:50Speaker 05

  This message comes from Capella University. That spark you feel? That's your drive for more. Capella University's FlexPath learning format lets you earn your degree at your pace without putting life on pause. Learn more at capella.edu.

• 5:05Speaker 00

  This message comes from Apollo. Whether it's funding growth, modernizing operations or strengthening their balance sheet, CEOs and CFOs need more than capital. They need a financing partner with the scale, flexibility and certainty to help them execute. Apollo provides access to long-duration capital and a broad range of financing capabilities, helping companies develop customized financing solutions designed at an efficient cost of capital. Learn more at apollo.com/capital.

• 5:36Speaker 02

  When we asked listeners to check in, we did hear from a decent amount of you who said you're actually doing pretty good in this economy.

• 5:43Speaker 01

  But we also heard from many of you who are struggling. You're changing your behavior and consumer habits in big ways.

• 5:50Speaker 02

  I mean, honestly, if I'm being honest, when we read your email unanimously, we were like, wait, a professor's going through all of this and dealing with all of this?

• 6:01Speaker 04

  Yeah, so I think there's a lot of misconceptions around how much money people think professors make.

• 6:08Speaker 02

  This is listener Lindsay Cole, who wrote in to us.

• 6:10Speaker 04

  And I'm sure, you know, if you worked at an Ivy League, you make decent money. But most of us make probably what public school teachers make.

• 6:20Speaker 01

  At least, that's what she's been making, teaching forensic psychology at a small liberal arts college in the Northeast.

• 6:26Speaker 02

  Her husband is also a full-time professor at a different university, so dual income. But it's been very tight for their family.

• 6:33Speaker 04

  So I have two boys.

• 6:34Speaker 02

  They have a six-year-old and a four-year-old.

• 6:36Speaker 04

  Um, they're very active boys.

• 6:38Speaker 02

  Currently, they like to stand outside in Spiderman costumes, hoping cars honk. And, you know, kids alone.

• 6:44Speaker 04

  It's expensive.

• 6:45Speaker 01

  You know, we know things are more expensive. Inflation has been sticky.

• 6:49Speaker 02

  I feel it.

• 6:50Speaker 01

  Every day. But Lindsay, in particular, stood out to us because what she deals with on a day-to-day basis takes us beyond the numbers and what the stats miss.

• 6:59Speaker 02

  Take wages, for example. Technically, nominal wages have gone up, meaning the literal dollar amounts on paychecks, but just slightly. They're growing at 3.1%. But when you factor in inflation, which is 3.4% right now, there is no real wage growth on average. We collectively are making less money when you factor in inflation. And of course, not everyone's seeing any wage growth at all.

• 7:23Speaker 04

  I haven't gotten even a cost of living adjustment in I don't know how long. Like, and we know how much inflation has been.

• 7:30Speaker 02

  I mean, I haven't gotten, we've gotten cost of living adjustments of like 2.5%. And you're like, hmm, inflation's more than that.

• 7:38Speaker 04

  Absolutely. And we're not even getting that. It's literally just stagnant.

• 7:42Speaker 01

  And actually, this summer, she kind of got a pay cut. She used to get a flat fee for teaching a summer course, but the college changed the pay structure to a per-student rate, $400 for every student she brings in.

• 7:56Speaker 04

  The competitiveness that it's going to create amongst faculty.

• 7:59Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 8:00Speaker 04

  You know, come in and you'll basically get an A in my class. There'll be a lot less work.

• 8:04Speaker 02

  Oh, the easy A classes. Those ones are going to do great. Yeah. Just be that professor, Lindsay.

• 8:10Speaker 04

  Well, I mean, you know, you have standards for yourselves. But when it's really dinging your livelihood, it's hard not to feel the pull of that.

• 8:22Speaker 02

  Lindsay got paid less this summer for teaching two classes than she got last summer for teaching one class. And she was really banking on the full summer pay because she's got this van. It is finicky.

• 8:34Speaker 04

  My kids call it ghost van because it'll turn itself on and off randomly.

• 8:40Speaker 02

  The car turns on and off?

• 8:42Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, yeah. No, no, the car. The car turns on and off. Sometimes I sit in a parking lot for 10 minutes trying to get the car to just stay on or stay off.

• 8:50Speaker 02

  What a waste of time.

• 8:51Speaker 01

  And then the AC on the van just busted this summer. They had plans to finally put a down payment on a new car. But when the summer pay structure changed, that went out the window, which is always open now.

• 9:04Speaker 04

  So we're driving around with the windows down. We had like a week where it was like 100 degrees outside. And when I went to pick up the kids from camp and daycare, I had like packs of cold washcloths for them to hang on their necks while we were in the car so they wouldn't get overheated.

• 9:19Speaker 02

  Lindsay says people are often surprised to hear that two full-time college professors can't afford a setback, like a busted car, or even a simple pleasure, like a playdate for their kids.

• 9:30Speaker 04

  That that stings a little bit, right? Of like, ah, but working professionals, like I should be able to let my kid go with their friend to the trampoline park like every once in a while.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  Lindsay feels like she and her husband followed all the rules and did everything they were supposed to do.

• 9:48Speaker 04

  We should be on the upswing of the K-shaped economy and we're just not.

• 9:53Speaker 02

  Are you? Are you just naturally interested in econ? Because you've thrown around some econ a couple of times.

• 9:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, I probably learned it from you guys, to be honest.

• 10:02Speaker 02

  All right, the K-shaped economy, which many economists say we have right now, though there are some skeptics, is basically one economy with two different experiences. Some people are spending big, increasing their wealth and on track to continue. So they're on the top half of the K with the arm of the K going up, while others have slower spending growth, stagnating or decreasing wages and growing debt and are on track to continue that. So they're the bottom half of the K with the leg of the K going down.

• 10:30Speaker 01

  Now Lindsay and her family are not at the very bottom of the K. They own a house, they can afford childcare so they can work, but they are struggling.

• 10:38Speaker 04

  I think it's also kind of crazy when you hear people like politicians saying like, everything is fine because this one group of people is doing amazing. And look, they are spending and like, whoa, yeah, good for the overall economy. Like, but I'm not taking a shower tonight, right? Because I'm trying to keep my water bill down.

• 10:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, Lindsay and her family, they're not spending big right now. They're actually rationing, rationing the kids' snacks, electricity, the hot water.

• 11:07Speaker 04

  Yeah, so the kids used to take separate baths and now they're forced to take a together bath because they're just like, we have to get through until the gas prices drop because I don't want to pay.

• 11:19Speaker 01

  The hot water in Lindsay's house runs on heating oil and the high price of crude oil right now is also keeping heating oil prices high. It costs like $1,300 to fill up the tank in her house.

• 11:30Speaker 04

  And I think I told you I've switched up some of our oven usage too, to try to keep the electrical costs down.

• 11:37Speaker 02

  This is what Lindsay wrote to us about, her oven usage. And I don't think I'm overstating this. Lindsay basically plans her whole life around when she's going to turn on her oven. Because Lindsay likes good bread, not cheapo sliced bread. So she's baking their family's bread and muffins to try to save money.

• 11:56Speaker 04

  And I had rationalized keeping it going because I was like, I'm saving us so much money from not buying that $10 loaf of bread when I go to the grocery store. And then somebody said to me, yeah, but it costs so much money to run your oven at like 450, 500 degrees. And it kind of clicked. I was like, oh, am I even saving us any money by doing this? And so I pulled up last year's bill, I pulled up this year's bill, and then I was paying attention to the actual usage, like the kilowatt hours.

• 12:24Speaker 01

  She's tracking their family's kilowatt per hour usage. Not because she's like into this stuff, because she needs to squeeze out any cost savings she can.

• 12:34Speaker 04

  Or if there's a particularly cooler day coming, like I'll save the baking for that day.

• 12:38Speaker 02

  No, you do not.

• 12:39Speaker 04

  I do. I absolutely do.

• 12:42Speaker 02

  This is, you're doing so, so many like mental gymnastics. It's the water usage, it's when to use the oven. I mean, you know, because you teach psychology. But this is what they call like the cognitive burden.

• 12:58Speaker 04

  The cognitive load, yeah.

• 12:58Speaker 02

  Or the cognitive tax.

• 13:00Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 13:00Speaker 02

  For like trying to make the finances work for your household.

• 13:04Speaker 04

  It is, yeah.

• 13:06Speaker 02

  The cognitive tax isn't just about the mental load for Lindsay. It's about all the things she's not doing for the larger economy because her brain and time are so tied up trying to save money. Like the energy you're expending is taking away from other things that you could be doing. Like it's like you are less good at doing your job.

• 13:27Speaker 04

  Oh, absolutely.

• 13:28Speaker 02

  Because you have, you're dealing with all this other stuff.

• 13:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, less good at a lot of things, right? But if you could be saving $2 here and $2 there, like I think those drops in the bucket will add up at some point. And I do feel a sense of guilt about not, not making the effort where the effort could be made to make a difference for my family.

• 13:49Speaker 02

  And this is why her email really stood out to us. Because you have a professor here putting so much mental energy and her analytical research skills towards questions like, does it save money to bake bread versus buy it when you factor in electricity costs in the middle of the summer? And that cognitive tax, it is worse for people who are much lower income than Lindsay. But even for Lindsay, there is kind of a silver lining that this odd economy is offering.

• 14:16Speaker 04

  Like I know Trump keeps saying, how's your 401K doing? I'm like, it's doing great, but what do I do with that? Like I can't use that for another 30 or 40 years. So like, yay, my retired self?

• 14:29Speaker 02

  You said your retired self is looking pretty good, though?

• 14:32Speaker 04

  Well, I mean, compound interest, right?

• 14:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, and speaking of retirement.

• 14:38Speaker 07

  Yeah, we're very, very, very lucky.

• 14:40Speaker 02

  There are some real winners in this economy, like some people whose retirement accounts are allowing them to live more comfortably than they even like to admit.

• 14:48Speaker 01

  Also, we hear more from 17-year-old Leo and the potential generational impacts of living through inflation spikes. That's after the break.

• 15:07Speaker 00

  Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors.

• 15:11Speaker 05

  This message comes from Capella University. That spark you feel, that's your drive for more. Capella University's FlexPath learning format lets you earn your degree at your pace without putting life on pause. Learn more at capella.edu.

• 15:26Speaker 00

  This message comes from LinkedIn. As a small business owner, you wear many hats. You're the owner, the marketer, the seller, the hire. With LinkedIn, you have the tools to help you boost your visibility, find prospective customers, and find the best team for your small business, all in one place. So while LinkedIn can't hang up all of your hats, it makes it easier to wear them all. Learn more at LinkedIn.com/PlanetMoneyShow.

• 15:53Speaker 05

  This episode's sponsor is HubSpot, which offers the following message. What if instead of updating your CRM, your CRM updated you? No catching up on manual edits, no more guesswork. HubSpot's self-updating CRM keeps your customer context current and helps you understand what to do next. So marketing builds more demand, sales wins more deals, and customers keep coming back. Learn more at hubspot.com.

• 16:19Speaker 01

  Okay, so some of you who wrote in were more the Lindsays of the economic moment. You know, really jumping through hoops to make money stretch. Others were more of a Rick, retired and feeling good.

• 16:31Speaker 02

  You said that a lot of your elderly friends, your words, are in a similar situation financially as you. And then you put, and we do not talk about it much. Like that's not a conversation, no?

• 16:47Speaker 07

  No, no.

• 16:47Speaker 01

  This is Rick Schultz, who said he is very, very, very lucky right now.

• 16:51Speaker 07

  Well, yeah, we are. We're very, very fortunate.

• 16:54Speaker 02

  I mean, you emailed us and said, your income exceeds your daily expenditures by nearly $2,000 a month.

• 17:02Speaker 07

  Yep, we're pleased.

• 17:03Speaker 02

  On a fixed income, that's pretty good.

• 17:05Speaker 07

  Yeah, we're very, very, very lucky.

• 17:07Speaker 02

  Rick is not rolling in it, okay? He's still paying off his house, paying a mortgage. He doesn't feel at all stressed about finances, but he notices that prices are high.

• 17:18Speaker 07

  Well, eating out, you see that and you see filling up your daughter's minivan is a lot more expensive.

• 17:26Speaker 02

  Do you fill up your daughter's minivans?

• 17:29Speaker 07

  Oh, on occasion.

• 17:30Speaker 02

  Oh, that's a good dad. How old is your daughter?

• 17:34Speaker 07

  Ah, she is, and I'm supposed to know this, aren't I? I think she's 38. Now, I'm going to get that wrong and I'm going to get in big trouble.

• 17:41Speaker 02

  It's OK. We'll correct it. We'll change it later. His daughter is 41. He checked his little cheat sheet of important dates on his phone for that one.

• 17:49Speaker 01

  And one of the reasons we wanted to talk to Rick is because he represents a version of the American dream and retirement that is fleeting. The fulfillment of a kind of economic promise that for younger generations feels broken.

• 18:03Speaker 02

  When Rick emailed us, he wrote, quote, "One underreported economic story is the number of older retired people that are living very good economic lives in their old age."

• 18:13Speaker 01

  And there are a few reasons for that. One, real estate. If you own property, your homes have probably gone up in value.

• 18:20Speaker 02

  Another is the stock market. If you have money in there, I mean, the stock market over the past several years is on an incredible historic streak. It is just up, up, up, up, up, up, up. And if you're retired, like Rick, that's probably where your money is. IRAs, individual retirement accounts, 401Ks. Rick has some of that, but also he has a pension, two, actually.

• 18:45Speaker 01

  He worked for the state of Kansas and the state of Iowa doing mental health and disability services jobs.

• 18:51Speaker 02

  So you have pensions for the rest of your life from both states?

• 18:55Speaker 07

  Yes, yes.

• 18:56Speaker 02

  Oh, Rick says there are some trade offs to working in public service jobs. It's not a path to riches necessarily, but he says it is a path to security.

• 19:06Speaker 07

  The salaries were not that wonderful. Benefits are great.

• 19:09Speaker 01

  Rick also invested in a personal retirement account. He said he and his wife invested early in their mid-30s and quite substantially.

• 19:19Speaker 07

  Even when it was difficult for us to do so, even when it was a challenge for us financially.

• 19:24Speaker 02

  The standard investing advice has always been to put money into a retirement account as early as possible and choose risky investments in the stock market when you're still years away from retirement, then less risky investments like treasuries when retirement is around the corner. And that is what Rick did.

• 19:40Speaker 01

  So a part of him feels like, yeah, he made the sacrifices early. But also, he kind of just got lucky that he was born and he retired at the right time when the stock market experienced these gigantic booms and his money compounded.

• 19:55Speaker 02

  Rick feels a lot of guilt over this, actually, because he says what he was able to do in his 30s, he doesn't think people in their 30s today can do.

• 20:03Speaker 07

  We could figure out how to squeeze the money out of our budget. But nowadays, the cost of living has gone up so much. There's so much less flexibility for younger people to do the same kind of investing.

• 20:18Speaker 02

  We heard from a lot of you who felt this exact same way. You said you were doing fine, but your kids are struggling, living at home. Or they want to do some of the big milestones, like get engaged, buy a house, but they're just not there financially.

• 20:33Speaker 07

  And when you hear people talk about, well, you know, the younger generation, they just have to pull themselves up from their bootstraps. Do the math. That's what I, that's what I like to tell people. Do the math. It's not the same. You like to think it's the same. It's not the same. All you have to do is look at rent and look at what the minimum wage is.

• 20:54Speaker 01

  Rick is refreshingly thoughtful about this stuff. He says he got where he is now not just through smart decisions that he made and pensions and investments, but also because of these programs that he and his wife benefited from.

• 21:06Speaker 02

  Like Rick got a federal first time homebuyer's tax credit.

• 21:11Speaker 07

  Well, I looked it up before we, before I called you and said, do they still have that? No, they don't have that anymore. They haven't had it for years.

• 21:18Speaker 02

  There are some homebuyer tax credits still, but the one that Rick got doesn't exist anymore.

• 21:23Speaker 01

  Another thing, Rick's wife, she got a job that qualified for student loan forgiveness.

• 21:27Speaker 07

  People talk about student loan forgiveness as like a sin now, but we had access to that.

• 21:32Speaker 02

  I didn't realize. It does feel like it's like a new thing. I didn't even know you guys took out loans in the 70s. I thought college was like $100 a month.

• 21:40Speaker 07

  Yeah, well, see, that's the other thing. Higher education was cheap.

• 21:43Speaker 02

  There was bad unemployment in 1975 when Rick graduated college. He could only get a minimum wage job, but he lived and saved just fine with that, he says. Can you imagine?

• 21:54Speaker 07

  No, there's no way.

• 21:55Speaker 02

  But never happen today, like, meaning like you could rent your own apartment and buy your groceries?

• 22:00Speaker 07

  Oh, yeah, I did when I graduated and you could make it. You could find a way to make it.

• 22:05Speaker 01

  So much of what was available to Rick has to do with timing.

• 22:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, just like what was going on in the economy? What programs existed when he entered the labor market and had all of his big financial milestones?

• 22:17Speaker 01

  Think of all the people who entered the labor market in 2008, 2009 during the financial crisis. As a generation, millennials started working at depressed wages. It took more than a decade for them to catch up.

• 22:29Speaker 02

  And many still haven't caught up. Literally, your economic fate can come down to just the year you were born, which brings us back to Leo, the 17 year old who has only ever known high price spikes.

• 22:42Speaker 01

  For Leo, gas has been the real killer.

• 22:45Speaker 06

  Yeah, when gas hit $5 a gallon and I was going to the pump and I was like feeling it like in my, I was like, no, stop going up. Oh, I was waiting for the click and it's like still going up.

• 22:55Speaker 02

  Leo lives with his parents, right? So he doesn't have to pay rent. He doesn't have bills, but his parents don't pay for everything.

• 23:02Speaker 06

  They have drawn a very defined line on, we're not paying for any of your food. If you're getting food outside of the house, it's, you're paying for it.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  Hence, the two jobs and the coupon clipping teenagers got to eat. And the reason we're talking to Leo is because he's just starting to figure out how to be a savvy consumer, how to budget, find deals. But he's only ever done that in this era of volatile prices and bouncing inflation.

• 23:27Speaker 02

  His whole life has been shaped by this. He sees it everywhere, his extracurricular activities.

• 23:32Speaker 01

  Leo's a boy scout. He's one of the grub masters for his troop, which is the person who has to do the grocery shopping for their camping trips.

• 23:39Speaker 06

  We actually cooked a full, like, suckling pig and presented it for a contest. Yes, we carried it on a skewer.

• 23:48Speaker 01

  So you're really cooking. You're cooking like real food.

• 23:50Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah, yeah. We've got some, some very good chefs in our troop. And a lot of what goes into cooking is buying good ingredients.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  Leo, with his troop leaders and fellow boy scouts, has to budget how many dollars they can spend on ingredients per boy scout.

• 24:05Speaker 06

  So what it is, is per boy, per meal, breakfast is three, lunch is four, dinner is five.

• 24:11Speaker 01

  OK.

• 24:12Speaker 06

  And we had to raise it to four, five, six per meal, respectively, because of the price changes.

• 24:19Speaker 02

  Leo is trying to find deals for like nine households worth of people, looking for the best deals on butter, on 30 pounds of potatoes, on sausages, peaches at age 17.

• 24:29Speaker 01

  And like any good budgeter, he's putting some limits on the boys.

• 24:33Speaker 02

  It's the only way to run a household.

• 24:36Speaker 06

  We've been going a little lighter on the lemonade. People would, used to put like bigger scoops in their bottles. And then we've like started watching a little more. We're like, you get one scoop.

• 24:45Speaker 01

  One scoop? That's barely lemonade.

• 24:48Speaker 06

  Unless they want to bring a lemon themselves from home.

• 24:51Speaker 01

  And even small penny pinching measures like this, they can shape you.

• 24:54Speaker 02

  Plenty of studies have found that living through economic shocks can rewire your brain, make you more price sensitive, change your relationship with risk. It can even change your expectations of inflation itself. Make you feel like inflation can always be around the corner. And as we've covered before, when people expect inflation, it can lead people to behave in ways that contribute to inflation.

• 25:18Speaker 01

  For now, Leo's mainly just buying teenager things. Like, he just ordered Busta Rhymes and MF Doom CDs.

• 25:25Speaker 06

  But I think I'm paying full price for those ones.

• 25:27Speaker 01

  So, yeah, not everything in his life is about thrift.

• 25:39Speaker 01

  It can be hard to talk about personal finances, but these are things we're all thinking about and experiencing. And so we're grateful to all of you who wrote in and shared your stories with us.

• 25:49Speaker 02

  And if you have an economic experience that we didn't capture, let us know. We read every email and Spotify and social media comment, even if we cannot reply. They really shape how we think about what stories we do.

• 26:00Speaker 01

  So please keep on keeping in touch, [email protected] or at Planet Money on basically all the social platforms.

• 26:09Speaker 02

  And as always, super extra special thanks to our NPR Plus supporters who get sponsor free listening and bonus episodes and occasional live shows where you can ask us questions. You can sign up to be an NPR Plus supporter also at plus.npr.org.

• 26:23Speaker 01

  This episode of Planet Money was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Alex Goldmark with reporting help from Charlotte Isador. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Robert Rodriguez.

• 26:36Speaker 02

  I'm Sierra Gonzalez.

• 26:37Speaker 01

  And I'm Erica Beres. This is NPR. Thanks for listening.

• 26:47Speaker 00

  Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from Google Workspace with Gemini. One subscription that does it all. Personalized AI and premium business versions of Gmail, Google Docs, Drive, and more. Try it free for 14 days at g o o dot g l e slash workspace with Gemini.

• 27:09Speaker 05

  This message comes from Mint Mobile. While others have been hiking your bill, Mint Mobile has kept their wireless plans starting at $15 a month. Switch to Mint Mobile and get three months of premium wireless service for $15 a month. Go to mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. New customer offer first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra.