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🤔 Brainteaser of the day: The more you tidy me, the less of me there is. What am I?
Click here to see the answer.
✅ Today's Checklist:
The real math behind why your paycheck never feels like enough The comedy-drama to help you with your Spanish Pet of the week: Meet Kia
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Why It Feels Like We're Poor Even When We're Not
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I'm a Millennial, which means when I entered my freshman year of college in fall 2007, the economy was already entering a recession.
So for most of my adult life, the economy has felt unstable.
And lately, the gap between wages, costs, and actually getting ahead feels wider than ever.
No matter which financial milestone my friends and I hit, it still somehow feels like we're not any closer to being "rich."
Buy a house? Now you're house poor. Invest in the stock market? Great, but also terrifying. Get a raise? Perfect. That'll cover groceries, eggs that cost $12, and the creeping fear that every minor health issue could financially ruin you.
So what's actually going on?
The math changed
It feels like you're "poor" even when you're not because the math of housing, wages, and basic costs is completely different from what previous generations faced.
Housing: In the mid-1980s, the median U.S. home cost about 3.6x the median household income. By 2023, that ratio climbed to 5.3x, with some analyses putting it closer to 6x. Between 1985 and 2023, incomes rose about 241% in nominal terms while home prices rose around 408%. The ratio of what you earn to what a decent home costs is just more brutal now.
Wages: From 2020 to 2024, wages rose about 18% but prices rose about 21%, meaning purchasing power actually fell 2 to 3%. And real income growth has slowed, especially for younger workers.
Basic costs: The cost of a basic American life rose faster than earnings in 2024, with housing and childcare seeing some of the biggest jumps.
Why housing feels impossible
Several structural things are stacking the deck:
Home prices have grown faster than wages for decades, especially in big metros and coastal states. In California, the median home is nearly 2.5x the national median, making the squeeze even worse in places like LA and the Bay.
There's a real housing shortage. Not enough homes built, very low vacancy rates, and too many people competing for the same limited supply.
Higher interest rates since 2022 mean even if prices flatten slightly, monthly payments can still be enormous.
Existing owners with low 2020 to 2021 mortgages are locked in, not selling, which keeps inventory tight and prices sticky.
Millennials and Gen Z also carry student debt and higher living costs, leaving less for down payments and savings.
Healthcare is eating your paycheck
Healthcare costs grow faster than general inflation in the U.S. Overall health spending grew 7.2% in 2024, reaching $5.3 trillion, or about $15,474 per person. Between 2021 and 2024, medical costs rose about 7% per year on average, and pharmacy costs increased even faster at around 9% per year. Even when general inflation cools, healthcare keeps climbing.
You're not crazy
The system changed. The goalposts moved and nobody sent a memo. Once you understand that, you can stop measuring yourself against an economic reality that no longer exists and start making decisions based on the one you're actually living in.
The rules changed. Now we adapt.
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Give Excel 60 Minutes This Weekend. It'll Pay You Back All Year.
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If Excel still feels like a full-time job inside your actual job, this is worth an hour of your time.
Miss Excel's free class teaches you the practical skills that turn your most tedious spreadsheet tasks into something that practically runs itself. No coding background. No prior experience. Just immediately usable techniques you can apply the same day.
Here's what you'll walk away with:
Clean messy data in minutes instead of starting from scratch every time Beginner-friendly macros you record once and reuse forever Automated workflows that handle your most repetitive tasks so you can focus on work that actually matters
Over one million people have already taken it. The ones who haven't are still manually reformatting columns.
👉 Save your spot for free.
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📚 Read: God Has a Name: What You Believe About God Will Shape Who You Become by John Mark Comer
Thania loves spiritual reads, and this one is perfect if you're dabbling with Christianity, a curious atheist, or just hungry for knowledge. The core premise is simple but powerful: what you believe about God shapes who you become, and the book challenges a lot of the lazy, inherited ideas carried around.
📺 Watch: The House of Flowers (Netflix)
If you're trying to practice your Spanish (or finally commit to learning), this modern telenovela is high-quality, funny, and weirdly sweet. Think lovable characters, all centered around a family-run flower business. It's dramatica pero in a good funny way.
🎧 Listen: Is It Lovebombing? Or Were They Genuinely Interested? by The Sabrina Zohar Show
A super useful listen if you've ever found yourself asking, "Is this real… or is this manipulation with better branding?" It breaks down common love bombing patterns, why stable connection can feel "boring" at first, and how to stay grounded when the attention feels intoxicating.
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The Exhaustion That a Vacation Won't Fix
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You took the PTO. You slept in. You did the thing everyone says to do.
And you came back to your inbox feeling exactly the same.
Here's what nobody talks about: there are two very different kinds of tired. One comes from doing too much. The other comes from spending too much time on work that doesn't fit how you're actually wired. Rest fixes the first one. The second one needs something else entirely.
Pigment is a self-discovery assessment that maps exactly that gap. We use it here at The Assist, and it's awesome. It breaks down how you process information, where you naturally create value, and which kinds of work fill you up versus which ones quietly hollow you out over time.
What makes it useful:
It separates capability from energy. You can be great at something and still be drained by it. Pigment shows you the difference. It gives you language. For conversations with your manager, for restructuring your role, for knowing what to say yes and no to. It works for teams too. If you manage people, it reframes the "they're just not motivated" conversation into something you can actually act on.
If you've been running on fumes and can't figure out why, the answer might not be more rest. It might be a clearer picture of how you actually work best.
👉 Take the Pigment assessment here.
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