As heartwarming as it may be to see a company like Walmart [NYSE: WMT] raise wages or getting an increase in pay at work, does this add any benefits to the working class income earners?
Let’s be honest here, J$ 2,000 ten years ago cannot buy the same things today.
Don’t get me started on the exchange rate either?
On this day ten years ago, US$ 1 was the equivalent of J$70.73, today US$ 1 is equivalent to J$ 124.17.
How are typical hardworking Jamaicans suppose to survive?
In recent years, overall inflation has been decreasing since 2013 at 9.36% compared to 2017 4.7%. As of December, core consumer prices were up just 0.2 percent from two months earlier.
That said, inflation isn’t the same for everybody. The working class have experienced more of it in recent years because the stuff they buy has become more expensive faster than the stuff the wealthy buy.
The most notable drivers are rent, food, gas, healthcare, education which comprises a much more significant share of total spending for working-class consumers.
While I wait on Statin to update their website with 2017 numbers.
Just by talking to fellow working-class members and experience, I believe in relative terms, the working class is worse off.
So how do we go about changing this?
Two words.
Financial Intelligence.
“Money without financial intelligence is money soon gone.”
Educating ourselves on how money works, options outside of savings and acquiring assets vs liabilities, I believe will aid all of us to get out of what Kiyosaki called the “rat race“.
…more to come.
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