It seems like that is a famous question from the 1980 election when Reagan ran for president against Jimmy Carter. It’s easy to see it as political, given those roots. Also, coming t this time of year with the four-year term of a United States’ President, it’s easy to see it that way. I don’t know if someone in Japan would tie it to politics. Maybe they’d use another number like five.
I don’t tie “Are You Better Off than Four Years Ago?” to myself. I first heard the question from Retire by 40, not from any of the politic-heavy news sources that I typically read. (You should click through that link, if for no other reason than to learn a new phrase like “quadrennial checkup.”)
Hopefully, with the presidential election in the rearview mirror, we can think of the question a little more literally. I like to think about it as kind the opposite of the famous interview question, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” However, because we are looking back, it’s a lot easier.
Being “better off” is a difficult question. It’s a very personal decision. Four years ago, I had a 2 and a (just-turned) 4-year-old. I had a big lawsuit because I wrote I neutral review of an at-home water purification company that was using a test designed to trick consumers. They didn’t like that the neutral review exposed the trick and it ranked in Google, so BAM! lawsuit for me.
My wife’s work was (and it still is) moving the goalposts on promotions and that was causing additional stress. The suicide rates skyrocketed and others died from falling asleep while driving. It was a bad time. I haven’t heard of that happening lately and working from home for everyone helped a lot I think.
That wasn’t a great time – raising kids is difficult. This year has been easier because an 8-year-old and a 6-year-old can do more. They get themselves dressed. They can sort and put away laundry. A couple of times, I woke up and they already made themselves breakfast (cereal). It’s a big difference from having to wipe their butts. It’s all so gradual that it can be hard to notice it unless you take pause and reflect on it.
Four years ago was unique 4 years of my life. Life is a series of unique slices. Four years before that I was just learning how to be a father. Four years from now, there will be new experiences. Those experiences will come with new difficulties. Everyone has difficulties, right?
Let’s break down the last four and give some grades:
Finances
We’re better off financially than we were four years ago. Things have been almost “too good”, so I’m exploring ways to invest more conservatively. On my to-do list today is too look at reblancing into more bonds as stocks have hit new highs once again.
Fortunately, I can say that for the four-year slice before that and the four-year slice before that. I can keep on going back throughout my entire life and almost confidently say that I’ve improved my “fiscal status” over the last four years. I did have a rough patch when the dot-coms busted. I had to scramble for any programming job I could get. One of the core reasons why I started this blog is that I never wanted to be in that space again.
I was fortunate that I was taught early on how compound interest worked. I started investing when I was 16 and that created good financial habits. It really helps over the long term.
I hope that most people can say they are better off financially over most slices of four years. Most readers are hopefully investing… and that’s done well for 10 years now. If you are young, the skills you learn can hopefully grow your income. If you are retired and spending down your nest egg maybe you aren’t better off financially. I think that’s about the cycle of life you are in… again, just a personal thing.
Grade: A
Health
I had a knee problem four years ago. I couldn’t drive for more than 30 minutes. I saw a doctor and he gave me a couple of exercises. My knee got better almost right away.
Earlier this year, I had a molar tooth split lengthwise. The dentist had no choice but to pull it.
Overall I’m pretty good. My health could be a lot worse. I’m four years older (44 now). I got a few more pounds since the pandemic started. I have to grade it on that curve.
Grade: B
Mental/Happiness
I like not worrying about stuff. The last four years have been terrible for that.
I felt like I need to babysit the government… because honestly, my 6-year-old could make better decisions. For example, you don’t put someone whose career is based on destroying the environment like (Scott Pruitt in charge of the protecting the environment. You could ask any kindergarten class if that’s a good idea and they’d unanimously say “no.”
Then when half the country is on fire, these people simply say that they don’t believe the scientists. The sad thing is that they probably make a lot of money despite being so stupid.
Life was much better when the government mostly hired qualified people (even if there were occasional grifting and scandals). I liked the days when I could laugh at the news for making a big deal over a white iPhone or some Kardashian gossip. I was able to be a lot more productive. I talked with some friends and they feel the same way.
Grade: D-
Final Thoughts
The biggest thing for me now and going forward is COVID. We have new leaders who are putting the scientists in place to help with that. We got our second excellent vaccine news yesterday. There are some positives, but the COVID cases still feel like they are doubling every week or two. It is the best of times and the worst of times.
It sounds like it will be less than four years before we can look back at 2020 and say that COVID time was a really unique slice of our lives. Maybe it allow me appreciate the end of 2024 more with whatever life’s difficulties then are.
Are you saying you think the election is in the rearview mirror, really? I’m surprised, I would think you would keep up on what is going on around you. What’s your take on the new Bond villain Klaus Schwab?
Well there’s the run-off in Georgia, but I don’t think people traditionally thought of that as “the election” a month ago. We have had a new President Elect for over a week now, so that’s over.
I don’t follow James Bond or Klaus Schwab to give much of an opinion on either.
A new President elect? Who said that – the MSM only. There is a process and that does not include MSM making the decision regarding who is President. There are several states still in play including PA and MI – better catch up. Klaus Schwab is touting the great reset – it was a tongue in cheek question just like this one: “Do you think he would be a better villain if he had a pet cat?” I would look him up, did you see the fairly recent Time magazine article regarding the “Great Reset”, If I had sufficient assets to essentially retire in my 30’s or 40’s and part of my income stream resulted from a “money” related newsletter, blog….I would be on top of this. Whattup with the Central Banks? Any news on the haps with the Federal reserve? I saw Bitcoin cracked $17k, Gold hovering around $2k and silver up too – all while the stock market remains high – now that is kind of an oddity and no war in sight to offer answers, hmmm. I would also ask which countries have respected our election process and withheld premature congratulations to a President elect who has not been confirmed by the electoral college. Strange days indeed. Of course you may be concerned about the significant censorship that has taken hole in of all places the United States of America, think of it as a money making opportunity, uphold freedom and perhaps create your own platform if yours are at risk. I’ve been very surprised by the move of so many to independent news sources and platforms, apparently someone thinks perhaps the MSM is no longer provided accurate news and many believe their voices are being silenced. Just sayin’
By MSM, you mean everyone that matters, right? PA and MI have been out of play for a long time. While they are still counting votes, it simply isn’t mathematical. Trump would need to win 100% of the mail-in votes (where he’s typically won very few of) in PA. He even knows this which is why he isn’t saying, “We need to finish counting the votes.” He’s saying, “I’m going to try to sue change the votes that were already legitimately counted.” Michigan is an even bigger gap.
Only made up “organizations” like Breitbart, Newsmax, and OAN seem to think that these states aren’t done. Even conservative Fox News says it’s over.
I looked up Klaus Schwab and I didn’t see anything. I see now that you are referring to: https://time.com/collection/great-reset/5900748/klaus-schwab-capitalism/.
I gave it a look and I don’t see anything to be on top of. It is odd for Bitcoin, gold, and stock market up. I’m coming out with an article about this hopefully later this week. I was thinking about having some money invested in these places, but they look too expensive now. I invested in solar companies (TAN) a few years ago and it’s been great this year.
It sounds like you know of a specific problem, but are dancing around saying it. We have more freedom of speech than ever now. There’s no lack of censorship when someone can create a website in a few minutes (maybe an hour or two if you want your own domain instead of something like Substack) and start writing. If anything, I think there’s too much freedom of speech and not enough education of critical thinking skills and fact-checking. The combination has lead to conspiracy theories like PizzaGate. The President of the United States (#45) has to have most of his communication censored from Twitter because he doesn’t exercise critical thinking skills and requires these fact-checks.
I personally don’t see how you can look at the current state of things with this pandemic and feel better off. Not unless life was truely aweful 4 years ago.
Current is not the last 4 years. In 4 years if things do not change from right now, the answer may be different. I’ve been astonished at how well we have weathered this storm. Granted, there will be a price to pay but then there was already a price waiting to be paid, our current President has thwarted the plan to expedite the destruction of the U.S. so that was fortunate. Everyone I know has done well over the past 4 years and in spite of the madness of the pandemic and inexplicable response by many Governors (states rights and all), we continue to well enough. With continuity of leadership that puts America first, we will come out of this with continued strength. However, with leadership in bed with China among others, we will be back to ship American jobs out of the country and bring in more unvetted people to receive benefits benevolently provided by the struggling tax payer. I know those who came legally are not happy with this shortcut.
The current President of the United States has killed hundreds of thousands of people because he couldn’t tell them to wear masks. It was literally the easiest thing that could be done. The White House went out of its way to PREVENT the Post Office from distributing these life-saving free masks.
You couldn’t come up with a better plan to destroy the United States on purpose.
We didn’t ship jobs out of this country. American unemployment rate has been extremely low under both parties’ Presidents. The Republicans have tried to create some jobs, but some have been disastrous like the Foxconn mess that devastated Wisconsin.
America has become a laughing stock in the rest of the world. Our leadership during a public health crisis used to be respected. Some countries are finding that even Vladimir Putin is a more reputable leader.
Thanks for the mention! We’re mostly better off than 4 years ago.
COVID is a huge problem, but hopefully a temporary one. I’m very optimistic that 2021 will be a lot better.
President Biden will try to bring the country together instead of dividing us. I’m looking forward to much fewer BS from the white house.
Misspells Reagan. Claims president is directly responsible for 200K+ deaths.
Yep, your moniker checks out. You are an intellectually lazy man.
It was a typo, not a misspelling. If it was a misspelling the spell checker would have caught it.
From this CDC.gov report in October, “Overall, an estimated 299,028 excess deaths have occurred in the United States from late January through October 3, 2020, with two-thirds of these attributed to COVID-19.”
It’s hard to say how many were directly caused by the mishandling, but also know that COVID didn’t go away on Oct 3rd. It won’t go away on December 3rd, or even January 3rd. We don’t know what complications come down the line either.
When you add it all up, I think the 200K number is going to look conservative. Even if you disagree, are you really going to celebrate that he “only” killed 100K people with his purposeful mishandling of the pandemic? Keep in mind, it was intentional, he admitted it on tape.
And no research on the virus less deadly than the flu, CDC changes it’s info like most people change their undergarments – not relying on that info. Yes, jobs were sent to places like China, Economy has been amazing under President Trump in spite of being told by the Obaminator that he would need a magic wand – pretty sure WI received a contract to building Navy frigates, I wonder if that a. saved jobs and/or b. created new jobs. I could go on and on but now I too know who you are, the fact that you believe the main stream media is unbiased and reports actual news in troubling. What do you think about the Hunter Biden laptop – oh right, Russian disinformation. How about how Russia meddled in the election in in 2016 but now our system is flawless, no way the votes could be messed with, even though a number of Dems are invested in the vote counting machines and the manuals actually tell you how to manipulate the numbers not to mention personally identifying information for U.S. voters was sent through Germany, maybe Spain. Nothing suspicious about preventing poll watchers from doing their jobs. Ah the lovely virus – what a handy fortuitous tool. I’d tell you a joke about the virus but it is probably too soon plus there is a 99.7% chance you will not get it. Don’t worry though, there are many people who actually are seeking the truth and we will try to protect you too.
The CDC only changed its opinion based on new information (where it updated it appropriately) and political influence because of White House influence (to relax measures). It was one of the most respected public health organizations in the world in pre-Trumpian times.
Spending tax-payers money on the military doesn’t score many points in “creating jobs.” The military budget is huge and they are always building and repairing things. As a military spouse, I can say that what I’ve experienced was the exact opposite – deep cuts to military health care.
Yes, there was never any information about the Biden laptop. It was PizzaGate. Fox News wouldn’t even run the story originally. The whole thing was an attempt to “But Hillary’s Emails” a made-up scandal that didn’t even involve the Presidential candidate.
The Russian meddling was through social media, not voting machines. There’s a difference. There’s also a reason why Trump, before he was elected, specifically asked Russia to meddle in election with Hillary’s emails. We all saw him call for it on national television. He didn’t ask Luxemborg to do it. Pretty suspicious that Trump always has great things to our national enemy, Putin.
Biden is trying to unite all the States and races of people. Don’t worry, Biden will look after all Americans, just like he did when he was Vice President.
Four years ago at 45 years old I was finishing up my corporate life for good, we were living the hustle of New York City life, and we were still providing daily parenting to our youngest, at the time in high school.
Now I am working for myself, we are walking the beach almost daily living in Florida, and we are empty nesters with our youngest 2 years into college. I’ve also lost about 30 pounds over that time, and as a result some health issues have smoothed out.
We have way less money coming in than before, and although we’ve also significantly downsized our monthly expenses, some financial creativity has been needed to keep things in balance. We still have a ways to go to get to the monthly income that would support our ideal FIRE lifestyle. COVID has hurt some parts of our earning capacity, and significantly cut the amount of travelling we’d like to do.
Better off? Mentally and physically, way better. Financially, perhaps not on the surface, but it depends on how you look at it, and given the flexibility of a slower/beachwalking lifestyle and being our own boss, we are very happy with the tradeoff.