A man describes how rising interest rates and inflation have squeezed budgets that once felt secure. Someone who had 1,500 dollars left each month watched that disappear when rates jumped from 1% to 6%, forcing cutbacks that ripple through sleep, health, and family time.
From 1% to 6%.
About "one and a half grand" (≈ 1,500).
With the cost of living. You know, I speak to a lot of people that are affected by interest rates, and I saw some men who, I said on a interview a while ago, they might have a nice house, nice car, decent job and a decent salary. And they had one and a half grand left over each month whilst their bills were paid. And then suddenly interest rates go from 1 to 6%, and depending on what their repayments are. Have you suddenly, maybe a lot of that money is now wiped out. And even if it wasn't, the increase in food and energy and travel and everything else has meant that they've gone from being kind of fairly affluent and comfortable to suddenly thinking, we can't afford that now, or we have to rein things in. You're juggling money as well as your time, your energy, your mind, sometimes your sleep, your health, your fitness, your family.
