I am much older than you, Chel, and have come to this lesson very late in life. Actually, forced to. Covid turned my 50+ hour a week job to 25 hours. Now, I am facing retirement and everything is going up in price. This year, my home insurance more than doubled, my car insurance went up 80%, and the insurance for our HOA, a cost passed on to the homeowners in our community, increased 200%. Our utility company is increasing rates in November. All the plumbing in our house was replaced in May due to a slab leak. Cost: $10,000. We can barely survive on my husband retirement and my income from working 25 hours a week. I don't know how we will manage when I'm retired.

The only costs over which I have control are food and personal items. My husband and I have many diet restrictions, so food cannot be manipulated much. I'm cutting any personal items that aren't absolutely needed, but that's not much savings. I wish I had done a better job of saving and planning when I was younger. Too late now. I hope others learn from your article before it's too late for them.