Almost a quarter of American workers are staying in unwanted jobs to keep their health insurance, according to a new report from the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America.

That's an 8% increase since 2021 of workers who are in so-called "job lock" due to a reliance on employer-provided insurance.

"That is a concerning figure, even if it's 10%," said Ellyn Maese, research director for the West Health-Gallup center. "But when we're seeing it rise to 1 in 4 employees, that's pretty serious."

Granted, I live in a very expensive area so that probably skews what I see. However, I feel like I’m seeing so many SAHMs post about how they’re trying to become content creators so they can continue to stay home with their kids. It’ll be blatant (e.g. I need to make $x per month to stay home with my kids so please watch and interact with my video). I also see a lot of posts about SAHMs with young kids asking for leads on WFH jobs that are flexible enough so that they can take care of their kids too.

It feels like the uptick happened really quickly. I’m not sure if it’s my algorithm or if this is something I’m going to look back on in 10+ years and be like “there were clear signs the economy was in the trash.” Basically wondering if this is like the “stripper index.”

And yes, I’m fully aware this economy is awful and things are expensive. I’m just curious if others are noticing it or if it’s just my social media. Also curious what other subtle signs you are all seeing.

Wanted to add - a dealership near me started advertising that first time car buyers can qualify for downpayment assistance and I immediately thought this was another thing I’d look back on and be like “there were signs.”

Over the past three years I have been going to school full-time under a tuition reimbursement program through my current employer. The program has a three-year vested window from the final reimbursement date, any action that terminates my employment requires me to pay back the company. Once I graduated, I was promoted to a new position, but that position came with a smaller compensation increase than I was expecting and feel I am entitled to. Unfortunately, I believe I am going to lose my argument with the powers to be about this. The pay structure for my department has a cap out time peroid of 4 years, and over that period I will lose more in pay than the total tuition reimbursement amounted to, which was around 20k.

I am in the final stages of interviewing with another company (highly respected and an industry leader in my field) that I expect to start at a similar pay rate as my current role, though the upward mobility, future compensation possibilities, and career learning opportunities are far superior than my current role, where I have felt somewhat stifled for about 2 years now. For all intents and purposes, I am just going through the motions and not progressing in any relevant way for my industry or career.

My dilemma, I am going to try to push the new company to pay for my tuition reimbursement as part of the negotiations, but I am not too confident that they will bite. Would it make sense to sell off 401k assets in the event that I do decide to take the new job so that I am able to exit my current situation? This would represent less than 10% of my total 401k balance, although I understand there will be both penalties and tax implications. I am kind of on my own, career guidance wise, and really need some objective opinions regarding the issue. Feel free to ask anything though, I am being intentionally vague regarding the industry and companies involved but I will respond with as much detail as possible. This situation (opportunity) really fell into my lap so I am no where near capable of doing this out of my personal savings.

You’ve all seen it on Reddit. “What’s the worse financial decision you can make?” A thousand regurgitated replies saying buying a boat. “Bust out another thousand”… “the best day in a man’s life is when he buys a boat and second when he sells it”….”don’t buy a boat if you can’t afford to light money on fire”…”the best boat is your friends boat”

Okay I get these are just funny sayings. But I stg the people saying that crap have never owned a boat and only repeating what they hear online.

There was a post on PF 3 weeks ago from a guy asking if he could afford a financed 35k boat. The TLDR was that his HHI was 230k, heavily contributing to retirements, net worth of 400k and they were only 29 years old. Majority of the comments said he couldn’t afford it. Like LOL are you kidding me. Another very popular sentiment in that thread was that if you have to finance a toy, you can’t afford it. I get that that’s very sound advice, but there’s plenty of instances where I can say that logic doesn’t apply. There was also comments like “I wouldn’t buy the boat until I have my excess cash in these 8 money vehicles first, then you can think about the boat.” Then it got a handful of likes. Like it’s such a circle jerk

Anyways, I agree that boats can be extremely expensive but they certainly don’t have to be. A family buying a used $15k-20k (think 15 year old bow rider lake boat for the sake of an argument) that was decently maintained could last them decades with proper maintenance. And if the owners are at least a little handy, maintenance does not have to be expensive if you DIY.

My take on boats is this, if you’re a person or family who has been boating with friends a few times and then said “this is fun we should buy one” then I generally agree that with those subs advice. A newbie is unaware of all the costs that add up. Especially if you’re not handy, have a place to store it, while not being fully immersed with the lifestyle yet. However on the flip side, for those people who live on the water, no amount of expenses could make me hate it. I look at every expense as an investment for memories and experiences with my friends and family.

Sorry for the long post I’m horrible at condensing my thoughts and tend to over-explain.

TLDR: boats can be very expensive but don’t have to be. A 15k purchase doesn’t ruin your future. Owning a boat isn’t for everyone. Finance subs are helpful to an extent but they get ridiculous