I'm not poor and make decent money. The terrible portion of the situation is that any increase in pay is eaten up at a faster rate by inflation, mainly housing costs. My wife is so deflated lately feeling that we are never going to own. We just got notice that the home we are currently renting is not renewing the lease which is ending in 2 months likely due to owners wanting to sell. Problem for us is that moving cost money, our discretionary income is zilch due to inflation/standard cost of raising family, and rental prices are up about 10-15% just since we last started our lease 2 years ago. Our situation has the air of hopeless feeling like there's no reasonable path forward to real financial stability and eventual personal wealth. I just keeping holding on to hope that my IRA and 401(k) contributions will mean something eventually in retirement, even if we can't enjoy life now.