I remembered the days when papers aren't bleak and it was pretty much a mix of being hopeful but also the world has gone to shit kinda thing. I loved the papers then but these days, anything written is mostly too fast and quite reactionary. Maybe that's what gets the click? I definitely prefer the papers back in the day with more thorough journalism.
Meanwhile, health insurance goes up every year, all medication is expensive even paracetamol which used to be cheap as can be back in the days, tax has increased a lot now that the starter discounts belong to the past and I often feel like we should eat more budget stuff a few days a week to compensate so that I can add more to savings again.
Omg same here! when you're self-employed, it can create a lil burden too. I just hope ours don't go that high since health insurance saved my family 😂 otherwise we'd be living on the streets without them. I can't really sacrifice the food I mean, we have to eat quality stuff especially these days just to avoid being more sick. Anyhow no worries about dumping your brain here, it's a safe playground for brain dumping 😁
I agree, I used to enjoy reading the papers.. I never had a membership but usually I had a job where they had the daily papers or my in-laws had them.. It was enjoyable to read during the breaks rather than being glued to the phone like many of us are nowadays.
The health insurance is sadly not just the private one but also the social security which is mandatory when you're self employed, soon I will work in my boyfriend's company and now I don't pay this but then he will have to start paying it for me. His social security was just 60 euros the first year, it's already above 300 now, later mine is added which probably has discount the first period, but still. It's all on top of the 200 euros private insurance we also have.
I never paid this much but in these days, after so many bad experiences in public health in several countries, I'm very grateful that we can afford the private one, even though my daughter never goes to a doctor so it's wasted money. I'm pretty sure that when I decide to stop it, I will regret it because something happens.
Paying for peace of mind, knowing that you don't have to sit in a waiting room for 6 hours to see the first doctor is nice too. We've all done it, years and years in a row, lol.
The only upside of the social security is that it's not just having access to public healthcare but also means you pay for pension for later.. Although I wonder if these last decades for us will even mean something in those years. My plan is to make sure we got this sorted ourselves at some point. But, step by step, lol.