And prices are already crashing because no one can afford houses.

Someone tell that to Australia, please.

The stock market is only up because of all that retirement funds

Australia has a scheme known as Superannuation. It is similar to a 401k/ retirement fund. It works like this, you get paid $1k / week, 12% (currently) goes into the markets, so the markets get $120 for every $1k you earn. It is meant to replace the "pension", but really, it just disallows people from making choices about their investments, because you can't opt out of it.

Beyond a threshold, you can self manage the superannuation account, and you're even allowed to invest in crypto using it, so that's a bonus! :) An electrician I used at my old house had all of his superannuation in Cardano. Not sure how that's going for him now.

Cars

I got a 2023 model car towards the tail end of last year (Novemberish) - it was a demo. I paid 32k, its insured for 52k. I found a real great deal :)