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In Reply to: RE: Never mind... the inflation is just 1.5% posted by tweaker456 on July 17, 2021 at 06:39:56
Inflation is not the issue. Choosing to live where you can't or can barely afford is. Tomatoes are in-season here--and dirt cheap for locally-grown.
"So I talk to the night, I head for the light, try and hold it on the road. Thank God for the man who put
the white lines on the highway"--a very dear friend for decades Michael Stanley (Gee)--RIP
Follow Ups:
I must move to Ohio and freeze my ass off to get cheap tomatoes. Great. Do they have any taste? I, from this day on have officially given up on buying tomatoes. Tomato paste is full of lycopene and potassium. Tomatoes are designed not to break when they fall of of trucks. There's a whole book on the subject of how tomatoes have been ruined.
"The loaded carry does more to expand athletic qualities than any other single thing I've attempted in my career as a coach and athlete. And I do not say that lightly." Dan John
...and you wouldn't really be freezing your ass off--it's only really cold a few months out of the year.
Have you ever just got up in the morning, grabbed a cup of coffee (from the kitchen, not the drive-thru) walked out onto the porch out back wearing nothing but boxers and took-in the view of the landscape?--walked out to the stables and let the critters out into the paddock?
You really don't HAVE to live in a shoe-box with annoying neighbors. You CHOOSE to. I've done the "urban living" thing when I lived in DC for a few years (and even then, I was smart enough to BUY a brownstone). It was a great experience, but expensive, and I'd have never wanted to start a family or raise my girls there.
"So I talk to the night, I head for the light, try and hold it on the road. Thank God for the man who put
the white lines on the highway"--a very dear friend for decades Michael Stanley (Gee)--RIP
I literally would not be caught dead in boxers! The devil wouldn't let me in wearing them.
"The loaded carry does more to expand athletic qualities than any other single thing I've attempted in my career as a coach and athlete. And I do not say that lightly." Dan John
My tomatoes were all done three weeks ago.
Not a very good crop this year. The weather in May f'd me up with tomatoes this year. Rained 19 days out that month, and cloudy for the rest of the month. Being perpetually wet for a month invited the blight. Ended up getting 72# this year. By comparison to last I took 107#. The two varieties I plant are very resistant to blight, but a solid month of wet and very little sunshine overwhelmed their resistance.
Onions and leeks, on the other hand, did very well. So a mixed bag for gardening this year.
Another issue with barely being able to pay rent or a house note is not being able to save or invest for retirement. Hoping SS will cover living expenses for 20 or so years of retirement is a disaster waiting to happen. I understand young people living check to check, but somewhere during a 30-40 year working life, you would think that they would wake up.
People waking up. Nice concept 2000.
"The loaded carry does more to expand athletic qualities than any other single thing I've attempted in my career as a coach and athlete. And I do not say that lightly." Dan John
"Waking up" was irrelevant. I had a mortgage, two kids, no steady work. I was economic cannon fodder in the first round of de-industrialization. Took it up the ass so that a lot of rich guys could get even richer. Bigger yacht, more exclusive golf club, that sort of thing.
I've been lectured again and again and again, if I had just taken $5,000 and invested in the NASDAQ in 1986, I'd be sitting pretty. But if I had $5 left when payday rolled around, that was a good two-weeks. And of course, not only would I have needed money I never had, I'd also have needed to be clairvoyant.
Today, on top of the mortgage--if they can even afford one--young people have student loan debt. They need four years of college just to make about what I earned in 1981 adjusted for inflation, natch. Both parents have to work, which means daycare, which costs nearly as much as another mortgage.
"Waking up" in this case means living with your parents until they die and (hopefully) inheriting the house, never get married, never have kids, never go on vacation. In another few years, you'll be able to add "never buy a car" to that list. Or maybe they should wake up and start voting their own pocketbooks instead of cultural bullshit that doesn't put food on the table.
You want average people to save for their own retirement, that's what it's going to take.
If you want to fix housing, it has to be done on the local level where zoning laws are written to keep housing at a premium.
The problem is not that there is evil in the world, the problem is that there is good. Because otherwise, who would care?
Edits: 07/17/21
I was in the same place Ghost, mortgage, two kids, but when the real estate agent told my wife how much house we could afford, I had to disappoint her a little and said no we can't. We bought a house we could comfortably afford. We drove inexpensive vehicles. I've never had a Starbucks coffee that my co-workers came into work with daily. I saved a small amount from each check and invested it in relatively safe investments.
My advice would be to younger people to set themselves up for success and not depend on the government. Depending on the government will lead to disappointment.
You are where you are at this point. You don't need any advise from me.
I'm with you on the coffee and inexpensive cars. I get a perfectly good cup of coffee at McDonald's for a buck. A block away in Safeway people are paying like $4.50 for a cup of coffee. People won't delay gratification and are not educated about what these unnecessary extravagances can and do add up to 30 years later. Driving a used Toyota instead of a BMW and getting a regular coffee instead of a latte is not great hardship IMO. I wonder how many people who called me cheap are old with no money right about now. Let's see. Say they saved $10 a week on coffee for 30 years. That's 5.20 x 30= 15,600. Put in every month is a stock ETF it it could be 75-120K. And that's just coffee...
"The loaded carry does more to expand athletic qualities than any other single thing I've attempted in my career as a coach and athlete. And I do not say that lightly." Dan John
In college I had a girlfriend with a wealthy uncle. He had worked his way up the ranks to a well paying job, but lived very modestly. I'll never forget a story he told me once. He said "when break time came, and everybody was buying Cokes and candy, I just got a drink of water and went on."
Then there's Steve Forbes who inherited as much as 440 million dollars and was shocked a while back that McDonald's had to pay a whole $8 an hour.
"The loaded carry does more to expand athletic qualities than any other single thing I've attempted in my career as a coach and athlete. And I do not say that lightly." Dan John
It wasn't until afterwards that a bunch of big shot executives pulled their strings, made themselves richer and left me high and dry. We went from fine, just fine, to not enough money to cover the bills in the space of six months.
After nearly 5 years of on and off part time work, I got what looked like a new career but lost that job because I didn't go to the right church.
And you think depending on the government will lead to disappointment?
While we're on the subject, don't think for one minute that people who invest their way to retirement aren't just as dependent on government as any SS recipient.
The problem is not that there is evil in the world, the problem is that there is good. Because otherwise, who would care?
Edits: 07/17/21 07/17/21
I went through several job losses and screwings as well. I don't think we are unique. I was unemployed for around a year and a half. Our savings were being drained. I did shit work to reduce the bleeding. I eventually got another decent job. That fizzled. I got another job. I never considered that the government was going to save me.
The private sector sure as hell won't.
You were out of work for a year and a half? Collect unemployment? Where do you think that came from?
Government is saving you right now. It doesn't matter if it's a Social Security check or a tax deferred saving plan. Government makes it possible. No government, nobody except the wealthiest people will ever live to enjoy retirement.
If you had to rely on the tech sector or the energy sector or the pharmaceutical sector, you'd have been turned into Soylent Green long ago.
The problem is not that there is evil in the world, the problem is that there is good. Because otherwise, who would care?
I never collected unemployment in my life. I found a crappy job to help me get to the next real job.
Tax deferred or after tax savings both work. So thank you government for letting me save some money and not taking it all. I paid into SS for 40 years. Some don't live to recover what they paid in and some live to receive more. It's kind of like a insurance. If the government hadn't taken SS taxes out of my pay, I would have had more to contribute to my 401K. Money in a retirement account doesn't get reduced or go away when you die.
What I'm selling that you aren't buying, is that it's much better to take care of yourself and not depend on some entity, program or whatever.
"What I'm selling that you aren't buying, is that it's much better to take care of yourself and not depend on some entity, program or whatever.)"
What you say is impossible. Everyone has to depend on some entities, programs and whatevers. Like a job, like government roads, like government student loans for people to become doctors and scientists so we can have our lives saved when we end up in the hospital with critical disease,like people who risk their lives in the desert to do stoop labor so we can have food to put on our families................................... ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
"The loaded carry does more to expand athletic qualities than any other single thing I've attempted in my career as a coach and athlete. And I do not say that lightly." Dan John
Here you go again Tweaker. I understand that the government provides some things that we all depend on. Thank you government. If you were happy with what your government provides, then you wouldn't be bitching. My point is that if you need something beyond the side walks, roads, bridges, and people fighting on your behalf, then it's up to you to make it happen.
All I ever wanted was to have the government tax rich people and lay in bed while being served gourmet bon bons 24/7 by government paid for servants. Don't think that's too much to ask for.
"The loaded carry does more to expand athletic qualities than any other single thing I've attempted in my career as a coach and athlete. And I do not say that lightly." Dan John
"It's kind of like a insurance." SS isn't kind of like insurance, it is insurance.
"The loaded carry does more to expand athletic qualities than any other single thing I've attempted in my career as a coach and athlete. And I do not say that lightly." Dan John
If government behaved the way it did pre-New Deal, you'd have likely died in your 40s and penniless.
Are your going to try to tell me the value of your retirement account didn't go down after the 2008 crash? If it's recovered its full value and more since then, it's because of G-O-V-E-R-N-M-E-N-T. The investment banks that tanked the economy would have simply taken your money and left you with nothing.
My parents both collected Social Security and it was never reduced. I don't know of anybody who ever had their Social Security reduced.
Private sector employers, on the other hand, renege on pension guarantees all the time.
The truth is that you owner of your own retirement, are every bit as dependent on government as me, pensioner and SS recipient. We both need government to protect our existences. The difference between us that I'm honest about it and feel no guilt about it.
BTW, those UC benefits? They exist as an economic stabilizer. They pay to workers so that workers can continue to buy things and keep other people--who think they built everything themselves--from going under.
And BTW II--you want to keep markets fat and happy, then you better keep SS recipients happy, too. Because without our spending power, you ain't got much of an economy left.
The problem is not that there is evil in the world, the problem is that there is good. Because otherwise, who would care?
Edits: 07/17/21 07/17/21 07/17/21
And the government then makes good on the broken promises.
"Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people. "
― W.C. Fields
SS gets reduced when you die. If you single, it goes to nothing. If you are married, it gets reduced to half and goes to the wife or under aged kids. If you die and leave cash in the bank or an account, the government doesn't come in and scoop all or half of it. It all goes to the wife.
I have no control over anything that happens after I'm dead. My stepfather thought the same way you do, planned meticulously for my mom after he died and it all went to shit anyway. The investments ended up being worthless.
My wife gets her own SS plus my survivor benefit and her pension and my survivor benefit from my pension and my life insurance and the money we have in the bank. And she won't have me blowing dough on LPs and model cars. She'll be just fine.
OTOH, if government hadn't created your retirement plan, where would you be? If government didn't insure your deposits, you couldn't even trust your own money. You think a savings account would be safe if there were no deposit insurance? Take a look at what happened before FDR took office.
If the Bush and Obama Administrations and the Federal Reserve hadn't bailed out Wall Street after 2008, where would your retirement fund be?
What I'm selling and you're not getting is, you think you depend on yourself but you're just as dependent on government as I am. As we all are.
Even Jeff Bezos wouldn't have made his money if the government hadn't created the internet.
The problem is not that there is evil in the world, the problem is that there is good. Because otherwise, who would care?
I understand the government provides services, and we pay taxes for those services. The rest is up to us. I'm good with that. You never hear me complaining.
FDR was a commie and Bezos has a giant pair (of boot straps) to pull on. Get with the program ghostie.
"The loaded carry does more to expand athletic qualities than any other single thing I've attempted in my career as a coach and athlete. And I do not say that lightly." Dan John
"While we're on the subject, don't think for one minute that people who invest their way to retirement aren't just as dependent on government as any SS recipient." Very good and interesting point ghost. I fully admit I completely dropped the ball on proper investing and many times almost beg for young people to invest over a very long time and to start investing for their kid on day one. The government does allow for this system to exist and in recent times has kept interest rates at historic lows so as to result in unrepresented expansion of stock wealth or prices...
"The loaded carry does more to expand athletic qualities than any other single thing I've attempted in my career as a coach and athlete. And I do not say that lightly." Dan John
Hell, the 401(k) was created by act of Congress.
And don't forget the most important factor of all, which is propping up financial markets. It's always the No. 1 priority any time there's a downturn. Take care of shareholders first and only after that is any little thing done for the workers who are always the first to suffer.
The problem is not that there is evil in the world, the problem is that there is good. Because otherwise, who would care?
In retirement I met a young man at my part time job with a wonderful wife and two kids. He was barely scraping by; the kids healthcare was only by the grace of Medicaid.
He was a clever fellow though, always solving problems and remaining cheerful. One day he came to me and an also retired part-timer and talked about the railroad hiring and what did we think. We thought he should interview and sit for the exam and loaned him the money to travel back and forth to the capital.
He was hired. Now he's a union member with incredible benefits and a stable future.
We don't hear many stories like that because they "don't sell newspapers" but every now and then there's a reference to jobs going unfilled, especially in IT and HR. Instead, we get a daily diet of how it's a shame that highly educated, risk taking CEO's make an average of 1,000 times the pay of their uneducated, unmotivated cashiers and box fillers.
There's no virtue in being old,
it just takes a long time
way to explain it is to realize that in some societies a worker gets a fairer share of the scheme (all economic systems are such, of course) and in others he doesn't. Same work, different pay. Over time, the GINI correlates to upward mobility. The US is ridiculously poor in the mobility index. I'd say that's a pretty good indicator of our relative lack of freedom. I'd say the most free societies are the ones that don't continually have to harp on it, to brag about it, to feel a gun is critical to feeling "free."
"Union" and "member."
At least one, maybe two entire generations have grown up believing that unions steal from working people, give them nothing in return.
But it goes beyond CEO pay. There are so many things government should be doing on behalf of regular people that don't require increasing taxes on rich people. We've essentially got an oligopoly and it costs us all thousands of dollars every year. For example, just regulating telecoms would save the average family a ton of dough. Name another industry outside of health care where you don't know how much the service costs until you get the bill.
The problem is not that there is evil in the world, the problem is that there is good. Because otherwise, who would care?
Edits: 07/17/21
There's no virtue in being old,
it just takes a long time
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