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Ask HN: Who needs help this holidays?

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Re: Ask HN: Who needs help this holidays?

#141

Post by Ccecil »

Thank you for doing such a great thing. In my years on HN I have seen things like this come up several times. Offers of jobs, money or just a warm meal. The world will reward you for what you are doing.

In my case...things are difficult but not impossible. Month to month is an understatement and through the last 5 years it has become more and more painful but there is still hope.

I personally don't want anything to be given/gifted to me but if everyone could do a favor to all those who are struggling. It won't take long...

All I request is that this holiday season everyone thinks hard about what they have and how they got there. Remember all those who helped you...and those who did not receive the same.

Review your investment portfolio and think about the effects of where you put your money. Are your investments furthering poverty for others? Is there a way to rearrange your portfolio in a way that not only increases your wealth but also helps others?

Giving is good...helping those who are in poverty is important. Preventing people from getting to poverty in the first place seems like a more effective way of preventing homelessness.

Fix the small problems while they are still small.

https://www.egreenway.com/taoism/ttclz63.htm

Re: Ask HN: Who needs help this holidays?

#142

Post by Pako »

maxolotl wrote: post #91
Pako wrote: post #86

Not sure if this fits but compsci student from Germany here. Ever since I was unceremoneously kicked out of my parents' house after graduating from HS I've lived in a student dorm, now sharing a flat with a friend splitting rent. Been somewhat "cruising along" financially in the sense that I gained roughly enough to pay my monthly expenses with not much wiggle room. Had to go a bit into debt to fund moving into the d…

10-year lurker, first time poster here - also studied CS in Germany. Healthcare costs: Does your uni or city offer free legal consultation? They might be able to help with how to ask your health insurance for monthly rates or a delay in bills. Rent: How close are you with your friend? Would it be a possibility that they temporarily loan the rent, so that you can cover your unexpected bills? Work: How close are you to…

Thanks a lot for the reply!

I am not aware of any such consultation offerings but I will investigate if that is an option, thanks for pointing this out.

After consulting her fortunately that is most likely an option, we have a buffer on our shared account to pay rent for ~3 more months but I'd just be shifting the debt to a place that wants it back less urgently, I still have to figure out how to get the extra income to make it happen.

I am about halfway through the required modules to start my bachelor's thesis so I still have a bit to go; The biggest problem is that I have a bunch of failed exams resulting from a multitude of things (both psychological because of the pandemic, idealistic because of some sketchy privacy practices, and very bad sleep causing me to _oversleep_ on exams). This is hard to explain to anyone asking, which happened to me before while I tried to apply for a job.

The course I study has requirements for how many credit points you need at the end of certain semesters to be allowed to continue studying, which I fear I will not reach if I lessen the uni load to focus more on earning enough to pay my bills.

I do have years of hobby-level programming in a multitude of different languages and environments, some of it going as far as almost being "professional" (I was paid on a few occassions to develop custom web solutions) and having contributed to a charity project centered around Minecraft a few years ago. I am unsure how to present any of this and if it actually matters at all, outside of just linking my GitHub profile. The same goes for my Scrum Master certificate, it feels a bit wasted after I found out how little people actually care about it.

I wish I could utilize a network to look for solutions, but outside of my siblings and that flatmate I don't really have any contacts (there wasn't much social interaction during the covid semesters and I never recovered from that). Especially none who would be working at places that'd look for someone like me.

Re: Ask HN: Who needs help this holidays?

#143

Post by PhantomLink29 »

I have never asked for hand-outs like this, but a friend of mine said I should post here. I just finished paying off years of medical debt over the summer, and quit working temporarily to travel halfway across the U.S. to help my cousin cope with her mother dying suddenly. I chanced it without getting private insurance during this short time in my life.

After returning to my hometown, I was suddenly hit overnight with crippling medical debt that I cannot even begin to pay as I have run out of funds from paying off other bills. I was debt-free for almost one day. In less than 24 hours, I fell into about $31,000 of debt and don't even know where to begin paying this off, due to an emergency surgery to remove a kidney stone.

Even if it's just a small amount to make one payment to keep the bills out of collections, anything helps.

Re: Ask HN: Who needs help this holidays?

#144

Post by Beijinger »

neilk wrote: post #110
Beijinger wrote: post #82

What an incredibly great man you are. My buddy Travis in Vancouver needs help. But I have no idea how to reach him. Seems not to access his Facebook profile anymore. Supposedly he lives on the streets.

If you mean Vancouver, Canada, that’s where I live. A friend of mine used to work with a social service agency. He might know where I could put up flyers or something. It is common to see these sorts of things just pasted up on lampposts, too. Do you have a picture? Other details? Email me at the address in my profile if you want to be more private.

Please check your keybase

Re: Ask HN: Who needs help this holidays?

#145

Post by quickthrower2 »

qingcharles wrote: post #116
quickthrower2 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WTF. Ten years locked up without trial, isn't that unconstitutional?

Sadly nothing in the constitution limits the length of pretrial incarceration. I don't understand the full constitutional implications of the those in Guantanamo, but that issue probably had something to do with why their detention was allowed to continue for so long. I've known several people who managed over 11 years in the Cook County Jail. I did 8 years and 1 month in jail, then 11 months on house arrest, then an…

So I guess the right to a speedy trial only violated if the prosecution delay the trial for no good reason, but if the whole system is under resourced it doesn’t count?

Re: Ask HN: Who needs help this holidays?

#147

Post by hypercube33 »

Ccecil wrote: post #141

Thank you for doing such a great thing. In my years on HN I have seen things like this come up several times. Offers of jobs, money or just a warm meal. The world will reward you for what you are doing. In my case...things are difficult but not impossible. Month to month is an understatement and through the last 5 years it has become more and more painful but there is still hope. I personally don't want anything to b…

I never thought about investments being able to help people - if you are talking about stocks or something do you have examples? I'm generally curious. I only have a pitiful retirement account but if indeed that is what you're suggesting I'm all for it.

That all said - my wife and I have been extremely poor before to the point of digging in the couch for enough cash to split a dollar burger for dinner and hoping the fumes in my car get me to work until my check shows up that week due to medical expenses. I really have my heart warmed for everyone on here helping others out. Even if it's just spending time with friends who have no one else you can make someone's 2023.

Re: Ask HN: Who needs help this holidays?

#148

Post by spacebanana7 »

ketanmaheshwari wrote: post #121

This will sound like a non-problem compared to some of the other posts here. Please forgive me if so. This is about scam calls on my cell phone. I have received over 30 spam calls every single working day in the last six months. My phone has become completely useless outside of 3-4 apps because I had to mute all notifications. Initially, I tried to block and report those calls but soon gave up because there were just…

I recommend setting a silent ringtone by default and then manually setting ordinary ringtones for your contacts.

Alternatively, if you’re on iOS, there seems to be a setting that automatically does this at:

Settings > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers: Set this to ON.

Re: Ask HN: Who needs help this holidays?

#149

Post by hypercube33 »

ketanmaheshwari wrote: post #121

This will sound like a non-problem compared to some of the other posts here. Please forgive me if so. This is about scam calls on my cell phone. I have received over 30 spam calls every single working day in the last six months. My phone has become completely useless outside of 3-4 apps because I had to mute all notifications. Initially, I tried to block and report those calls but soon gave up because there were just…

My parents went through the same thing. You should be able to go to your carrier and get a new phone number and if they push back explain why. My mom was being threatened over the phone by debt collectors daily at all hours of the day for the previous numbers owner so I feel you. It sucks getting a new number but sounds like it's the best action to take. Make sure you're cautious about handing it out online but I don't even know anymore if that has any real bearing on spam calls these days.

Re: Ask HN: Who needs help this holidays?

#150

Post by hypercube33 »

UncleEntity wrote: post #137
teddysc wrote: post #97

Thank you Alexander! I'm a graduate student in the US, I need some major dental procedures done but am put off by the potential bills (even with a good dental insurance, it would still cost thousands of dollars; a lot of dark patterns, they can't give you a rough quote before doing an expensive checkup). I did some research myself on where to find more affordable quality dental care in my area, and found that a top d…

> ...and found that a top dental school nearby would offer care from students at a lower rate, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea. My parents have been doing that for years at the dental college down the street from their house and have nothing but good things to say. Same college also does eye doctoring and they also go there for that. IIRC, the format is a newer and more experienced student work on them while a…

Just tagging along on this but colleges and universities sometimes have the following that are awesome and usually extremely affordable if you're low wage: - auto repair - dental - medical
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