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The cost of hand-to-mouth living

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Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#121

Post by Camillo »

incision wrote: post #71
gruseom wrote: post #2

Walmart's CEO talked about this a few years ago—how crowded their stores get around midnight on the last day of the month, because that's when people's payments clear: about 11 p.m., customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket with basic items, baby formula, milk, bread, eggs, and continue to shop and mill about the store until midnight, when electronic — government electronic benefits cards get ac…

That was me growing up. I'd go out since my mother had to get up at 5:00. That card allowed us to scrape by during some very rough times. I hate to think where we'd have ended up without it. I'm glad to see a little sympathetic light being shown on this. It always irritates me a bit to hear these programs and the people they help derided politically. Today, I pay far more in taxes each month than my entire family con…

Are you taking inflation into account?

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#122

Post by incision »

Camillo wrote: post #121
incision wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was me growing up. I'd go out since my mother had to get up at 5:00. That card allowed us to scrape by during some very rough times. I hate to think where we'd have ended up without it. I'm glad to see a little sympathetic light being shown on this. It always irritates me a bit to hear these programs and the people they help derided politically. Today, I pay far more in taxes each month than my entire family con…

Are you taking inflation into account?

Yes, if this calculator [1] is any reasonable approximation.

1: http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#123

Post by hso9791 »

1123581321 wrote: post #6
alxp wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obligatory Vimes quote: The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Thos…

Similarly it's expensive to be disorganized. I have hesitated in the past to buy a quality fall/winter jacket because the risk was too high that I would lose it. I cleaned out some boxes recently and found three low-quality sets of Allen wrenches. If I had bought a nice set, I probably would just have been out more money when I lost them anyway.

Not to mention the cost in time.

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#124

Post by dllthomas »

AlexeiSadeski wrote: post #87
scarmig wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Health insurance is a similar situation. Once you've saved up a decent amount, it makes much more sense to go with a very high deductible plan. Sure, you might lose 10k in one year through some disaster, but on average you'll pay much less than that, such that it's cheaper to forgo insurance for everyday health expenses. If you're poor, though, having to spend 10k out of pocket will throw you into a spiral of debt, b…

It makes sense to go high deductible no matter what your income is. It costs less to pay interest and principle on your $10k disaster deductible than it does to pay $2k/year extra on low deductible health insurance. Insurance is a tax on people who are bad at math.

This is complicated somewhat by tax law. Your company paying for the more expensive plan is paying it out of pre-tax money, whereas your deductible (up to a point) is paid out of post-tax money (unless it comes out of an FSA, but those being "use it or lose it", one should be careful not to over-fund, so they aren't a good match for paying unexpected deductibles).

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#125

Post by Paul_D_Santana »

hispanic wrote: post #120
patio11 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Networking events are generally not the best place to meet people with business problems -- they tend to attract a bit more of an aspirational audience. Business owners with budget congregate in predictable places: conferences for their industry, their own offices, locally organized meetups, the Chamber of Commerce, etc etc. If you absolutely can't find an appropriate event, throw one yourself. I'm totally serious. T…

Patrick's (patio11's) advice is really the advice you should be following. However, I can easily imagine how daunting those steps must sound. (Rent a room? Stage an event? Get up and talk? Woah.) I hate to think of that paralyzing you from trying something different. So, an alternative (though not necessarily better) option I suggest is, at the networking events you attend, look for someone to learn from. Look for so…

Thank you for your advice. +1. I put my personal contact information in my profile for the entirety of the internet to see. I wonder who the heck is going to call me? Well, there it is.

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#126

Post by hispanic »

Paul_D_Santana wrote: post #125
hispanic wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Patrick's (patio11's) advice is really the advice you should be following. However, I can easily imagine how daunting those steps must sound. (Rent a room? Stage an event? Get up and talk? Woah.) I hate to think of that paralyzing you from trying something different. So, an alternative (though not necessarily better) option I suggest is, at the networking events you attend, look for someone to learn from. Look for so…

Thank you for your advice. +1. I put my personal contact information in my profile for the entirety of the internet to see. I wonder who the heck is going to call me? Well, there it is.

No problem. And thanks for helping me discover http://hnnotify.com

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#127

Post by Paul_D_Santana »

hispanic wrote: post #126
Paul_D_Santana wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for your advice. +1. I put my personal contact information in my profile for the entirety of the internet to see. I wonder who the heck is going to call me? Well, there it is.

No problem. And thanks for helping me discover http://hnnotify.com

You're welcome! I love HN Notify. It's funny but I saw it off of someone else's profile too! Email notification for HN is definitely awesome. I wish someone made one to give +1 upvote notification too.
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