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Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#361

Post by jimmyspice »

zozbot123 wrote: post #345
pixl97 wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, no. iPhones hold value for multiple reasons. One of which is they last longer. >This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness

iPhones last five years until they go out of support and can no longer install or update most apps. An Android phone will last at least as much on OTA upgrades and OS support alone, and many of them can be made to last far longer once the OTA upgrades are up, by taking the time to unlock them and install the latest Android version they will run.

Maybe, but a homeless person may not have time for all that fiddling around

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#362

Post by walshemj »

Aeolun wrote: post #259
walshemj wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

guild ? you know that historically they where set up to restrict access

And keep up standards. I personally enjoy the idea of having apprentice, journeyman and master programmers.

All good if your Dad is a Guild Member not so much if your an immigrant for example.

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#363

Post by walshemj »

barry-cotter wrote: post #281
thelasthuman wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to know more, can you elaborate?

They are a snob. There’s loads of good quality food in Aldi or Lidl. Plenty of crap too. Don’t buy the crap.

Not really you recall the adulterated meat scandal we had in the UK - and try tasting cheap orange juice vs the better quality stuff.

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#364

Post by diminoten »

war1025 wrote: post #359
diminoten wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cashback is definitely on the same order of magnitude as a Starbucks habit. False. Starbucks habit is $10/week, or $520/year. A 2% cashback card will return ~$2,000 annually for a family of 4 with a household income of ~$100,000 (the vast majority of HN users). Please stop replying. Thanks.

Assuming your Starbucks habit is daily, you're looking at closer to $30/week, or $1500/year. If you are making $100k a year, your take home pay is probably closer to $70k. Assuming you are financially responsible and saving a decent amount, that means you are spending generously maybe $50k/ year. At 2% cash back, that comes out to $1000/year. Same order of magnitude.

Your numbers are completely wrong, and you are engaging dishonestly, which is in violation of the HN guidelines. Please stop responding to me, you're ruining this discussion.

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#365

Post by sputr »

lr4444lr wrote: post #252
sputr wrote: post #176

Most comments in this thread are about learning to budget/control finances. I would just like to point out what I call "The IT bubble". We all make money here. Most of us make good money. Our social circles are filled with people making money. Most people do not have this privilege. Below a certain threshold there is no such thing as budgeting/finances. It's just survival. You're not gonna budget because you can't sa…

Most of us didn't wind up in IT by random accident though: the prudent behavior of our parents fostered an appreciation of a value system that ultimately leads to life comfort, including the discipline to forego short-term pleasure in order to obtain it. These are educable elements that COULD be instilled in schools if teachers weren't hamstrung by administrators, politicians, and parents allowed to second guess thei…

Unfortunately "just learn to code" which is what I understand your argument boils down to is, in my experience, false. I've mentored many young adults who mostly had zero IT experience and were looking to break into the field to do exactly what you're suggesting. A lot of them succeeded. But a lot of them didn't. And not just because they "were not good/smart/hardworking enough", but because they were people whose personality was incompatible with IT.

IT isn't for everyone nor should it be. What would the world look like if everyone worked in IT? Well our paychecks would be a lot lower for one.

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#366

Post by scarejunba »

jimmyspice wrote: post #361
zozbot123 wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPhones last five years until they go out of support and can no longer install or update most apps. An Android phone will last at least as much on OTA upgrades and OS support alone, and many of them can be made to last far longer once the OTA upgrades are up, by taking the time to unlock them and install the latest Android version they will run.

Maybe, but a homeless person may not have time for all that fiddling around

A homeless person has more time for that. Their time value is lower and so the gain they get from the difference in price between the Android and the iPhone is huge.

They don't care about security updates and all that shit. They don't care about new features. Just not an efficient use of money.

I have an iPad Pro and a MacBook Pro. I only just switched from an iPhone this year. I'm not anti-Apple. But the idea that low-wealth individuals should buy anything but an older Android is ridiculous. I can still use a Nexus 4. It still works.

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#367

Post by nunez »

diminoten wrote: post #145
zeta0134 wrote: post #104

One of the simplest and most effective things I did recently was to split my bank account into two checking accounts, and one savings account. I carry two debit cards with me that are visually distinct. One is for day to day purchases, and the other is meant for bills and the occasional unusual expense, like maybe tools for a surprise home repair. Each time I get paid (every two weeks) I have my employer deposit the…

By not making use of credit cards, you're losing out on thousands of dollars every year.

More importantly, you're losing out on a bunch of protections that you can't get with a debit card alone (price protection, various warranties, chargeback, etc).

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#368

Post by war1025 »

diminoten wrote: post #364
war1025 wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming your Starbucks habit is daily, you're looking at closer to $30/week, or $1500/year. If you are making $100k a year, your take home pay is probably closer to $70k. Assuming you are financially responsible and saving a decent amount, that means you are spending generously maybe $50k/ year. At 2% cash back, that comes out to $1000/year. Same order of magnitude.

Your numbers are completely wrong, and you are engaging dishonestly, which is in violation of the HN guidelines. Please stop responding to me, you're ruining this discussion.

Sorry I hurt your ego.

Those numbers are completely reasonable, and anyone who took half a second to go over them would agree.

Further, at this point the post is old enough that no one besides us is likely to read it. No discussion is being ruined.

I have been engaging in good faith. I have to conclude that you haven't been.

You can reply again to have the last word if that will make you feel better.

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#369

Post by randallsquared »

WalterSear wrote: post #356
randallsquared wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a nuanced statement, but it certainly isn't asinine. It's just the minimum positive effect you can have on the future -- the lowest bar, if you will. You could, with similar effect, make the same statements about bacteria in response to "People should live" or "People should thrive".

In the context more than 75% of black children, and more than half of hispanic children being born out of wedlock, and comparable statistics for all poverty stricken population groups, calling it "the minimum positive effect you can have on the future" is a really an asinine statement. It's not a positive effect. https://cis.org/Camarota/Births-Unmarried-Mothers-Nativity-a...

If you could tell someone with a single parent that they, for that reason, cannot have a positive effect on the future, then I don't think there is any basis for agreement between us on the topic.

Re: Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common

#370

Post by barry-cotter »

walshemj wrote: post #363
barry-cotter wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are a snob. There’s loads of good quality food in Aldi or Lidl. Plenty of crap too. Don’t buy the crap.

Not really you recall the adulterated meat scandal we had in the UK - and try tasting cheap orange juice vs the better quality stuff.

I did not deny there was plenty of crap. Do they have more than one brand of orange juice though? Is one of them good? Do they sell at least some quality products? It’s been a long time since I was last in an Aldi or Lidl but the answer to the second at least was yes. Their bread was great and they had tons of quite good Italian ham, cheese and preserved and condiments that were just not previously available at those price points.
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