The advice in that article is primo out of touch and humorous. They give statistics that people’s savings and assets are down X amount, and the first advice is save for an emergency. Running out of savings?! Just save more, five head.
I am reminded of that quote along the lines of “it is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life.” I did everything right, and had a more than adequate emergency fund.
But then my house vaporized that emergency fund… and only then did COVID happen and I lost my job twice. So that’s roughly three “holy shit thank god we saved for a rainy day” events in three years.
I’m sure I will be in “just save money” mode some day in the future. Lots of shit left to clean up right now though.
I’m a simple man: I see a Star Trek quote, I upvote
But a man of culture nonetheless!
If you do not already frequent Risa I suggest you join us!
I’m a simple man: I see someone point out the Star Trek quote, I upvote
I’m a simple man: I upvote recursive comment threads.
i
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and only then did COVID happen and I lost my job twice. So that’s roughly three “holy shit thank god we saved for a rainy day” events in three years.
You just explained the last three years of my life. I have no savings left. Period. If anything happens to the car, or either one of us loses our jobs, we’re done. That’s it.
Well, you aren’t “done”. Life continues.
Even when the state conspires against you having shelter from weather when you’re homeless. Life still goes on.
Until it doesnt.
If you stop eating Starbucks and drinking avocado toasts, you will be fine
I love that the guy who penned that gold was one of the world’s richest people, and not that long ago called for increasing unemployment, so that the worker learns his place again.
Ok, yeah! I’ll just set aside the (checks notes) almost nothing I have left after food, rent, utilities, gas, and my exactly two streaming services.
yeah, I’m seeing discretionary spending right there that could be accruing interest instead. and judging by your profile pic I think you know what I’m suggesting.
Aye aye cap’n 🫡
Now ask the CEOs how they’re doing.
Mitch McConnell staring off into space - Good thing Americans had those stimulus checks to live off of for the past 30 months.
Speaking of, where did that money come from?
Did they just print it?
Weird how when it comes to helping the working class, taxing the rich is never an option. But when it comes to helping the ruling class, you can tax the working class and print money.
There is ALWAYS more money available to kill people with. Never so much to help folks with.
Just to add facts to your comment
America spent $8 TRILLION on two wars over 20 years
And just to add lyrics to your facts
You don’t give money to the bums
on a corner with a sign bleeding from their gums
Talking about you don’t support a crackhead
What you think happens to the money from your taxes
Shit the governments an addict
With a billion dollar a week kill brown people habithttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO18F4aKGzQ
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/brotherali/unclesamgoddamn.html
Sorry, have a complicated day ahead and I’m in a goofy mood as I allow myself to finish this coffee before jumping into it.
Hope your complicated day isn’t overwhelming - I appreciate goofy so thanks :)
Just busy and a lot of moving parts. Thanks!
(I swear I didn’t notice your username until after my prior comment!)
Unless those folks are corporations.
See bit corporations aren’t poors, they’re people.
Fun fact: more money was printed during the pandemic than in the history of the US. And 80+% of it went to the top 1%.
I canceled all our streaming services and Amazon prime. I canceled my phone service and opted for a $15/month plan (Mint). I buy a cheap phone, about $70 bucks. I asked my wife to stop buying me snack foods at the grocery store to save ~$50/week. All told I think we are not spending ~$300/month that I can now put towards our cars that are starting to break down. Someone said something about savings but I only cultivate dust and stones there.
Don’t feel like you have to do without just because you’re smart enough not to subscribe!
You can stream pretty much anything for free here: https://fmoviesz.to/
Just make sure you have uBlock Origin installed.
Wonderful resource.
Bookmarked.
Thank you for being a hero
Shhh! Keep it secret, keep it safe
Nah share with everyone.
if your cars are totaled one day, definetely buy a toyota made around 2000-2015. those things are modern but still indestructible. (but definetely don’t cheap out on maintenance, oil is especially important)
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lol cars are really expensive
And basically required if you want to have a job in the US…
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Same. Huge promotion, way more responsibility and stress, annnnnnd I’m just treading water financially.
I got a second degree in computer science to try and get ahead and instead entered the market just in time for hundreds of thousands of layoffs so now I’m stuck making less than I did at my last job meanwhile inflation and rent have increased the cost of living by like 50%.
Edit: oh and suddenly WFH = evil according to every CEO because of their billions of dollars of real-estate investments
Hey now, it’s not just office space investments! It’s also useless middle managers who don’t actually do anything useful but don’t think people working from home do any work because they can’t be stared at to make sure they’re working constantly
Those ‘record corporate profits’ seen since 2020 didn’t manifest in a vacuum.
I found out my wife was pregnant about a week before shit really hit the fan. We were completely prepared, had money saved up and everything.
The covid hit. We both lost our jobs, and unemployment wasn’t nearly enough to cover the bills. I couldn’t find another job anywhere.
We lost everything. Both of my cars got repoed, I get eviction notices every single month because rent is behind. We pulled out credit cards for food because we don’t qualify for assistance.
Slowly, we both got jobs, I got lucky and jumped right back into my career that I love, and we’re still trying to get on our feet. The credit cards are killing us.
Oh, and when our daughter was born, she had to be life flown to another city because she almost passed away (long story). 150k bill. After insurance.
There was an (executive order ?) during covid where you weren’t allowed to receive a large bill from medical emergencies and be required to pay it, if you had insurance.
Have you heard of/looked into this?
They could send a bill, but they would call it ‘an accident’, and then ask if you wanted to pay it out of the kindness of your heart. If you don’t, they just write it off on their books and call it a day.
Source: happened to me
That would be amazing if true. I know it happened to you, but still sounds too good to be true in the US of A.
I wanna say part of the stipulation was that it couldn’t be a surprise bill. Like I had a surgery that the insurance said they would cover 100% after my deductible. I have the surgery, and get bills from every mf in the building that day, basically, 'cause everyone billed individually as contractors in some way. Some contractor nurses they had called in to fill in, the anesthesiologist, supplies used by a doctor, the homeless guy panhandling outside, I forget what else, all billed separately. None of it pre-authorized, and I had already contacted the hospital and my surgeon’s office previously to try to prevent some nonsense like this. Anyway, I called and bargained some of it down, as insurance gets a higher bill, which they passed onto me as it wasn’t pre authorized, then spent months trying to save up to pay this additional burden of debt. I was looking into getting cheap legal counsel 'cause it was gonna be near impossible, it was a struggle, etc. etc. So I called them back one day seeing if I could negotiate further, got transferred a few times, until someone was nice enough to explain to me what I said earlier, and that if I just ignore it, they’ll write it off before the end of the year, but if I could make any kind of payment, as everyone put work in and it leaves “them” high and dry. Just to highlight the gouging, one of my bills before the surgery was over a thousand bucks for some gauze, bandaids, and a cane from my initial emergency visit (also billed separately from the rest of the visit). I saw how much insurance had already paid the surgeon and hospital, and shrugged my shoulders and slept fine that night not giving them another cent. I thanked the Ctulhus for liberals.
Edit: some further advice for the commenter and anyone else, Reddit was a good place to learn tactics on how to negotiate medical debt down, it also gave me a bit of hope, knowing there were plenty of “success” stories. I’ve been able to negotiate other medical bills down by massive percentages.
Moving forward, do you think you will save up more in an emergency fund than you did previously?
I would say yes, but I am drowning in debt now. Always a month behind which brings late fees which makes things harder to keep up on.
Also, pg&e burnt the town next to us entirely down (today is the anniversary!) and their solution to dealing with all the lawsuits, was to raise everyones utility bills. My bill was $50 to $100 before the fire. Last month it was $400. I haven’t been running heat or AC and the app says my energy usage is consistent for my home size.
It’s expensive to be poor.
So, is nobody going to mention the picture of two smiling kayakers chosen to accompany this article?
After buying kayaks with their COVID checks, their outdoor gear addiction has spiraled out of control
They are living out of them.
They are part of the 20%
The kayaks probably survived their chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation. (jk)
I took it as they are going up Shit Stream and are about to lose their paddles. 🤣
Yes, let’s raise rent 40% just as people are financially disadvantaged… That is sustainable.
Rent price coordinator website says I can get $6,922/month for my shed that’s partially submerged, I’ll be fair and ask $6,900/month as that’s a nicer number!
/s
Partially submerged? I think you mean “indoor pool”!
“water included”
“Water feature.” “Lagoon-like layout.”
Not surprising at all.
Corporations made BANK and all the CEOs put it directly into their pockets.
Increasing the money supply didn’t help the poor and instead helped the rich just like every other time we’ve tried that?! I can’t believe it!
Increasing the money supply would have been fine if it had gone into working people’s pockets, infrastructure, jobs, housing, and other productive uses. But yeah, when it’s just pumped into the stock market or funneled through business via PPP then, go figure, the rich get richer while everyone else suffers.
Meanwhile, comparing 2019 with 2023, Elon Musk had an increase in net worth of about 707%. That’s a plus of ca. $157.700.000.000. Yes, that’s 157,7 billion.
1 billionaire is too many billionaires
This is only valid until Dolly Parton becomes a billionaire, then 1 is okay
Dolly would never become a billionaire, she’d give away that money to help people lomg before.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Yeah, I think about this a lot. I tend to think of myself as a good person (making other people happy makes me happy) but if, somehow, I was made Queen of Earth the first thing that would HAVE to happen is I’d need a panel of people who aren’t afraid to tell me “no”. I would absolutely be a dictator otherwise
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Perfect! I’ll take away your rights, and then blame all our problems on the… “others”
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Why stop at their wealth?
As someone pointed out to me, round them all up. Throw in them into an island penal colony and let them all go Lord of the Flies on each other.
My suggestion for improvement, was every once awhile, lob some artillery shells at the island. Can’t let those billionaires get comfortable.
I think the worst punishment for the ruling class is to make them part of the working class.
I guarantee you, most of them would rather kill themselves or others than live like us.
I agree, I was pretty pro-guillotine till that was pointed out to me. Redistribute their wealth and tell them where it’s all going too.
“Congratulations Jeff Bezos, you donated $1.3 billion to various labor organizations.” “Congratulations Richard Branson, you donated $1.21 billion to climate change initiatives.” “Congratulations Warren Buffet, you donated $1.14 billion to support low income people.”
Knowing where their money is going to support society in general will fucking kill them. Each of these shit bags all think that they are needed for civilization. Let’s watch them put that delusion to the test on an island penal colony that gets bombarded with artillery shells every once and awhile.
they do, generally, jump
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It’s rather negligent of the article to ignore inflation on other areas such as basic needs as well such as price gouging for toilet paper, the immediate war with Russia that suddenly caused gas spikes, and the continuing shrinkflation of basic necessities to be considered ‘luxury’. Bread for the fam shouldn’t be considered a luxury.
rather negligent of the article to ignore inflation
Also, while we note that high prices hurt directly, in major ways the Fed’s response to that (it’s been raising interest rates to reduce the money supply) is a major source of the pain associated with the high prices/price gouging we’re calling inflation.
Higher interest rates mean higher mortgage payments (or rent pressure), etc. This way, price gouging leads to higher profits, and if you hold bonds, also higher profits there- while consumers of those things are doubly-fucked
Over here in the, “no fucking shit” category of news…
