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I live in a high COL area and honestly, we can live here because we've been here for a couple generations and bought some houses a long time ago. The family is small, we've stayed close, we've lived together, we've lived simply, we don't have anything outlandish, and were fortunate to have a few professional jobs with high salaries in the mix.
I was kidding about the wife stereotype. Please don't take offense. I saw the opportunity and couldn't resist. I don't frequent bars or clubs. I don't even drink.
Eh, you were right the first time. Speaking for myself, I spend more when I am in a relationship, I would imagine that is the case for all guys.
That's what I was thinking. It is frustrating that the offer was so low considering the responsibility of the position. I'm hoping that this is just an entry-level salary for the position and things will be eventually more in line with what the statistics show..
I guess we'll get to see if all the hard work is going to pay off and all the time and money spent on education was worth it.
Did you try to negotiate or just take the salary? It's kind of tricky with your first job, you don't want to be greedy and appear entitled. Knowing this, some companies will give you low-ball offers, fully aware of how difficult it is to get a job without experience in our current economy. You don't have a very strong position to negotiate.
I was very fortunate to receive a good offer for my first job out of college ($50k, which was about $5-10k more than I expected, plus paid housing for the first 4 months), so I didn't want to be greedy and ask for more. I also got free lunches every day, a company phone, paid travel, etc. I had a few things going for me though, I had interned with the parent company and got good references from them, and I scored very high on the psychological/intelligence testing they had me do when I interviewed. But, all in all, I was really fortunate.
They're also not a publicly-traded company, so it's not all about pleasing shareholders. As an intern, the boss said "what did we say we'd give you, $15 an hour?" I said actually it was $14. He said "ok, well we'll give you $15." Private companies will often treat you better IMO, and as a result they usually have more loyal employees. The only negative was that our 401k, company match, and health insurance kind of suck, but you can't have everything.
I would work hard, be a good employee, do whatever your boss asks of you, then in a year or two ask for a raise. If they don't give you a decent raise I would start looking elsewhere once you have some more experience and a more competitive resume. I would be appreciative to have that first job, for sure, but chances are if they low-balled you now they'll probably low-ball you in the future.
2 years experience seems to be about the bare minimum that most companies are requiring for most jobs right now, so if it were me, I would probably try to be there for at least that long.
Housing and education are the biggest expenses. Taxes and insurance premiums are pretty low, well maybe not health insurance, but the other insurance products are.
Maybe for some... between income taxes, property taxes, sales tax, and gasoline tax we pay more in tax than we do for food. And health insurance has just doubled for us so it now easily exceeds the tax bill. For budget relief we would do well with a lot less government in our life.
Maybe for some... between income taxes, property taxes, sales tax, and gasoline tax we pay more in tax than we do for food.
Food is cheap and won't be anybody's main expense anywhere. Housing, education, and health insurance are the big ticket items.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cdelena
And health insurance has just doubled for us so it now easily exceeds the tax bill. For budget relief we would do well with a lot less government in our life.
Mikelee81, with all due respect my friend, what other people have and don't have and what they drive should not be a concern of yours. I see that all the time on my job with coworkers worrying about who drives what and how they can afford it and how much they must be paying. its not anyone business especially since they are paying for it. I just had a friend and a coworker who lost his really nice house to foreclosure, we both do the same thing with same pay but I couldn't live in the neighborhood he was living in, I couldn't afford it. but I never lost any sleep worrying about how he could and I couldn't and turns out he couldn't either he lost his home. just do your best to take care of you and as you go through life things will change and work in your favor. I bought me a nice car over a year ago and people were saying the same thing about me. but I work hard for any and everything I have the honest old fashion way. I simply traded in my old car for a new one, plus my down payment, plus year end deals, plus good credit. as you move up in life people are going to be guessing the same thing about you. best of luck
By spending my entire life minimizing my lifestyle, the way my depression-era parents taught me to. Over time, I learned to get as much pleasure from economizing, as other people get from splurging. It assured me that I would never need to endure hardship, and would always live in the style to which I had become accustomed. And I never needed to work hard, nor even steadily, to afford it.
I wouldn't recommend not working hard, but putting effort into keeping expenses low really helps a lot. It really does take the pressure off.
That's what I was thinking. It is frustrating that the offer was so low considering the responsibility of the position. I'm hoping that this is just an entry-level salary for the position and things will be eventually more in line with what the statistics show..
I guess we'll get to see if all the hard work is going to pay off and all the time and money spent on education was worth it.
If you live in an economically depressed area, you should expect salaries to be low. Of course, higher salaries in more vibrant areas will bring a higher cost of living as well...and the higher salaries don't always make up for the difference in the COL.
In any event, if you want to earn more, you should be open to the possibility of living in an area with a better economy.
The advice you got here from almost every single poster was very good, so I hope you take it to heart.
Roommates, roommates, roommates! Split the rent, split the utilities, if you end up getting along well you can split cooking duty and save a little on groceries too.
I live in an extremely expensive area (just outside DC) where a 1 bedroom apartment is easily $1500 (up to $2500 in the right areas). A 2 bedroom is usually only a couple hundred more. Roommates just make sense.
As for your job, what is the promotion schedule like? Are you making $32k for the foreseeable future, or are there promotion options every year? If you're only doing the $32k thing for a year, it's doable.
This what I was thinking. It sounds like the OP is in an entry level position that might have opportunities for promotions/raises. In some fields, it's common for staff to move from job to job to get raises.
This what I was thinking. It sounds like the OP is in an entry level position that might have opportunities for promotions/raises. In some fields, it's common for staff to move from job to job to get raises.
The area is Dietary Management in a 140-bed nursing home facility. I'm in charge of the daily operations of the facility - food safety, purchasing, human resources, menu implementation, etc.. For this position, there is a specified salary range allotted in their budget. Any significant raise to be expected would come from changing positions or going to another area within Food Service Management altogether. I could probably expect small annual raises but not something to hang my hat.
From the data collected from the ANFP (Association of Nutrition of Food Service Professionals) the median salary is around $45k/year for those sampled working in this setting (with various levels of experience, education, credentials, etc..
So I am an entry-level Dietary Manager entering into the position of Director of Food and Nutrition Services.
Hope this makes things a little clearer.
I am thankful for the job.. I guess we'll see down the road how this all plays out.
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I don't frequent bars or clubs. I don't even drink.
