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I couldn't believe when I saw phlebotomists at my job make in the low $20s---some random person can just train you and you don't even need certification.
Low income people are sometimes just too lazy and careless to save money. Eating out too often makes a serious dent to finances if our income is too low. One should learn Cooking Food at home. Making a Sandwich and Coffee is not Rocket Science. One should be careful in using Utilities like AirConditioning, Heating or things like Phone Data plans. Use them as per need. Some people just spend money on having lots of shoes, clothes, jackets. All these expenses can be controlled.
??? ??? How does one Cook Food at home when one has only a hot plate? (There were times I was in that boat.)
You could have it as an elective. You'd be able to tell who is likely to be a responsible saver and spender by who chooses to take the course. Credit card companies could charge lower interest rates to people who have completed it.
What if the course-taker ends up flipping burgers for a living?
That makes no sense. Burger flippers are doing the same thing today they were doing 50 years ago. 50 years ago, their wage would pay for a place for them to live and put food on the table. Now it doesn't. It has nothing to do with building skills. It has to do with everything costing more now and pay staying the same.
I don't know about 50 years ago, but 40 years ago, that was definitely NOT the case, at least not around here.
??? ??? How does one Cook Food at home when one has only a hot plate? (There were times I was in that boat.)
You dont need fancy Kitchen Gadgets or Gourmet Cooking Courses to make Food at Home. All Low Income people have a basic kitchen in their dwellings. As long as you have a basic Kitchen Stove and a Sink, Food can be cooked.
What if the course-taker ends up flipping burgers for a living?
Statistically, some will. But credit card companies work with the law of large numbers, and people who care enough about their finances to take a course in it *in high school* are pretty good bets - on average.
??? ??? How does one Cook Food at home when one has only a hot plate? (There were times I was in that boat.)
I've cooked meals for myself and husband for up to a week at a time using a backpacking stove and simple cook kit. It's not particularly hard. Hot plate, small saucepan w/ lid, small skillet, plate, drinking cup, set of flatware, and a source of clean water. Done. A dorm fridge is a nice luxury but not essential.
I stopped sympathizing when I read that the author cashed out his 401K to pay for his daughter's wedding.
Some people are not future oriented.
Economically, he and his wife did just about everything wrong they could possibly do and then he whines about how "that wasn't supposed to be how things worked", as if stagnant wages were part of his real problem rather than not thinking.
This article is like a couple of others that have been posted recently that attempt to give faces to national problems but totally miss the boat.
There was an article in the Retirement forum a few months ago that purported to be about "retirees who were too poor to retire", which is a real concern/fear for many Americans. The problem with the article was it profiled 1 individual and 2 couples who were RV-ing full time and supplementing their retirement funds with part-time jobs.
Then there was an article either in this forum or in education about how "massive student loans are preventing couple from retiring!" which also turned out to be a whole lot of BS. Apparently, the upper middle class parents didn't save much for their kids college but instead took out private loans to the tune of $180k, which was complicated by the Great Recession. Big sob story until you find out that the couple is in their late fifties and are complaining because they can't retire early and travel the world -- and that they're supporting son with $120k in loans for his bachelor degree who's in LA waiting tables and trying to become an actor because he's so creative. ....
There are a lot of people struggling economically in this country, and it's primarily because family (and household) income has been stalled for about 20 years. The median family income in 2016 is about the same as it was in 1996 ... that's NOT in inflation-adjusted dollars, but face value dollars. Others have been slapped around by off-shoring, automation, recession, age discrimination. Some have truly tried to "do the right thing" to improve their lives but are still struggling for various reasons. These are stories that need faces, not self-indulgent well-off people who pile their newest bad decision upon the previous one.
This makes no sense. If daycare costs all of one partner's income, they are not saving anything for retirement. If daycare costs more than their income, they are paying to work. And don't forget the tax situation of a married couple. One income is taxed entirely at the top marginal rate of the couple, so if the other partner earns a good wage they could be paying the nanny $20 an hour (for more hours than the parent works because of travel time) and only earning $20 of their $30 an hour nominal income. And that's $62,400 a year, which puts you in the top 45%, and paying for the priviledge of working.
The thing is that the girls were in school when they moved to East Hampton since they moved there so they wouldn't have to pay private school tuition. They wouldn't have needed a nanny, just before/after school care.
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