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No that was terrible advice that I constantly get from baby boomers who have no clue what it's like to come up in an economy like this. I am paid so little and everything costs so much that it becomes nearly impossible to save much money.
I have recieved excellent advice on this thread from multiple people but this was not great advice. This may have worked in the 90s but its a whole new ballgame now
Well, after re-reading this whole thread, I have decided your talent is ,"Excuses". If you can just find a high paying job making excuses you will do ok. Good luck.
No I am Generation X and bought my house a little less than 2 and half years ago. Best thing I ever did after renting for over 20 years and throwing money away. I had to move 2 hours to an area with affordable houses. I got lucky because all those homes are gone now and prices have just about doubles on small starter homes. My mortgage is less than a rental of a 1 bedroom apartment.
Also every generation is different if you want to blame it on something other than saving as much as you can and investing in your future that's up to you. A lot of Millennials were spoiled by their hard working parents and feel entitled to things and that the world should spoil them too.
1) Ok so you were generation X? Ok so you got in while the getting was good then? You got your experience before the economy crashed then? Well guess what? It's a brand new economy now and its a lot harder now.
2) Well I can tell you this: MY PROBLEM IS NOT THAT I CAN'T SAVE ENOUGH MONEY. Did you know that it's an actual statistic that 51% of Americans make $15 an hour or less? Wages are dirt low now for the most part, and I can show you statistics, articles, graphs, or whatever you want to support this theory.
3) You did say one thing that was correct here and that is that it is important to invest in your future. I did that, and got up to 18 credits short of a Bachelor's in Public Safety management from FSCj. I worked hard on that Bachelor's degree and then had a 3.44 GPA. I then moved up to Chicago, Illinois (I thought Jacksonville, was boring), and so I went to go live there from November 2016 to October 2017. Now that was a stupid idea, and I admit that. I didn't realize that the cost of living is so expensive there and how much it differed from the cost of living in Jacksonville. I should not have done that, but at least I still continued to work on my degree from FSCJ online while I was living in Chicago, Illinois. Plus, again I got within 18 credits of finishing that degree.
So what did I do to correct my mistake? I moved back to Jacksonville, Florida, when my lease was up and moved back in with my mother and brother (who are also poor). However, my goal was to finish that Bachelor's degree and work very hard towards it. That didn't work so well.
When I came here, I made a HUGE mistake. I bought this used Honda Civic for a low-price with my college loan money that I was taking out. I should have done more research on the car, but didn't (again my mistake). That car has been nothing but an endless money pit for me, and I have put around 7 grand into car repairs for that car in less than a year's time.
Not only that, but FSCJ switched to the "myfscj" system this last year and that system screwed up everyone's financial aid. My last semester of financial aid according to their financial aid counselors was going to be spring 2018. With that, I had it planned to where I would complete my last semester of college in Spring 2018. At that point, I would have a Bachelor's and that would make me way more employable. However, FSCJ screwed up my financial aid, my brother's financial aid, and just about everyone's financial aid I can think of and I wound up just screwed with no Bachelor's degree, no loans, and a crappy car. What happened is that it turned out that in Fall, I maxed out on Financial aid, and FSCJ showed that I didn't max out until Spring, so that really screwed me.
CONCLUSION: I own up to my past transgressions, and I have made some bad mistakes in the past; like going to Chicago, and not doing more research on a car and thus buying a lemon. However, I also have had a slew of just plain bad things happen to me as well. I own up to my transgressions, and no one can turn back the clock, so all I can do is look towards the future so I made this thread in order to get some ideas to dig myself out of the hole I am in now. For those who have given me good advice on this thread, I thank you. But know that I am not just sitting here whining about my situation, the goal is to solve my problem
My husband and I are not baby boomers. We know what it’s like to come up from nothing. My husband worked a crappy industrial job and went to school full time. He worked his butt off and helped provided for our family. He sacrificed because that’s what you do when you want something. Now his salary is 4x what it was and we are very comfortable, own one home, and are looking at purchasing another.
You said in the beginning that you live at home. While I can appreciate that it is not an ideal situation, I cannot understand why you can’t make the best of it and use that opportunity to either get your degree or learn a trade. If you want to come up out of poverty you work for it. I just read in the St Augustine paper that fast food restaurants are paying $12 an hour just to get people in the door. They will work around your school schedule. Get a job as a bar back or work in the kitchen of a chain restaurant if fast food isn’t good enough for you. They will work around your school schedule. Get a job stocking shelves at Walmart, Target, Sam’s club. They will work around your school schedule. Once you have completed school and have a better paying job, move out and have a roommate or three. Split costs so you can save money for a more dependable car. Employers recognize those that work hard and have ambition and reward those that do. Get some experience and when you have your yearly reviews ask what you can do better and then do it. Work your way up. It takes time and it takes hustle but it is achievable.
Most of all quit believing that it’s the economy that’s holding you back. You can either get mad and keep doing the same thing expecting a miracle or you can take the advice you are given and make a change. Recognize that you may have to work a job that you don’t like for a while in order to get to where you want to be. You might have to use public transit for a while. You might have to have bad roommates. You might have to work two jobs. You might not the get the job you want because someone with better qualifications comes along. You might have to trade your dream job for a crap job because the pay is better and has security. If the path in front of you has too many obstacles find a new path. Or continue to think that the economy is holding you back and make excuses for why you can’t have the life you want because -insert excuse here- Baby boomers and gen x get a lot of crap because things were “easier” for us. In some ways they were. No doubt about that. We were also taught that you have to work for what you want. You have to do for yourself because nothing will be given to you.
You have done a good thing by asking for advice. Don’t negate that by refusing to hear things that may not be comfortable.
Hey, Vinny, don't sweat the lectures. You're going to get them, and there might be a morsel or two of advice you could pick up from them, but you know what they say about free advice, it's usually worth exactly what you paid for it. Anyway, they mean well.
Speaking of free advice, apply for some government jobs. Anything from city up to Federal. Don't be intimidated by them, lots of people who work for the government are slugs and parasites and have all sorts of issues that you don't have. Also apply for jobs with government contractors. I don't mean the little penny-ante contractors, I'm talking the big guys like Kroll and Academi.
I work security at my job and am sub-contracted for a steel mill. I have worked that post for 4 months. It is a blue collar job but I talked to the manager today. The place is constantly hiring workers so I thought, "What the heck?" So I talked to the manager and said, "You guys are hiring a lot because the place requires hard work. If I applied to directly work for this steel mill, would you hire me?"
The manager was instantly interested when I said this, gave me on the spot interview with HR. He then said to put in an application IMMEDIATELY online. In fact, he wanted me to do it right there at the office. I told I would fill out the application at home because I needed to touch up my resume'. I did as soon as I got home and immediately replied.
The job would start me off at 12.20 an hour but after 6 months would raise to 13.86 to 15.00 an hour and the place has a union. Also they said I would get constant over-time. Plus I could get a forklift certificate and later make like 16-17 an hour. Then if I finished my Bachelor's I could become a manager there.
THIS COULD BE IT! THIS COULD BE MY BIG BREAK! **FINGERS CROSSED**
I work security at my job and am sub-contracted for a steel mill. I have worked that post for 4 months. It is a blue collar job but I talked to the manager today. The place is constantly hiring workers so I thought, "What the heck?" So I talked to the manager and said, "You guys are hiring a lot because the place requires hard work. If I applied to directly work for this steel mill, would you hire me?"
The manager was instantly interested when I said this, gave me on the spot interview with HR. He then said to put in an application IMMEDIATELY online. In fact, he wanted me to do it right there at the office. I told I would fill out the application at home because I needed to touch up my resume'. I did as soon as I got home and immediately replied.
The job would start me off at 12.20 an hour but after 6 months would raise to 13.86 to 15.00 an hour and the place has a union. Also they said I would get constant over-time. Plus I could get a forklift certificate and later make like 16-17 an hour. Then if I finished my Bachelor's I could become a manager there.
THIS COULD BE IT! THIS COULD BE MY BIG BREAK! **FINGERS CROSSED**
Good for you, Vinny! My fingers are crossed for you, too.
That’s awesome. With that spirit you will succeed here or even elsewhere. I hope it works out for sure!
Quote:
Originally Posted by kmarc
Good for you, Vinny! My fingers are crossed for you, too.
So things got complicated for me and I now need some advice. 3 companies now want to hire me, and if I do this right, I could get a great job, if I do it wrong, I could destroy everything!
So here is where things get complicated; out of nowhere when I have been applying for these jobs, my current security company I am at right now has really had some setbacks. First off, at that steel mill I work for, (and am sub-contracted under that I am trying to get a permanent blue collar job at), it turns out that my co-worker was stealing from the company and was fired, so now they have no day-shift security guard for the weekends. But they already knew this when they had me fill out the application at the steel mill because apparently they are even more desperate for blue collar workers than they are weekend security guards.
Also, if that's not bad enough, this gated community, that I transferred out of 5 months ago when I went to this steel mill, they just lost a worker and I was called in out of nowhere to work the post today because no one else knows the post but....: me, the guy who just quit, and LOW AND BEHOLD my idiot ex co-worker at the company just fired for theft. So that really complicates things.
So it really sounds like that Steel mill will hire me, but would they be more hesitant to hire me knowing that the security company I am at (that they do business with) just lost two employees? Also they themselves just lost a security guard, and now they are about to lose another one (me). So now no one on the weekend shift will have any clue what's going on. But they already lost this security guard last week before they told me to submit an application so they knew this the entire time. So can this really be that important to them?
What I was going to do (when I work overnights Sunday night into Monday morning) is ask the employer where they are in the applications process. If they say something like, "We are pretty sure we want to hire you, but the background check hasn't come back yet, I will just say, "Ok, well just let me know when it does as I am eager to start with your company", and leave it at that. HOWEVER, if they something like, "Well we don't know what to do because we don't want to compete with your current company" I am thinking about using some negotiation tactics and saying, "Well I understand your hesitancy to hire an employee from a company you are contracting with, but quite frankly I am going to have to leave that company no matter what and I got another offer from another security company. However, I really would prefer to work for your company, and the other company is ready to hire me now. So please let me know as soon as possible if you plan to hire me or not?"
That's my plan, but if anyone has any better ideas, throw em out here.
Last edited by Vinny Lugo; 07-27-2018 at 06:21 PM..
Don't overthink it. The problems of your current employer should have nothing to do with you moving on. Stick to your original plan. Doesn't hurt to ask HR at the steel mill for an update. But don't stop there, keep pushing ahead with other applications.
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Anyway, they mean well.
