3 ms·

Life isn't that depressive even with a 9$/hr job.

by mnml_ 15y ago

djeikyb 15y ago
It easily can be. Consider a twenty-four year old fresh out of college with an animal science degree, school loan debt, dependent parents, no car, no openings in her field, forced to take fast food job. The job usually gives her forty hours a week, but scheduled so she works 10-20 days before a single day off. Rent started lower, but has been slowly jacked up to $800+ before utilities. This describes my best friend for the past year. Paying bills is tremendously difficult, much less saving any money.
- BrandonM 15y ago
  So get a roommate, look for a new place, move to a cheaper area, get a different job. I've done all of these things at one time or another. I've paid as low as $125 per month in rent, but most typically in the neighborhood of $225-300 (this is in one of the 15 biggest cities in the US, a major college town, to boot). Serving/bartending you can easily make $15-25 per hour and work 25-40 hours per week. I've also worked as a valet part-time for another $10-15 per hour. Package handlers can make $13 per hour (last I saw, several years ago) working the late shift. These are jobs that generally have no degree requirements whatsoever. My roommate was once a couple grand short on tuition money. He stripped for a couple weeks and was able to pay it all off. My sister's husband brings in close to $40K in the Army, and they give money to pay off student loans, too. I've had several friends work in Teach for America or as an Americorps Vista, receiving relatively meager salaries but getting a living allowance, money toward student loans, and a resume-building experience for aspiring non-profit workers. Meanwhile, remain tenacious in seeking out opportunities that make use of that degree, and make every use of student loan deferment and forbearance until all high-interest credit cards are paid off. Enter into debt management in order to get credit card interest rates down into the 5-8% range. The only saving that should be happening is an emergency cash fund. It doesn't make sense to save until your debts are paid off, unless you can reliably invest at a higher return (e.g., your employer matches your contribution up to 3% of salary for an effective 100%+ ROI). I know how easy it is to get dejected and want to give up, but you absolutely must soldier through it. Cut costs everywhere (don't eat out, sell that car, start biking, take up cheap hobbies instead of paying for entertainment, cancel cable, etc.) and pay down high-interest debts. Things get a whole lot easier once you start having some cash margin each month. That was the main thing I hated about the quiz. Everything was so binary. Rarely in life are we constrained to a box other than the one we construct for ourselves.
  - ctdonath 15y ago
    Who's downvoting these posts advocating making smart decisions? Why? As noted, the game makes numerous foolish presumptions (premium health plan, expensive internet, overpriced food, etc.); there's nothing wrong with pointing out there are much better options available. To the contrary, you'd think YC types would be _upvoting_ suggestions to leverage every opportunity in ways the posters have in fact lived.
  - bennesvig 15y ago
    Great advice. I've had to moonlight as a valet in between jobs and I could make anywhere from $10/hr to $35/hr with tips. They would have hired anyone to work that job.
    - BrandonM 15y ago
      Yep, valet parking was probably one of my favorite part-time jobs. They put me on a mailing list for valet events and sent out weekly emails; I picked the shifts I wanted to work. I got a good friend a job there, too, and we often worked together. It was a great way to get in shape making decent money to drive nice cars. And there was generally a 1-3 hour lull during the event to relax, shoot the shit, make plans for the night, and meet new friends.
      - hugh3 15y ago
        Sounds like a good job! In the game I took the option of being a waiter working for $2.15 an hour plus tips, thinking that based on all the waiters I know I could easily earn some pretty good money. It told me I wound up earning $8 an hour, and this was average. I remain skeptical. For one thing, that's minimum wage, and as I understand it, the employer is obliged to subsidise your wages up to minimum wage if you don't make that in tips. Secondly, assuming a standard 15% tip that means I'm only serving about $40 worth of food and drink per hour, in which case I'm in a really bad restaurant. (OK, maybe we need to share some of the tip total with busboys et cetera, but that's still astoundingly low). Thirdly, there's no way that can be the average, because it's the minimum, and some waiters are earning a whole lot more.
ljf 15y ago
For single/couple without kids you might get by. But when you are 45, still working the $9 job, with 2 kids, and a sick partner... Luckily that doesn't describe me, but it's easy to miss what it can be like for those on the edge. I hate it when politicians (in the UK) make out that it's not a big deal that for someone to lose £50 in benefits (per month), and have no concept of what it's like to live a life where every penny does count, and where one big bill can set you back for years. We all might be lucky with great support networks, skills and health, but not every one is.
- 351215255 15y ago
  So it is true that somebody can have a month in which his/her gradfather dies, pet dies, friend is terminally ill, they break plates at work, the get depression, their tooth hurts, rent is raised, they get a speeding ticket, neighbor's kid breaks their windows, they make only 150$ is a yard sale selling "a bunch of stuff", their bathroom leaks, they slip and hit someone else, have to pay for a worthless college degree (why would I get any, I don't know), they forget their lunch frequently and thus buy a 1$ burger (if you are working in a warehouse, that is not going to effect you that much), have chest pains, get their gas siponed off, mom gets sick, their children throws a tantrum because they are being taunted as "free lunch kid" (and why would they go hungry for that?) and still make it through with $398 with a paycheck tomorrow? I mean come on! Utterly ridiculous. Some people have a bad luck but don't forget from next month I would be having food stamps and not any of those expenses so may be able to save much.

Life isn't that depressive even with a 9$/hr job.

by mnml_ 15y ago

Life isn't that depressive even with a 9$/hr job.

It easily can be. Consider a twenty-four year old fresh out of college with an animal science degree, school loan debt, dependent parents, no car, no openings in her field, forced to take fast food job. The job usually gives her forty hours a week, but scheduled so she works 10-20 days before a single day off. Rent started lower, but has been slowly jacked up to $800+ before utilities. This describes my best friend for the past year. Paying bills is tremendously difficult, much less saving any money.

BrandonM 15y ago
So get a roommate, look for a new place, move to a cheaper area, get a different job. I've done all of these things at one time or another. I've paid as low as $125 per month in rent, but most typically in the neighborhood of $225-300 (this is in one of the 15 biggest cities in the US, a major college town, to boot). Serving/bartending you can easily make $15-25 per hour and work 25-40 hours per week. I've also worked as a valet part-time for another $10-15 per hour. Package handlers can make $13 per hour (last I saw, several years ago) working the late shift. These are jobs that generally have no degree requirements whatsoever. My roommate was once a couple grand short on tuition money. He stripped for a couple weeks and was able to pay it all off. My sister's husband brings in close to $40K in the Army, and they give money to pay off student loans, too. I've had several friends work in Teach for America or as an Americorps Vista, receiving relatively meager salaries but getting a living allowance, money toward student loans, and a resume-building experience for aspiring non-profit workers. Meanwhile, remain tenacious in seeking out opportunities that make use of that degree, and make every use of student loan deferment and forbearance until all high-interest credit cards are paid off. Enter into debt management in order to get credit card interest rates down into the 5-8% range. The only saving that should be happening is an emergency cash fund. It doesn't make sense to save until your debts are paid off, unless you can reliably invest at a higher return (e.g., your employer matches your contribution up to 3% of salary for an effective 100%+ ROI). I know how easy it is to get dejected and want to give up, but you absolutely must soldier through it. Cut costs everywhere (don't eat out, sell that car, start biking, take up cheap hobbies instead of paying for entertainment, cancel cable, etc.) and pay down high-interest debts. Things get a whole lot easier once you start having some cash margin each month. That was the main thing I hated about the quiz. Everything was so binary. Rarely in life are we constrained to a box other than the one we construct for ourselves.
- ctdonath 15y ago
  Who's downvoting these posts advocating making smart decisions? Why? As noted, the game makes numerous foolish presumptions (premium health plan, expensive internet, overpriced food, etc.); there's nothing wrong with pointing out there are much better options available. To the contrary, you'd think YC types would be _upvoting_ suggestions to leverage every opportunity in ways the posters have in fact lived.
- bennesvig 15y ago
  Great advice. I've had to moonlight as a valet in between jobs and I could make anywhere from $10/hr to $35/hr with tips. They would have hired anyone to work that job.
  - BrandonM 15y ago
    Yep, valet parking was probably one of my favorite part-time jobs. They put me on a mailing list for valet events and sent out weekly emails; I picked the shifts I wanted to work. I got a good friend a job there, too, and we often worked together. It was a great way to get in shape making decent money to drive nice cars. And there was generally a 1-3 hour lull during the event to relax, shoot the shit, make plans for the night, and meet new friends.
    - hugh3 15y ago
      Sounds like a good job! In the game I took the option of being a waiter working for $2.15 an hour plus tips, thinking that based on all the waiters I know I could easily earn some pretty good money. It told me I wound up earning $8 an hour, and this was average. I remain skeptical. For one thing, that's minimum wage, and as I understand it, the employer is obliged to subsidise your wages up to minimum wage if you don't make that in tips. Secondly, assuming a standard 15% tip that means I'm only serving about $40 worth of food and drink per hour, in which case I'm in a really bad restaurant. (OK, maybe we need to share some of the tip total with busboys et cetera, but that's still astoundingly low). Thirdly, there's no way that can be the average, because it's the minimum, and some waiters are earning a whole lot more.

ljf 15y ago

For single/couple without kids you might get by. But when you are 45, still working the $9 job, with 2 kids, and a sick partner... Luckily that doesn't describe me, but it's easy to miss what it can be like for those on the edge. I hate it when politicians (in the UK) make out that it's not a big deal that for someone to lose £50 in benefits (per month), and have no concept of what it's like to live a life where every penny does count, and where one big bill can set you back for years. We all might be lucky with great support networks, skills and health, but not every one is.

351215255 15y ago
So it is true that somebody can have a month in which his/her gradfather dies, pet dies, friend is terminally ill, they break plates at work, the get depression, their tooth hurts, rent is raised, they get a speeding ticket, neighbor's kid breaks their windows, they make only 150$ is a yard sale selling "a bunch of stuff", their bathroom leaks, they slip and hit someone else, have to pay for a worthless college degree (why would I get any, I don't know), they forget their lunch frequently and thus buy a 1$ burger (if you are working in a warehouse, that is not going to effect you that much), have chest pains, get their gas siponed off, mom gets sick, their children throws a tantrum because they are being taunted as "free lunch kid" (and why would they go hungry for that?) and still make it through with $398 with a paycheck tomorrow? I mean come on! Utterly ridiculous. Some people have a bad luck but don't forget from next month I would be having food stamps and not any of those expenses so may be able to save much.