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> But... they faced all of the downside risks of small business owners. Rain == slow or no sales. Big vacation weeks for the workforce == slow sales. Get sick?
by freyr 13y ago
> But... they faced all of the downside risks of small business owners. Rain == slow or no sales. Big vacation weeks for the workforce == slow sales. Get sick? No pay. That said, it's probably still a better gig than being a game programmer.
Small business owners should be able to plan ahead for rainy days and the slow season. Squirrels can do it. Humans can too.
- latj 13y agoI should do what squirrels do.
- untog 13y agoUnexpected health issues? That's a little more tricky.
- nodata 13y agoAnd what does an American employee do about unexpected (long term) health issues? (For short term issues there is insurance, whether in the form of savings or actual insurance.)
- yummyfajitas 13y agoLong term care insurance.
- TDL 13y agoLong term disability is more appropriate. Long term care is more appropriate for the elderly. To your point, however, insurance products exist to assist when a long term health issue arises.
- pcl 13y agoLong-term disability coverage has been part of all the insurance plans I've had over the years in the US. I assume that it's pretty common across US insurance plans, at least for full-time employees. Such coverage pays some percentage of your salary for many years from the beginning of a long-term disability. I think that both of those numbers vary widely from plan to plan.
- bandy 13y agoProvided you have insurance in the first place. (The rest of this post is seemingly invalid in California:) Contractor? No, you don't get insurance. Don't you have COBRA? You can't afford that? Well, golly, better hope that you don't get sick.
- RHSeeger 13y agoIf you're a contractor w/o insurance, you're doing it wrong. You should be setting rates so that you can afford insurance. Health insurance, business insurance, vacation time, holiday time, sick time, equipment, etc. All of these things go into the calculations for your rates.
- officemonkey 13y agoI did that when I was a contractor. The CEO wouldn't sign my contract because I would end up "making" more than he did in salary. So I had to cut my hours. I took the 10 free hours/week as an opportunity to hunt for additional work.
- pcl 13y agoIndeed. The GP's question was about "American employees", which I interpreted as "full-time employees at a company in the USA". Contractors are subject to the health care plans of the company they work for (or whatever they buy on the individual market, if they are self-employed). Part-time employees (less than 30 hours per week, IIRC, although that's probably state-by-state) also receive different treatment. Some companies have started to manage hours to have more part-time workers instead of fewer full-time workers as a means to game the heath care laws: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/06/will-obamacare-lead-to-millions-more-part-time-workers-companies-are-still-deciding/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/06/w...
- potatolicious 13y agoNormal weather you can plan for, but there are outlier events that can still wipe you out that's basically impossible to predict or prepare for. Sandy in NYC flooded a great deal of infrastructure and left buildings without power or communications for a long time. Large parts of downtown were completely depopulated for weeks on end - that sort of event takes out independent business owners, and you can't effectively plan for it. For the most part food vending isn't so profitable that you can build up a thick cushion for longer-term outages.
- criley2 13y agoWe commonly say that hackers should save up 3-6 months of floating money, especially if they are in the self-employed or contracting/consulting world. You never know when the next job is, you never know what could happen. I don't see how being a small business operator of something like this is different. The source of income is different, the wisdom is the same. Hopefully they were able to set aside months worth of floating money, and even weeks due to a natural disaster wouldn't wreck them.
- MrFoof 13y ago>We commonly say that hackers should save up 3-6 months of floating money It's not hackers, it's adults. This is called an "emergency fund". 3 to 6 months cash that's easy to access in the event of a genuine emergency, including loss of work. Personal Finance 101.
- shawn-furyan 13y agoExactly, and if your monetary stream is inconsistent, then 3-6 months should really be considered insufficient. You're shouldn't be regularly be eating into your emergency fund.
- TDL 13y agoTotally agree. I would say closer to a year, but some would disagree. Less than 6 months is not enough, especially for freelance/consulting types.
- lotsofcows 13y agoYup! That's why there are more squirrels than humans!
- Spooky23 13y agoOh absolutely. I just point out that many people are programmed to be risk-averse. A shitty job with a steady paycheck is perceived as lower risk than a potentially more lucrative job with a big company. When I was in college, I sold extended warranties with computers. People would buy a PC for $2,000, and 80% of them would buy an extended warranty for $400. They felt like they were winning, because their liability was now limited.