4 ms·

"When he lost his job, Scott had no savings, his primary objective always having been to earn enough to cover the rent, eat an occasional steak, feed and clothe

"When he lost his job, Scott had no savings, his primary objective always having been to earn enough to cover the rent, eat an occasional steak, feed and clothe their children, ride his dirt bike, fish, golf, play poker, buy lottery tickets, and drink Bud Light." Um you have to be kidding me.

potatolicious 17y ago
They lost me at golf. Ride his dirt bike? Sure, a fairly inexpensive (and fun!) pasttime. Fishing? Same deal. Golf? Holy Batman, golf is an expensive sport to get into. I'm making double what he did at his peak, and I don't feel like a golf club membership.
- maukdaddy 17y ago
  I don't care how poor you are, or how little you make, 12 months of savings is a MUST. I simply can't imagine living paycheck-to-paycheck like that.
  - potatolicious 17y ago
    To add to your point: don't just save, have a pre-sorted plan to reduce your burn rate drastically. Always know the barest minimum burn rate you can have, and keep plans to take it down that low if necessary. A lesson I learned from my student days, when money was highly variable month-to-month. I don't do so right now, but I can take my food budget down to about $200 a month in a pinch, and shed a lot of other expenses (Netflix, VPS, etc) with little to no penalty. Keep your head in reality and know what in your life is a luxury and what is a need.
  - abalashov 17y ago
    That's easy to say...
  - timwiseman 17y ago
    I agree with the concept, but it is hard to do when you are on the low end (and can take time to build up), and if you are on the very low end 12 months of savings for normal expenses can get wiped out with just a few minor emergencies.
    - abalashov 17y ago
      Yep; that's the thing that people who didn't grow up poor miss. The 'cost' of being poor (as a percentage of income, not as an absolute figure!) is higher for poor people than the 'cost' of being well-off is for well-off people. Late fees, overdraft fees, frequent maintenance expenses stemming from owning and/or driving crap, higher interest rates, other types of pricing premiums for things stemming from their being inferior status as a buyer or a borrower of various goods and services, health, etc. Add to that the pervasive psychological and physiological pathologies unavoidably common among poor people - whatever you think of how that reflects on their "responsibility" - and the external costs of those, and, well, you get the idea.
- gcheong 17y ago
  At private courses yes, but the green fees at the public golf course in Golden Gate Park here in San Francisco are $14 weekday and $20 weekend. I doubt it would be more expensive to play in Northern Indiana.
tdavis 17y ago
Oh, IS THAT ALL? Talk about living on the bare essentials! America isn't suffering from a recession, it's suffering from a populace that has no sense of responsibility or reality who just so happened to need a recession to point out their inability to live smartly. The way this article is written, it sounds like a work of satire.

potatolicious 17y ago

They lost me at golf. Ride his dirt bike? Sure, a fairly inexpensive (and fun!) pasttime. Fishing? Same deal. Golf? Holy Batman, golf is an expensive sport to get into. I'm making double what he did at his peak, and I don't feel like a golf club membership.

maukdaddy 17y ago
I don't care how poor you are, or how little you make, 12 months of savings is a MUST. I simply can't imagine living paycheck-to-paycheck like that.
- potatolicious 17y ago
  To add to your point: don't just save, have a pre-sorted plan to reduce your burn rate drastically. Always know the barest minimum burn rate you can have, and keep plans to take it down that low if necessary. A lesson I learned from my student days, when money was highly variable month-to-month. I don't do so right now, but I can take my food budget down to about $200 a month in a pinch, and shed a lot of other expenses (Netflix, VPS, etc) with little to no penalty. Keep your head in reality and know what in your life is a luxury and what is a need.
- abalashov 17y ago
  That's easy to say...
- timwiseman 17y ago
  I agree with the concept, but it is hard to do when you are on the low end (and can take time to build up), and if you are on the very low end 12 months of savings for normal expenses can get wiped out with just a few minor emergencies.
  - abalashov 17y ago
    Yep; that's the thing that people who didn't grow up poor miss. The 'cost' of being poor (as a percentage of income, not as an absolute figure!) is higher for poor people than the 'cost' of being well-off is for well-off people. Late fees, overdraft fees, frequent maintenance expenses stemming from owning and/or driving crap, higher interest rates, other types of pricing premiums for things stemming from their being inferior status as a buyer or a borrower of various goods and services, health, etc. Add to that the pervasive psychological and physiological pathologies unavoidably common among poor people - whatever you think of how that reflects on their "responsibility" - and the external costs of those, and, well, you get the idea.
gcheong 17y ago
At private courses yes, but the green fees at the public golf course in Golden Gate Park here in San Francisco are $14 weekday and $20 weekend. I doubt it would be more expensive to play in Northern Indiana.

tdavis 17y ago

Oh, IS THAT ALL? Talk about living on the bare essentials! America isn't suffering from a recession, it's suffering from a populace that has no sense of responsibility or reality who just so happened to need a recession to point out their inability to live smartly. The way this article is written, it sounds like a work of satire.