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I don't bring up money in conversations, but if it comes up or I get asked about it then I'll talk about it. I avoid trying to give advice unless advice is specifically asked for, as unsolicited advice makes people very defensive. Just talking about what we do usually has people intrigued enough to ask more questions, so it helps keep the discussion positive. The biggest thing I hear repeatedly is "retirement accounts are too complicated, so I'm just ignoring them" or "I don't have to think about retirement yet, it's too far away".
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Jul 14, 2015 16:43
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:I live in the midwest and I make more than literally every local friend I have. And I don't even make that much money. Hell, I make more than my dad does now because he just switched careers. This might happen to be. My mom just took a big party cut to change industries because the one she was in is super burnout zone and she wants something less stressful. A job I have an interview for in a few weeks has the potential to pay more than what she accepted. Corporate Amerrika sucks.
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Jul 14, 2015 16:49
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I work at a company where everybody either makes $35,000 a year or $135,00/year. There are only two roles in the office and the population is about 50/50. There is no correlation between income and 401k participation at all. The people who don't want to contribute just find a reason, no matter what. - "Sure I WOULD do the 401k if I were -higher paid role- but I'm not so I can't" - "I have kids. You try telling your kids they can't eat dinner tonight because you wanted to get paid in 401ks instead of money" - "In this economy? Why would I want a SMALLER paycheck?" - "Don't those things lose money?"
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Jul 14, 2015 17:04
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I don't even make as much as either friend. Or at least I imagine I don't. If not for a second job I wouldn't clear over 35k
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Jul 14, 2015 18:26
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My friends are looking at buying property so discussing money just seems to happen. I never bring it up first but if the topic is on the table I'm pretty comfortable and really have no secrets. I grew up never ever talking about finances and my parents still won't. It took years of listening to Dave Ramsey to unwedge that block from my brain.
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Jul 14, 2015 19:29
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Moneyball posted:Has everyone follow the "do not talk money with friends" rule yet? I always knew it, along with religion, politics etc, but never really cared about it. When it comes to housing money discussions do come up as people who have bought property at some point are more focused on the topic. Everyone else it's pretty variable. One of my friends who asked about what was needed to buy a house and I discussed quite a few topics with him. At a party on Saturday he did say I was a "rich white guy" which I found hilarious. I don't feel rich but in relative terms I am. There were only 3 people at the party that own houses and it was a big party. At least my friend has got himself into a better paying job so I know he has enough income for savings and investments now.
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Jul 14, 2015 21:39
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I don't talk about our personal finances in general because most people our age have student loans and the comparisons are unfair. In the past I've talked about behaviors (LBYM, saving a good chunk of our paychecks) but usually the response is that we can do that stuff because we don't have student loans, which is true.
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Jul 14, 2015 22:15
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Of all my yuppie friends, only one owns a house, and he rents out 2 rooms to friends. I think there is a cultural shift with millennials, in which a house can be a huge weight keeping you from being dynamic in the workplace. The stability of a home is kind of lessened when you weigh the issues it can cause to a young career.
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Jul 14, 2015 22:16
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BossRighteous posted:Of all my yuppie friends, only one owns a house, and he rents out 2 rooms to friends. I think there is a cultural shift with millennials, in which a house can be a huge weight keeping you from being dynamic in the workplace. The stability of a home is kind of lessened when you weigh the issues it can cause to a young career. For me I had no idea if I'd stay in the city and then when I started my business whether it would survive. A part of the value of renting and having a cheap place. I have a lot of friends who are younger but a lot of them will be realising they are going to stick around in the city and others are saving to relocate or leave the country. Although it is expensive owning a home and home ownership is sinking. http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/70240843/nz-home-ownership-at-lowest-level-in-more-than-60-years quote:In May, ACT leader David Seymour said home ownership had become the privilege of the wealthy. It's heading on the direction of the bottom 50% of the population will not be able to afford a home. That seems kind of lovely to me, and it drives the wedge between rich and poor.
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Jul 15, 2015 01:51
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BossRighteous posted:Of all my yuppie friends, only one owns a house, and he rents out 2 rooms to friends. I think there is a cultural shift with millennials, in which a house can be a huge weight keeping you from being dynamic in the workplace. The stability of a home is kind of lessened when you weigh the issues it can cause to a young career. I don't understand why all my peers keep buying houses. I watch it play out time after time, year after year. New house, new mortgage, BAM new job seven hundred miles away and panicking home owner trying to sell when everyone else in his neighborhood is selling because they all worked at the same company. I've watched this happen like clockwork in my industry for eight loving years now. Screw having a house when I know what's going to happen from watching my co-workers get ruined.
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Jul 15, 2015 02:19
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"Buying a house is an investment." That's what people say all the time while not understanding that they could lose money.
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Jul 15, 2015 05:27
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But investments only ever go up in value!!!!!!!! 
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Jul 15, 2015 12:52
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"Buying is ALWAYS better than renting."
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Jul 15, 2015 13:05
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Devian666 posted:For me I had no idea if I'd stay in the city and then when I started my business whether it would survive. A part of the value of renting and having a cheap place. I have a lot of friends who are younger but a lot of them will be realising they are going to stick around in the city and others are saving to relocate or leave the country. Of all the problems facing the disappearing middle class, that's one that will eventually self-correct. If no one is left who can afford to buy houses, the prices will have to come down(much to the chagrin of "houses are an investment" types). Wage stagnation/regression on the other hand, coupled with anti-labor sentiment... Nail Rat fucked around with this message at 14:46 on Jul 15, 2015 |
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Jul 15, 2015 13:19
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It's not a house, but my fiancée really wants to buy an apartment / condo to live in here instead of renting, and spouts to same line of "our payment could be cheaper than rent!" along with "we can rent it out if we move out of the city!" I think after looking at a few units and our current finances she's cooled on the idea, but if our recent history is any indication we'll be out of the city in a year or two anyway for her next job and then I'll be the one forced to play landlord if/when we have tenants. I wouldn't mind getting into buying rental properties down the line though, my dad has bought a few of them with a friend over the last five or six years and has been fixing them up before renting them out. I think they just sold the first one they bought and between the two of them they made 80k on it, not bad money for a retirement hobby.
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Jul 15, 2015 14:43
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Our payment would be cheaper than rent!* *Does not include property tax, utilities including water and sewer, maintenance, and repair costs.
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Jul 15, 2015 17:02
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A GIANT PARSNIP posted:Our payment would be cheaper than rent!* Which is why I'm looking for houses that cost around forty grand 
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Jul 15, 2015 17:05
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My coworker has rented out her old condo at a loss for several years. I think shes losing several hundred a month even after increasing her tenants rent by $200. If i recall correctly, they haven't sold it because the value might go up. She was completely shocked when i said i don't mind renting for a great majority of my life because I don't want to deal with the major financial costs of home repairs,etc.
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Jul 15, 2015 18:32
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Bought lunch today for more than I intended to spend, but I got a nice salad. Can't cook because the kitchen is being reno'd. Last night all I had sit dinner was two pieces of bread and some water. I think it balances out.
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Jul 15, 2015 19:18
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I talk money more specifically with close friends who I know are in similar economic situations. Student loan misery loves company and all that. That being said, they are all fairly open about finances and know that generally everyone is around the same about of good/bad with money.
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Jul 15, 2015 19:41
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I'm poor as poo poo but I'll still call out my richest friends on things like individual stock purchases, raiding a 401k for a down payment, etc. I'll second that listening to Dave Ramsey helped me get over social anxiety around discussing finances. i say swears online fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Jul 15, 2015 |
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Jul 15, 2015 19:53
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I postulate that yearly income and willingness to discuss specifics are an inverse relationship.
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Jul 15, 2015 20:39
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There's a couple of companies that would like to hire me. One of them I had a look at their advertisements while I was thinking about hiring another person. The pay is decent but I would lose all my business write offs and flexibility on choosing work/clients. That and the workload would be ridiculous. I'd rather live my life than go back to working 6-7 days per week. I would also have to turn up to project meetings for these large scale projects in a shirt and tie instead of a t-shirt with skateboard logos on it.
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Jul 15, 2015 21:28
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I'd say gently caress you to any job that isn't close to 40 hours a week most of the year. Busy seasons and special circumstances are one thing, but having 6-7 day weeks and 50+ hours a week as the norm is bullshit.
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Jul 15, 2015 22:01
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One of my friends who does the same role is flying around the country and trying to organise everyone else in his region. He barely knows what he's doing because the work overload is too high. There's also the corporate bullshit and backstabbing that goes on. I have enough of that to deal with on a local government scale, and don't need people in internal departments trying to gently caress you around as well. As it stands the business write offs and not getting into lifestyle inflation makes a huge financial difference.
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Jul 15, 2015 22:08
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A GIANT PARSNIP posted:I'd say gently caress you to any job that isn't close to 40 hours a week most of the year. I started my first salaried position (after being hourly) a few weeks ago and luckily my boss understands what a 40-hour workweek is, he fucks off every day at 5:01 and doesn't seem to care if I'm packing up at the same time. Then again he may or may not also get in a half-hour early each morning, but hasn't asked me to do the same. It's a "shame" that in that 40-hour workweek I'm lucky to have 20 hours of actual work things to do, any advice for stuff I can work on for personal development that isn't necessarily job-specific? I picked up a part-time gig as a freelance science journal editor for downtimes at work but they're laughably bad about sending me assignments.
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Jul 16, 2015 05:39
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C-Euro posted:It's a "shame" that in that 40-hour workweek I'm lucky to have 20 hours of actual work things to do, any advice for stuff I can work on for personal development that isn't necessarily job-specific? I picked up a part-time gig as a freelance science journal editor for downtimes at work but they're laughably bad about sending me assignments.
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Jul 16, 2015 05:56
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C-Euro posted:I started my first salaried position (after being hourly) a few weeks ago and luckily my boss understands what a 40-hour workweek is, he fucks off every day at 5:01 and doesn't seem to care if I'm packing up at the same time. Then again he may or may not also get in a half-hour early each morning, but hasn't asked me to do the same. See if your boss has more stuff for you to do. If not, check into credentials in your field and see if your company will pay for them and let you study on company time. Edit: I am dumb and did not read your whole post. There's likely online (and free) resources for pretty much anything you'd be interested in. If you're looking for suggestions there's like a billion websites for teaching people how to code and design programs. A GIANT PARSNIP fucked around with this message at 13:06 on Jul 16, 2015 |
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Jul 16, 2015 13:04
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C-Euro posted:I started my first salaried position (after being hourly) a few weeks ago and luckily my boss understands what a 40-hour workweek is, he fucks off every day at 5:01 and doesn't seem to care if I'm packing up at the same time. Then again he may or may not also get in a half-hour early each morning, but hasn't asked me to do the same. Just from the little bit that you wrote, I'm wondering if a salaried job is "for you" career-wise. If this is just a short-term, paying-the-bills thing you can feel free to dismiss this, but as a salaried employee I feel that it's my duty to give my best effort to the company, at least within the confines of that 40 hour week, and more often than not a few hours beyond that. I don't mean to sound patronizing, but if your first instinct is to only do what is asked of you, even if you're doing good work, you don't sound like a great fit for the job. I don't mean to imply that it's all on you; the culture of the company might be poo poo, in which case you're still not a great fit for the job since it's apparently a lovely job. Not trying to chide you or go Lumbergh on you, or say that you can't improve yourself, just hoping that you'll evaluate your perspective.
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Jul 16, 2015 13:47
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Easychair Bootson posted:Just from the little bit that you wrote, I'm wondering if a salaried job is "for you" career-wise. If this is just a short-term, paying-the-bills thing you can feel free to dismiss this, but as a salaried employee I feel that it's my duty to give my best effort to the company, at least within the confines of that 40 hour week, and more often than not a few hours beyond that. I don't mean to sound patronizing, but if your first instinct is to only do what is asked of you, even if you're doing good work, you don't sound like a great fit for the job. I don't mean to imply that it's all on you; the culture of the company might be poo poo, in which case you're still not a great fit for the job since it's apparently a lovely job. As a career salaried employee, sorry but this makes me think of the Clueless from the Gervais Principle. I also feel I fall into that a bit, but understand your bosses won't promote you because you do a good job or work more hours. They'll promote you if it's beneficial to them personally in some fashion.
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Jul 16, 2015 14:03
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A GIANT PARSNIP posted:Our payment would be cheaper than rent!* Obviously, this all depends on where you live. I live in a terrible rental market. It's not NYC or San Fran levels, but it's not great (especially since the median income here isn't as much as large cities.) But it's not that bad of a housing market, so long as you avoid a couple really pricey areas. I'm in the process of buying a 3 BD, 1 BA house, and even a high estimate of what the mortgage will be puts it only about $100 above what the rent was on my old 1 BD apartment . Even with estimated taxes and insurance, it's still only a few hundred more, and my GF will be living with me splitting the costs, so my actual total monthly housing expenditures will be less for three times the space, and a garage, and a backyard, and in a much nicer part of town. If we went more modest and just got a 2 BD condo, I could probably get a mortgage and most of the tax and insurance for the same price as my old apartment, but we both hate the idea of condos...sort of like the worst of both worlds in terms of buying vs renting. Yes, there's still repair and maintenance, higher utilities, etc..., but aside from any sort of MAJOR repair that needs to be done in the first few years, it'll still average less.
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Jul 16, 2015 14:05
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ladyweapon posted:My coworker has rented out her old condo at a loss for several years. I think shes losing several hundred a month even after increasing her tenants rent by $200. If i recall correctly, they haven't sold it because the value might go up. Based on the numbers my parents gave me they could sell their rental and make more money by putting it all in a REIT.
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Jul 16, 2015 14:39
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Easychair Bootson posted:Just from the little bit that you wrote, I'm wondering if a salaried job is "for you" career-wise. If this is just a short-term, paying-the-bills thing you can feel free to dismiss this, but as a salaried employee I feel that it's my duty to give my best effort to the company, at least within the confines of that 40 hour week, and more often than not a few hours beyond that. I don't mean to sound patronizing, but if your first instinct is to only do what is asked of you, even if you're doing good work, you don't sound like a great fit for the job. I don't mean to imply that it's all on you; the culture of the company might be poo poo, in which case you're still not a great fit for the job since it's apparently a lovely job. I've only had this job for a few weeks so there's a lot of stuff that I could do but are "unknown unknowns" to me, I'm supposed to take a couple sets of responsibilities from my boss over time but so far things have been slow on those and most of my questions have been met with "there's not really a good way for you to have figured this out on your own, eventually it will become second nature" so I guess I just have to be patient. Then again I got a big doc request on Monday that was due today, but because I didn't have anything else to do on Monday I just finished it then :P Big picture being a salaried desk jockey is a big change from my last job, where I was hourly in a 1.5-shift QC lab whose work flow was directly tied to a 3-shift production facility, so there was always a lot to do and a lot of messes to clean up. E: Also in a few months there's a day-long seminar series for my field a couple hours from my office, I made a pitch to my boss yesterday about why they should let me go and he said our VP will probably approve it 
C-Euro fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Jul 16, 2015 |
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Jul 16, 2015 15:23
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When you're new to any job it takes a while to find your groove. My first few months at this job I was bored as poo poo and literally counting the minutes until 5:00. Eventually I found my stride and have been called up to the bigs, so to speak, within the company. Just make sure you are looking for those opportunities. If you're not finding them, it's probably not the place for you.
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Jul 16, 2015 15:30
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The optimal job is where you get paid a lot to do very little and are not expected to do extra. I'll work extra hard if I'll directly benefit from it but what's the motivation otherwise. Work is not a moral good, I want to maximize my pay to work ratio.
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Jul 16, 2015 16:53
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:I'll work extra hard if I'll directly benefit from it but what's the motivation otherwise. People who work the minimum and do nothing more than they are asked to, don't tend to progress, and are the first to be let go. This is not a problem in a minimum wage donkey-work job, but if you are in an office with a hierarchy, you would be wise to put in more than the minimum. Besides, it makes it more interesting - nothing is more boring than having to sit round looking busy for hours.
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Jul 16, 2015 17:00
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You do not generally get rewarded for doing more than you are expected. The reward for doing more than you are expected is being expected to do more. Now, developing some other skill that can be leveraged to move upwards in some way, that's good, but if you're just doing more of your current task, well, congrats because you're just growing your own workload and making them think they shouldn't promote you because they won't replace your productivity at your current position in a cost-efficient manner.
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Jul 16, 2015 17:14
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Nail Rat posted:You do not generally get rewarded for doing more than you are expected. The reward for doing more than you are expected is being expected to do more.
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Jul 16, 2015 17:31
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:The optimal job is where you get paid a lot to do very little and are not expected to do extra. Yeah, I feel the same way. I'd rather live a long life and make OK money instead of stressing myself into an early grave trying to make more.
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Jul 16, 2015 17:39
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20,000 employees here, work hard and be good = get all the cool jobs, best raises 5-8% vs 2-3%, bigger bonus 10-15% vs 4-8%. The real key is to learn how to be bad rear end and do it in 40 hours. Lots of hours says nothing about work quality.
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