Thanks 
How can you have been a federal government employee and not gotten backpay?
That’s how my late spouse justified getting a new TV/entertainment system - he went back over our budget records, showed how much we spent going out for a movie even occasionally, then showed that if we stopped going to the movies and just watched the DVD’s six months later when they came out the system would give us the same or more entertainment for less money when averaged out over two and a half years.
On the other hand - we didn’t use credit for that, we bought it all outright and paid no interest. Which is much different than the rent-to-own method or buying it on credit.
When things were really bad we budgeted $20/month for entertainment - which is not even one movie around here, by the way. It’s Netflix and a meal at McDonald’s or Burger King once a month. At one point my WoW guild passed the hat so we could keep playing, which was damn nice of them. Also discovered my local library has every episode of Doctor Who ever released to DVD.
Official Federal employees get back pay. Contractors and their employees do not. I’m presuming (and am willing to be corrected if wrong) that this is a situation where someone is working for the Federal government and thus a “government employee” but via a contractor.
Ok, doesn’t answer the question at all, but ok.
Went to the Social Security office yesterday to some needed-in-person business (SSA is so last millennium sometimes) and after when we were done I asked the agent, “It’s none of my business but are you getting paid or is it being deferred?” She said she was; for some reason the SSA’s budget had been passed and signed a couple months ago, separately from everybody else.
We both agreed it really sux for the other G-workers.
But the thing is, the people offering those solutions are right. The issue isn’t that those won’t work: it’s that they’re simple yet difficult. Yes, the person eating less will feel hungry, which is unpleasant - but it will work because physics. I was overweight once and I simply did the math - I wanted to get down to 180lbs., so I limited my calories to 1800/day. No special diet, no additional exercise, I just plain ate less of what I already ate. I went from 240 to 180 in about 12 weeks, then raised my intake to maintain that (about 2000/day). My coworkers at the time watched my progress and absolutely hated seeing those pounds come off, all the while claiming it wouldn’t work for them.
Money is similar. There’s a Buddhist saying: “If a man has no food, the wisest thing he can do is fast.” If you’ve got no money, when you pass Ebenezer Scrooge on the street, he should nudge his friend Montgomery Burns and whisper “There goes one cheap son of a bitch.” When I was broke I scrimped for about seven years, buying nothing new, not eating out or going out, no tv, nada. Talking to people now, it’s all about how they felt they should treat themselves, life can’t be a grind, they deserved something for being good for a week or two. When I was a kid, I read this story about an ant and a grasshopper…
There’s a difference between scrimping and saving for an achievable goal and being in position where you will never be out of the hole.
Or, to extend your metaphor - sure, you can fast if you have nothing to eat, but eventually that will kill you.
In other words, poor people are not all alike. They are poor for different reasons and have different capabilities. Certainly, they should be encouraged to improve their lot but our society often seems to punish rather than encourage, and refuses to acknowledge that there are some people who aren’t going to get better.
You may not agree with the answer, but the fact is that a lot of people working for the Federal government are not on a government payroll. If someone works every day for years as a security guard at the Smithsonian, it’s not crazy for that person ( and others) to think of himself as a “government employee” even if he is technically employed by a contractor. But he won’t get backpay when the shutdown is over.
This is not complex, a federal employee is a federal employee - show me where a federal employee has not received back pay.
Also, I can think of myself as young and handsome but that would’t make it true either.
Maybe not “crazy” but wildly incorrect to the point that I’ve never actually encountered someone making this error. Seems like half the District is contractors. And they know it.
Its a personal preference, and I’m not saying people who do things different from me are wrong or bad. But this is how I look at it.
A brand new midsize sedan may be 25k. A gently used model (a 2015 for example) may be 13k. That is a 12k savings.
12k pays for a lot of repairs. You can get an extended warranty and roadside service if you need them. Some slightly used cars still have the original warranty.
Even if you don’t get the warranty, a 2016 car with good records and 45k miles isn’t going to have a lot of problems. Unless the previous owner never changed any of the fluids, the car should be fine.
Also again, if you have an affordable mechanic, even if you have to replace the entire engine and transmission it is still cheaper to buy used.
And at the end of the day, that brand new 2019 car with 0 miles will be a 3 year old car with 45k miles in 3 years anyway. New cars don’t stay new.
Simple. During a temporary shutdown, any jobs that don’t absolutely have to be done to maintain the appearance of continuing to function just aren’t done. So while some employees continue to work without pay for the moment, some are just sent home.
I was a national guard member but was a full time mechanic for the department of defense. It’s called dual status , both a federal civilian employee and member of the military.
They use dual status for jobs that are considered to be too military in nature to contract out. They get military members, full time, without having to make them active duty.
Interesting - thank you for the informative answer.
It’s risk and return, kind of like investing in financial assets. So likewise no right or wrong answer but depends on personal risk tolerance, though also with cars the degree to which you are a ‘car person’, or even just a person who feels relatively more or less comfortable negotiating, with used car sellers, with mechanics, etc. rather than the one time negotiation to buy a new one. And while not gteed, usually nowadays if you choose a reliable brand/model and take proper care of the car, the initial purchase/payments is likely to be the only really major expense over say 10 yrs. Maybe less if you drive a loads of miles, but anyway likely to be for some years.
But, you can expect the new car to cost more over the life, more steady and predictable, but more $'s on average. You pay for the greater (not absolute) protection against sudden big repair bills and/or suddenly not having a car to get to work.
However if you just can’t afford a new car, if other debts have to rise or you’d pay loads of interest by years of ‘minimum payment’ on other debt, then you have to get a cheap used car, if you really absolutely can’t get by without a car. Regardless of political/social policies, ‘fairness’ etc individual people have to get by on what they can make (and/or qualify for in govt beneftits, and maximize that).
Oh, without knowing how long that shutdown would last, we were also barred from unemployment benefits. Before that comes up.
I’m not even sure how that was legal but that’s what was done.
Side jobs would have to have been under the table since moonlighting is “highly discouraged”
I looked it up out of curiosity; it seems like under that classification you have pretty limited rights in general. What’s the appeal?
I have a coworker I call “the $40K in debt coworker”. She made a bit more than me (I make $60K/yr), and was married. She had (as referenced above) over $40K in credit card debt alone. She was paying something like $700/mo in interest on her credit cards. Basically, anything she wanted, she put on her cards. She took money from her husband’s 401K to pay the CC off, but within a couple years she’s creeping up there again. She’ll take 3-4 out of town vacations per year. She recently bought a brand new car and she’s currently contemplating a $7000 new camera. She’s just started contributing to her 401K, having left all those matching funds on the table all these years. She’s not sure she’ll be able to afford to keep her house (her husband died 2 years ago). She’s decided she might as well continue to spend and not save, because now it’s too late and she’s never going to be able to retire anyway. She understands budgeting and spreadsheets - she’s an analyst. She just lacks willpower.
I make less, contribute 30% to my 401K, own my home outright, own a rental home bringing in about double the mortgage each month in rent. I drive a used car. I make improvements to my house after I’ve saved up the money to do it. I live far below my income. I almost never take vacations (because I have dogs and horses). But I have so much less stress not worrying about money.
OTOH, I have cleaning (the $40K in debt coworker keeps an immaculate house). I can force myself to do the dishes, have a reasonably clean bathroom, and clean clothes and linens. So the extra stuff just accumulates. In fact, I recently used some of my hard-earned savings to hire someone to sort through crap I’ve accumulated, and dispose or donate most of it (except the books. I can’t get rid of books). The apathy about cleaning outweighs my desire to have a neat home. It’s the same sort of thing. Except I don’t suppose most people have a GoFundMe for a cleaning service.
StG
That should’ve been “I hate cleaning”.
StG
$20+ hr, 2weeks paid vacation, guaranteed cooperation with your two week AT period for the guard or a deployment( you’d be surprised how many employers count this against you in one way or another)
Good medical benefits, 401k with 100 percent matching. +Retirement after 30years in addition to any military retirement you’ve racked up during deployments. Plus if your health doesn’t hold up that long you’ll be receiving disability pay instead of retirement. Not just get tossed aside.
Possibility of becoming a shop Cheif which could bring you up to a Max of 93k
(Though this is risky because there’s no guarantee there’s a full time position for you when you become a warrant officer but you can no longer keep your current position)
All
With no more than a high school diploma.
That’s not bad; probably better overall than some of the sub GS-8 federal jobs.