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Thread: $160 per month due to new tax law.

  1. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by gimmethesimplelife View Post
    IL.......you also are not without a point here, gotta give you that and please don't be shocked I am doing such. At the moment, I am not poor based on the amount of my checks.......I am actually borderline middle class and can no longer qualify for government assistance (which is as it should be, given the size of my current checks)...........that said, it takes a lot of time to "unpoor" yourself......certainly I am not raising my standard of living other than for some possible travel. I stash all that I can in the credit union as I know that every dollar you can save is one share of insurance against America - and I will always see it that way, given that human life is not worth socialized medicine in the US.
    Rob
    We call that growing up.
    The non defecating detective springs to mind here, as what do you think most people in society do, especially once they have hit adulthood/self responsibility. Most are not given golden spoons/trust funds, etc.
    We call that saving for a rainy day. Guess what, it is going to rain, and socialized medicine certainly doesn't cover everything, even thought that is your pet peeve. What would happen, if for instance, you because disabled because a building fell on you. If socialized medicine took care of your physical needs, that still leaves other needs.


    You are actually beginning to "get things" that others have tried to explain to you in posts over the years, that you either glossed over, or somehow couldn't grasp.

  2. #42
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    Socialized medicine would sure help for a rainy day though given how much of rainy day funds will end up going to healthcare. Anyway leaving healthcare systems to the side, I don't think maturity consists primarily of having a rainy day fund, in fact I think that's an insufficient answer to the problems of modern life. It may have worked better in the world of circa 1960 or 1970 or something. It is good to have a rainy day fund. But seeing money as one's main asset is really very narrow, it's not really a matured point of view. Money is indispensable and incomplete even as far as survival goes.

    There is no set criteria for growing up. There is a strong emotional component. But maybe it's stuff like trying to keep figuring out how the world really functions in ways beyond how one was taught it functions (but can one always use this to their advantage? no not always). And growing up is not always gained by success, that's one path, but it is as much gained by suffering.

    * I do wish I was a white male, with a college degree, and a mortgage though, as I am none of those things. Whitish ok, but male nope, college degree nope, mortgage nope. Being poor and single is better than being poor and a single parent for sure. Single parents are absolutely heroic to have to go through that. I can't even imagine the strength and courage that takes! Being poor and married with kids versus being poor and single, it's hard to say, single really means you are completely on your own so it's hard in that noone else but you cares that much if you live or die etc..
    Trees don't grow on money

  3. #43
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by dmc View Post
    As another poster has said many times, just have a couple of bags packed and ready to flee when the time comes.
    Good call if I do say so myself!!! Rob

  4. #44
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    And European travel, and travel to Thailand, is a decided class marker. Not the class rob aspires to. There are all kinds of class aspirations.

    just sayin’.

  5. #45
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    I don't know anyone who has said maturity consists primarily of a rainy day fund, but it is definitely a sign. It means you know things happen (medical that ISN'T required or covered, car repairs, repairs to residence or hotel money, etc. if fire, having to hire a lawyer, etc). There is certainly an emotional component (hence one of my "life songs")
    and how you deal with the poo that life heaps on you. As for being poor and single being better then being poor and a single parent, well then why do single parents not put their kids up for adoption? (emotions like love come into play against logic/reason, etc)

  6. #46
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
    And European travel, and travel to Thailand, is a decided class marker. Not the class rob aspires to. There are all kinds of class aspirations.

    just sayin’.
    Whoah.....IL......when did I ever say I didn't aspire to anything better in my life? Finally I am making what for me is decent money.......and we only get so many spins around the sun. Of course I want to save every penny I can and the one thing, the one single thing I am willing to spend money on (outside of what I offshore to Mexico) is travel. Call it a class marker if you like but I also have no aspirations to leave the 85006 unless it is to another country. Maybe I am reading you wrong here (?) - and if I am please let me know, I mean this - but I don't see myself as being disrespectful to the Austrian flag (i.e., rising too far above my station in life). So I see it anyway, but your take and your mileage get to vary. Rob

    PS....as far as my European travel in 2015 back to the Homeland and to Slovakia and Spain and Portugal, were it not for a friend of my family with some money passing on and kindly leaving both my Mother and I some of his estate, there would have been no such trip. Period. This was just a stroke of luck, nothing more, nothing less. I certainly did not expect to come into any money with this person's passing. As for my time in Morocco - I paid for everything beyond the airport in Lisbon on my own, which is nothing really to be impressed with as the ticket to Marrakech was dirt cheap and once you get to Morocco, you find that it can be dirt cheap if you do it right.....the only costly thing in Morocco was my love of hand woven rugs.....otherwise the whole trip would have clocked in at around US $400 for the week I was there including airfare from Lisbon. (the rugs did add much more to this I will admit and I've finally got the credit card paid off for this).

    My point is that I did not per se aspire to European travel. Money miraculously appeared into my life and naturally I had to visit Austria after all these years. It was almost like a requirement to do so if you can understand this (?).

    I will however agree with you to some degree that travel to Thailand could be seen as aspirational....on the other hand, clean and safe rooms can be had in Bangkok for USD $20 a night and meals can be had for around USD $1 to USD $1.50. Hardly aspirational other than for the airfare.....now that is a little bit of a bill but on the other hand, premium economy on EVA Airlines from LAX to Taipei and then on to Bangkok costs several hundred dollars less than steerage class on British Airways from Phoenix direct to Heathrow and then on to Vienna. Rob

  7. #47
    Senior Member rosarugosa's Avatar
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    A bit of a sidetrack here, but Rob, I have to say how much I admire your intellectual honesty. I love how unfailingly conscientious you are in considering all sides of an issue, and to say so forthrightly if someone makes you question a previously held assumption. I've also seen you get quite a bit of flack over the years, sometimes almost at an abusive level, and you've brushed it off your lapels so to speak, and kept trucking on.
    You are the gold standard for forum discussions, in my humble opinion. I'm so glad we have you.

  8. #48
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rosarugosa View Post
    A bit of a sidetrack here, but Rob, I have to say how much I admire your intellectual honesty. I love how unfailingly conscientious you are in considering all sides of an issue, and to say so forthrightly if someone makes you question a previously held assumption. I've also seen you get quite a bit of flack over the years, sometimes almost at an abusive level, and you've brushed it off your lapels so to speak, and kept trucking on.
    You are the gold standard for forum discussions, in my humble opinion. I'm so glad we have you.
    Rosarugosa - Thank You. Such kind words - I'm floored, I really am. I don't know what to say other than Thank You. And you are right - this is what I always do in life no matter what I encounter - I just keep trucking on. Sometimes the journey leads to interesting places as I truck on and at the age of 51, I am still learning and there are things I have left to learn. Keeps me young and on my toes........Rob

  9. #49
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    foreign travel all the time is a kind of very well into the middle class marker - as are super shiny almost new cars! I find those people kind of silly, but if I'm hanging there I'm making really good money so I keep my head down, it's as much the exception as the rule to be on that perch.
    Trees don't grow on money

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