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Thread: Shipping container Inflation! (700%)

  1. #101
    Here's my walked to school in thigh deep snow, uphill both ways story:

    I started as a police officer in Kansas for 3.87 (pretty sure) in 1976. Within a year I had bought a house for $20,000.00. A year later I had steel siding put on it for $3,200.00 IIRC, and the year after that we had the bathroom redone - adding a shower and pretty much tiling the whole thing, again IIRC, we paid $2,400.00 to the kid that did it - interesting back story, he was just out of high school, had worked fore his dad - the tile guy - until his dad had passed away, his mother was running the office and he was trying to keep the business viable, he did a great job on our bathroom.

    In 1980 we sold that house for $34,000.00 and I took a job that paid me $15,000.00 a year. I remember the decision was easy - I had made a little over $9,000 the year before, which would have put my hourly wage at roughly $4.50 an hour - as a patrol sergeant on a small town police department.

    Donuts were a nickel, candy bars and pop were a dime. Cable cost me a whooping $7.95 a month.

    If you compare those costs to today you can see that prices for some goods have increased over 10 times during the ensuing years. Cost of goods is the same irrespective of the salary/wage you are making. Trust me on this, no one in Kansas is paying $38.70 an hour/$77,400.00 a year for entry level cops, which is ten times what I started at in 1976.

    I think we need to keep in mind that even then, policing paid better than a lot of blue collar jobs.

    But, heck, why did I waste my breath, everyone knows that wages for the middle and lower folks have been stagnant for the last 20+ years.

    Here's the deal, a couple days ago someone posted a link to a book entitled: A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity
    by Luigi Zingales. Using the metric that you can chart the intelligence of a person by how much their beliefs dovetail with yours, Luigi is a genius. He says what I believe much more succinctly than I could:

    Here is the rub: 'Americans can not play the blame on one bad guy. Through our retirement funds and stock investments, WE are the owners of the very companies that lobby to grab our tax money and dominate our political life.'

    That being said, I constantly need to remind myself that not everyone has the opportunity, and the drive, to put 1/2 of every raise they got into tax deferred SRA's for most of their career. In fact, I need to remind myself that most American's don't have retirement plans even close to what those of us who work(ed) for state, local and federal government agencies have the opportunity to benefit from.

    During the decade that ended in 2012, the real income of the median American family dropped seven percent. (Zingales)

    The median male in his twenties makes 19 percent less (in real terms) than his father made at the same age. (Zingales)

    Not much has changed in that respect since 2012.

    I don't know how we can have a free market system if we legislate morality. In my viewpoint we need to get back to the days when employees were looked upon as people, not resources, and the employer felt some responsibility for their well being. I'll be damned if I know how to accomplish that in today's world.
    Adding nothing to the conversation since 2015....

  2. #102
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    Quote Originally Posted by TGS View Post
    Being "thrifty" has nothing to do with knowing how to manage money well.
    I have to disagree. The two ways I have to make money at my business, and therefore personally as well, are to spend less / cut costs, and to raise my income. Obviously these are broad topics and certain expenses can't be cut without negative impact while increases in income without proper investments (savings accounts and CD's being poor investments as you alluded to above) are meaningless as well. Being thrifty does affect wealth, though...it's just not the be-all, end-all.

    My Mom (the same one with the Christmas lights?) had both of us kids set up with savings accounts, checking accounts, money market accounts, and mutual funds before age 10. My checks actually say I've had an account at my bank since 1987, which is funny because I was 9 in '87. We weren't a rich family. My Mom was a teacher and Dad was a farmer bringing in a very small income. The farm paid me when I started working there at age 7, and Mom made me save 90% of it, allowing me to spend 10%.

    I know a lot of kids didn't get the "opportunity" to work through their childhood, which is honestly a shame although I wouldn't wish my exact "childhood" on anybody. But by going to community college and then transferring into a 4-year school, and then taking classes like a madman so I could finish up a semester early because my money was going to run out, I was able to walk in December free of debt with $300 in the bank. I then squandered my education by becoming a mechanic and made generally bad decisions for 20 years until I found myself here, but hey, that's all on me. I was raised right.

    Quote Originally Posted by TGS View Post
    @Joe in PNG's point is spot on though regarding financial literacy. No disagreement on that. I wonder how much of it is people just giving up figuring they're fucked anyway or just kicking the can down the road because it's just too stressful to think about.
    I just ran a quick compound interest calculation. As you said, a lot of us have given up on retirement. I had a plan but it went to crap with the divorce; I got the real estate but I also took on all of the debt and I lost hope for ever being able to retire. But. If I pulled $10k out of my butt (sold some more guns, sold a couple welders, took it out of my HELOC, took out a tiny personal loan, etc), got it earning 7% interest, and then added $1000 a month to it for 30 years, which would make me in my early 70's, I'd still have $1.2 million. That's assuming that my 'normal' income could float the payments for that initial loan, cover taxes, etc while leaving the $10k and the monthly payments intact. Big assumption, but entirely possible looking at my current financial situation. I'd miss $12k a year, I'd feel it, but I'd survive while eating out less and spending less on hobbies and such. That's my point about delayed gratification. Even after a divorce where I lost A LOT, it's still possible for me to come back even in my mid 40's.

    Those calculations don't even figure the value of my real estate or other accounts by that time, which would also be considerable (I hope). The major point is that I can do it. And if I can, at my income level, so can a lot of other people. It's just not fun or easy, and it requires working the problem from both ends (spend less, make more when you're presented with a choice for either). It requires making a budget and sticking to it. And investing money properly as you mentioned.

  3. #103
    Four String Fumbler Joe in PNG's Avatar
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    To jump on Welder's post, there's more to income management than just avoiding the temptation to blow all your cash on frivolities. There's investing, retirement investing, avoiding scams, learning how to actually buy thing (a surprisingly rare skill), time management, and knowing what you are actually worth.

    However, blowing all your cash in frivolities is to finances what uncontrolled arterial bleeding is to medicine. Stop that first, then worry about the other stuff.
    "You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
    "I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI

  4. #104
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joe in PNG View Post
    To jump on Welder's post, there's more to income management than just avoiding the temptation to blow all your cash on frivolities. There's ..<snip>... knowing what you are actually worth.
    And if you're worth less than what you're being paid, there's knowing how to keep your own counsel.

  5. #105
    Modding this sack of shit BehindBlueI's's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GJM View Post
    That is only part of labor. The cost of the food sold in the grocery store is a large percentage, and if food producers are also increasing wages, that will drive up costs.
    Labor costs for food items varies radically, but the people doing the labor almost universally make up a very small percent of the cost. It's been much too long since I did the reading/research on this to remember specifics but farms and farm workers are getting something like 20% of the profits. You could double the wages of the guy actually picking and the farmer's cut and it would be very minimal increase down the chain for most food items. Distributors and transportation costs are the lions share. You certainly see that in Alaska. The production didn't cost any more, the harvesting didn't cost any more, but your prices are higher because it's harder to get a ripe apple to you in February.

    In short, fuel prices often matter more than wages for commodity food items.

    Quote Originally Posted by Joe in PNG View Post
    If you were to increase the wages of the vast majority of average people, they'd wind up in even more debt.
    Definitely true, but also a separate issue. I was certain stupid with money until I started having some, though.
    Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.

  6. #106
    How common are investments that generate 7% interest? My next pay raise will allow me o max out my TSP contributions so I’ll be looking for something else to invest extra money in. My Roth IRA hasn’t been as successful as I’d like.
    My posts only represent my personal opinion and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or official policies of any employer, past or present. Obvious spelling errors are likely the result of an iPhone keyboard.

  7. #107
    Modding this sack of shit BehindBlueI's's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by WobblyPossum View Post
    How common are investments that generate 7% interest?
    Long term? Pretty common with a simple index fund.

    See: https://www.businessinsider.com/pers...-market-return
    Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.

  8. #108
    Member TGS's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joe in PNG View Post
    To jump on Welder's post, there's more to income management than just avoiding the temptation to blow all your cash on frivolities. There's investing, retirement investing, avoiding scams, learning how to actually buy thing (a surprisingly rare skill), time management, and knowing what you are actually worth.

    However, blowing all your cash in frivolities is to finances what uncontrolled arterial bleeding is to medicine. Stop that first, then worry about the other stuff.
    That's entirely my point.

    Being thrifty doesn't mean a person knows how to manage money. Many poor people with no financial planning for retirement and no idea of how to benefit from passive growth are very thrifty. Thus, you can't say they really know anything about how to manage money; they're just stingy, or thrifty, which is a character trait that isn't synonymous with financial literacy.
    "Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer

  9. #109
    Quote Originally Posted by BehindBlueI's View Post
    Long term? Pretty common with a simple index fund.

    See: https://www.businessinsider.com/pers...-market-return
    Thanks. I’ll give that a read.
    My posts only represent my personal opinion and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or official policies of any employer, past or present. Obvious spelling errors are likely the result of an iPhone keyboard.

  10. #110
    Abducted by Aliens Borderland's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by WobblyPossum View Post
    How common are investments that generate 7% interest? My next pay raise will allow me o max out my TSP contributions so I’ll be looking for something else to invest extra money in. My Roth IRA hasn’t been as successful as I’d like.
    I've been in this one a long time. Not sure if it's open to the unwashed masses but we've been living off of the distributions for awhile now. Clicks along at about 11% return without too much drama. I was able to invest through deferred compensation retirement plan where I worked.



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