Most Americans are one paycheck away from the street

[Brandon]

Haha. Just wow.

[Tank]

So a dude I went to HS with has been unemployed a long time. Finally gets a job at Black & Decker. Makes a post about how he's determined to to "take over the company!". 3 days later.... "That was short lived. Got home after work. Got a phone call. Unemployed."

 

Someone asks: "What happened?"

 

Him: "They said I was sleeping during a training module."

 

so just to be clear, the nazis at black & decker frown on that kind of behavior? it's a world gone mad.

[stevestevens]

I am in the same boat. I don't live extravagently, but a $3,000 mortgage, $800 student loan payment, $700 preschool payment, and $800 health insurance contribution (not to mention food for family of five, utilities, gas, insurance, etc) make it tough to save any meaningful amount of money.

 

My wife and I always talk about moving back to California but Wopphil reminded me why we still live in Utah.  $700 for preschool?????? I just signed my twins up for preschool next year for three days a week (2.5 hours) and it is $70 for each.  My house payment (including property tax and insurance) is just over $1400 for a 4,000 sq ft home.  Cost of living is crazy down there.   

[gotbeer]

My buddy just told me, that his work just moved him to graveyard shift.  I told him to quit.  He said he can't afford to quit.  

 

This is a guy that worked for Fox as an editor for 20 years.  Who was looking for a job for about a year.  And the only job he could find was at 1/3 his last salary as an entry level.  He's been pretty much tapping into his retirement savings to make ends meet.  

[Adam]

Give him some winners dude

[Adam]

My wife and I always talk about moving back to California but Wopphil reminded me why we still live in Utah.  $700 for preschool?????? I just signed my twins up for preschool next year for three days a week (2.5 hours) and it is $70 for each.  My house payment (including property tax and insurance) is just over $1400 for a 4,000 sq ft home.  Cost of living is crazy down there.   

 

My kid starts in September. 3 days a week for $310/mo. Seems reasonable to me

[gotbeer]

Give him some winners dude

 

Actually he's a real good handicapper.  

[wopphil]

My wife and I always talk about moving back to California but Wopphil reminded me why we still live in Utah. $700 for preschool?????? I just signed my twins up for preschool next year for three days a week (2.5 hours) and it is $70 for each. My house payment (including property tax and insurance) is just over $1400 for a 4,000 sq ft home. Cost of living is crazy down there.

I have a buddy who just moved to Oregon, and one of the first things he commented on was how much cheaper preschool is there. It is definitely one way in which the cost of living us much higher here.

My $3,000 mortgage is on a roughly $450,000 loan, which actually makes me fortunate because most buyers right now can't get a middle class home for less than $700,000. I wouldn't be able to afford a home in today's market.

[Brandon]

I know a bunch of people moving or retiring in Oregon.

[fan_since79]

Labor participation rate is the lowest in 38 years. That's why the "jobless rate" went down today. They don't count the Americans who are out of unemployment benefits, have given up looking for work, and moved back in with relatives or whatever. Those people don't count in the government's surveys.

[stevestevens]

I was very close to taking a job on the oregon coast a year and a half ago. My mom lives a block away from me right now and she is a widow so it just made it to hard. The job i would have taken also really had no lateral movement either. i stayed where i am too because I was promoted and there is still lateral movement. We are in a better financial situation and are by my mom to take care of her but every month i think of living in the coast, fishing for salmon, and playing cheap golf

[fan_since79]

Retired Target CEO laughs at this thread.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/target-ceos-47-million-retirement-050100430.html

 

Gregg Steinhafel, who stepped down as chief executive officer of Target Corp. in May following a massive credit-card data breach, received retirement plans worth more than $47 million. When he joined Target in 1979, the Minneapolis-based company offered generous retirement programs -- so generous for executives that it included a deferred compensation plan that paid a guaranteed 12 percent interest.

That's quite a contrast with the average Target employees' retirement plans. Steinhafel's total package is 1,044 times the average balance of $45,000 that workers have saved in the company's 401(k) plan.

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

Thought I'd post this here since we were talking about the cost of college at one point:

 

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-proposes-idea-two-free-years-community-college-012142866.html

 

Requirements - attending school at least half-time and maintaining a 2.5 GPA while making steady progress towards completing programs.  I'll wait for more to come out but so far this sounds like a terrible idea (2.5 GPA, really?) that's really just a political move because it has to pass a republican congress.

[ten ocho recon scout]

I know a bunch of people moving or retiring in Oregon.

i e started considering it. Have never been there, but the older i get the idea of living somewhere less crowded and green is kind of appealing. Even if i hit the lotto and could buy a nice place in socal, it would probably be a lot different when i retire.

[ten ocho recon scout]

You kind of lost me Cez, on what wxactly you are outlying. If i understand correctly are you saying kids should be graduating high school in the 10th grade? (Just to clarify, not arguing with you).

Whats your take as a teacher about the core classes at the high school level? What would you add/ take away?

And what do you think about kicking kids out of high school sooner if they arent passing? I read somewhere once that years ago it was more common, not sure how true that is though.

[Brandon]

i e started considering it. Have never been there, but the older i get the idea of living somewhere less crowded and green is kind of appealing. Even if i hit the lotto and could buy a nice place in socal, it would probably be a lot different when i retire.

I loved it in Portland....cost of living and quality of life are big proponents. There isn't the business opportunity, but to retire I'd absolutely consider it. Especially since I plan on Social Security being obsolete by the time I retire.

[ten ocho recon scout]

How is portland in terms of vibe? Is it kind of big city in the middle of nowhere like denver or seattle?

The weather appeals to me for whatever weird reason.

[ten ocho recon scout]

Gotcha. Thats pretty cool, knocking out your AA in high school. Do they (in europe) then move on to a 4 year university or is it just 2 for your BA?

[Brandon]

I like the weather. I prefer cool weather opposed to exorbitant heat.

Downtown reminded me of San Diego within size, radius, vibe. It's a metro feel, but rather quaint. It's just not overcrowded like an LA area with traffic nonstop. It reminded me of Kansas City, as well, where people are generally happier because they want to be there and there is more of an emphasis on quality of life opposed to hustle and bustle life/financial stress we have in CA.

[ten ocho recon scout]

Also, as an educator, have you ever dated anyone who went to university of phoenix and had a framed picture of them in a cap and gown? And if so, did you ever make a comment that they got offended by about it?

[ten ocho recon scout]

That sounds about what im looking for brandon. Im with you, ill take cool weather anyday. Not sure id ever want to live too far from 'the city', but maybe in a quieter area close to a big city would be cool. Seattle seems like a cool spot to retire to

[mp170.6]

I think it's worth noting that in California, many years ago, community college used to be FREE. 

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

I have mixed feelings about it because it doesn't go far enough, IMO.

 

I'd like us to eventually get to where students get tracked for vocational or academic paths out of high school by 10th grade.  That's how a lot of European countries do it, and it actually eliminates the need for junior/community college because the academic track students do the same work through International Baccalaureate in 11th and 12th grade that out kids do now in community college/first 2 years at most universities.  

 

Kind of like with socialized health care, we can't do it all at once, though.  We have to take small steps, just as we've done with changing any large system in the US for the past 200 years.  

 

As another step for Obama's proposal, I'd like it to be a lot harder for kids to get into a community college in the first place.  

 

Sorry if I'm getting too political here. 

 

I don't disagree with you about some kind of path for a trade school around 10th/11th grade but the vague details about this so far have taxpayers paying an estimated 30+ billion a year for junior college.  We already have K-12 schools which in some cases leave quite a bit to be desired while we have some high school graduates who aren't prepared for college.  If they were talking about overhauling high school or even just implementing some kind of trade school path I'd be all for it but free JC for maintaining a 2.5 GPA isn't something I'm a fan of.  If taxpayers foot the bill how many more people are going to go to JC when it really may not be for them?  

[Tank]

I'm in Portland now. Probably a bunch of non-vaccinaters here by the looks of it.

 

how many subaru outbacks have you seen so far?

[Tank]

i e started considering it. Have never been there, but the older i get the idea of living somewhere less crowded and green is kind of appealing. Even if i hit the lotto and could buy a nice place in socal, it would probably be a lot different when i retire.

 

i'd love to work in portland or even retire there. my wife has a cousin who works and lives in portland, and he and his wife are two of the most fun people i know. would love to live close to them.

 

i'd also consider somewhere near seattle, at least i did until last summer when a former boss of mine was hired at a school in puget sound. don't want to be that close to him.