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kimbo305 posted:"Work lunch alone costs $10-$15 for a mediocre meal compared to $5-6, 10-15 years ago. Therefore, the solution is to buy in bulk and always bring food to work. Unfortunately, that gets old after a while, especially when you’re working 60+ hours a week." When you're working 60+ hours a week for $600k+ a year, saving money by taking more time to make food starts to not look like as good of a proposition as it used to for sure. Krispy Wafer posted:You mean none of you have a Slack channel dedicated to leftover conference room food and bring your own plate to work so you can easily transport your scraps? A box of gallon ziplock bags should be a part of everyone's work desk arsenal.
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Mar 26, 2019 22:22
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Maybe their multiple big vacations a year include driving from NY to Disney Land, thus incurring more gas and vehicle costs.
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Mar 26, 2019 22:38
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You know I just noticed something.... what the hell is $42k/year for child care? I kept glossing over that because I know how much day care costs in even a normal CoL area, but if these kids are old enough for $12k/year worth of activities/"lessons", they aren't in day care. I suspect "child care" is covering up for expensive private schooling to make it look better. Alternatively it could be a nanny or other full-time help. Either way I bet it's cover for something to make them seem more "average." baquerd posted:When you're working 60+ hours a week for $600k+ a year, saving money by taking more time to make food starts to not look like as good of a proposition as it used to for sure. Eh, they were each making $250k supposedly. Even then, $15/day for lunch ain't much even if you're in a normal CoL area. And yes there's PLENTY of fat they can cut first. But lets' be honest here, if you're going to bitch and moan about how $250k/year isn't enough to survive on, then you better start brown bagging it. If they're actually good at what they do, they can get good gigs that pay less, but are in much lower CoL areas. So they'd take a pay cut, but their taxes and expenses would drop by at least as much. Also: General Probe posted:The thing I always feel gets overlooked when that budget is posted is that the family declaring themselves average shows that they grew up with that kind of wealth and have grown so accustomed to it to it their whole lives that they would be absolutely hosed if they ever had to live like an average Joe. Yeah if nothing else, no "average" person in America is socking away the max retirement contribution. Also they're not driving BMWs, and they aren't spending that much on their kids' activities, and they're lucky to take 1 vacation a year. That's all pure luxury, and if they think that this is how "average" people live then they're delusional. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Mar 26, 2019 |
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Mar 26, 2019 22:50
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I've just gotta lol at those student loan repayment numbers. Although they're probably consolidated at like 2%. 
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Mar 26, 2019 22:55
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Sepherothic posted:This is late to the prepper chat but storing water is dumb. Water is everywhere, it just needs to be sterilized, preferably without having to start a fire. Polar pure is what you are looking for. https://www.amazon.com/Purifier-Water-Case-240-Packets/dp/B013ITZ84C This stuff includes a flocculant, and is super cool to watch. Basically, put a bunch of muddy water into a bottle, dump in a packet, shake it up, and it clears and disinfects the water at the same time. Mark Rober did a video about it recently right after he got busted over the fake glitter bomb package thing. I'd link it, but it has this super cringey bit in it where he microwaves pizza rolls for Bill Gates and trust me you're better off not seeing it.
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Mar 26, 2019 23:22
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DaveSauce posted:Really? I just did a quick calculation and we're sitting at around 30%, assuming I'm calculating the same as them (Fed + SALT + FICA)/(gross - 401k). Maybe I'm lucky living in a state with a flat income tax of 5.25%, but my understanding is that high income tax places like NYC are pretty rare, and even then the highest rates only apply to really high earners. Okay, I looked it up and it's not quite as high (or maybe methodology is different or whatever). https://itep.org/wp-content/uploads/WPTIA2018.pdf Effective tax rate for: Bottom 20%: 15.9 Second 20%: 20.8 Middle 20%: 25.4 Fourth 20%: 29 And there it flattens out at about 30, including top 1%.
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Mar 26, 2019 23:23
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Even putting aside the absurdity of their budget, what kind of “average” workers can even take off for a vacation every four months? Honestly the hardest part of this article is think
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Mar 26, 2019 23:41
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https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/b5nid5/massive_fail_lost_3200_biggest_financial_mistake/quote:I got a new job in June and signed up for the all the benefits. They offer a dependent care FSA. I decided to put in an amount equal to my monthly childcare expenses of $450 a month. Well that sucks.
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Mar 27, 2019 00:11
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Barry posted:https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/b5nid5/massive_fail_lost_3200_biggest_financial_mistake/
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Mar 27, 2019 00:18
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On one hand, yes it is your responsibility to be on top of this, understand your payroll deductions, and understand the behavior of various pre-tax accounts that your paycheck can be shuffled into. On the other hand I've really never come to grips with a good reason why FSA accounts are set up with this legally required time bomb behavior that makes your money disappear if you don't use it for some reason. The downside is really terrible and dissuades a lot of people from using these accounts to their benefit.
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Mar 27, 2019 00:22
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I think most $250,000/year positions include at least four weeks of vacation.
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Mar 27, 2019 00:26
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sparkmaster posted:So living on a military base as a civilian.. Good With Apocalypse or Bad With Apocalypse? I can see it going both ways here. If you’re a woman it’s bad with life to be on a military base regardless of circumstances.
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Mar 27, 2019 00:28
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HR error in your employer's favor.
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Mar 27, 2019 00:29
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Sock The Great posted:I think most $250,000/year positions include at least four weeks of vacation. I have "unlimited vacation", I just never have time to take any of it. in the last 8 years I've taken one vacation where I wasn't working.
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Mar 27, 2019 00:45
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Nephzinho posted:I have "unlimited vacation", I just never have time to take any of it. in the last 8 years I've taken one vacation where I wasn't working. We get six weeks, but no one takes them all. And our HR person told us to make sure to let them know when we were vacationing internationally so that they could activate the data plan. That way we could respond to emails! 
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Mar 27, 2019 00:57
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Sock The Great posted:I think most $250,000/year positions include at least four weeks of vacation. You must not know a ton of surgeons or lawyers. e: RE you chose the wrong radi- specialty howdoesishotweb fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Mar 27, 2019 |
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Mar 27, 2019 00:57
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Barry posted:https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/b5nid5/massive_fail_lost_3200_biggest_financial_mistake/ FSA accounts sound so shady and dumb. They really should be banned. I can see absolutely no reason for them to exist. At least an HSA let's you keep the money you put in there until you use it. Worst case scenario, you can bump the contribution limits on those and allow them to be used for childcare, etc.
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Mar 27, 2019 01:06
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blackmet posted:FSA accounts sound so shady and dumb. They really should be banned. I can see absolutely no reason for them to exist. FSAs are good for people with known expenses, such as those with chronic diseases that have recurring medications/treatments/etc. I know people who have recurring medical expenses (through no fault of their own) who blow through their medical FSA in no time. Personally, I take advantage of a dependent care FSA because day care is loving expensive. But I don't disagree, the concept is lovely as all hell that someone wanted to make a special way to pay for medical expenses, but as a compromise it's also severely limited because gently caress poor people who can't afford cadillac insurance.
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Mar 27, 2019 01:12
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Nephzinho posted:I have "unlimited vacation", I just never have time to take any of it. in the last 8 years I've taken one vacation where I wasn't working. Unlimited vacation is a trap. People tend to take less time when given unlimited vacation. And you always have time to take a vacation, unless you’re running your own small business or something. People who think they can’t take a vacation are fooling themselves. Things can wait or someone else can do it for the week you’re gone.
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Mar 27, 2019 01:15
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Bird in a Blender posted:Unlimited vacation is a trap. People tend to take less time when given unlimited vacation. And you always have time to take a vacation, unless you’re running your own small business or something. People who think they can’t take a vacation are fooling themselves. Things can wait or someone else can do it for the week you’re gone. Agreed. I use all my 27 of my days every year.
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Mar 27, 2019 01:20
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Devian666 posted:A 39 pound pack would be good to test preparedness. If the person is wheezing and needs to sit down after putting on the pack they aren't cut out for surviving. Bird in a Blender posted:Unlimited vacation is a trap. People tend to take less time when given unlimited vacation. And you always have time to take a vacation, unless you're running your own small business or something. People who think they can't take a vacation are fooling themselves. Things can wait or someone else can do it for the week you're gone.
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Mar 27, 2019 01:36
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Inept posted:HR error in your employer's favor. It isn't an HR error, it is a redditor doesn't know how calendars and plan years work error. Looks like his plan year is a normal year of January through December, and he started in June. He set for $5000/"year" where year here is the plan year, which for him only had 6 months remaining which is also the period he needs to make the payments over. Which is why it is around 400 per paycheck instead of month. Even disregarding that he should have seen his error after the second check. As far as FSAs go they are not a scam at all. It is a great way to pay for stuff like childcare pretax. It would be nice for it to act like an HSA where funds carried over and could be invested, but the reason why it isn't is because the incentive is to actually use it for those purposes. Having an expiration on the funds encourages people to actually use their funds up. It can encourage disuse because of that but if you have kids or a chronic issue you can come up with a decent estimate for the minimum you will have to pay and can then set your FSA to reflect that.
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Mar 27, 2019 01:45
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Bird in a Blender posted:Unlimited vacation is a trap. People tend to take less time when given unlimited vacation. And you always have time to take a vacation, unless you’re running your own small business or something. People who think they can’t take a vacation are fooling themselves. Things can wait or someone else can do it for the week you’re gone. Yeah, I used to get paid out my unused time and it was functionally an extra paycheck for the year. I'm at a small startup where I don't trust anyone to do 90% of the work, I am unfortunately in a situation where if I disconnect things start to fall apart. I choose to look at it as job security.
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Mar 27, 2019 02:22
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Bird in a Blender posted:Unlimited vacation is a trap. People tend to take less time when given unlimited vacation. And you always have time to take a vacation, unless you’re running your own small business or something. People who think they can’t take a vacation are fooling themselves. Things can wait or someone else can do it for the week you’re gone. The thing is, that's not even why it exists and has gotten so popular. It allows companies to keep accrued vacation off the books as a payroll liability. In larger companies that can add up to quite a sum. My (large) company moved to it for everyone last year. Most people take less vacation now and the company got an enormous liability off their books. You're welcome shareholders.
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Mar 27, 2019 02:32
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Bird in a Blender posted:Unlimited vacation is a trap. People tend to take less time when given unlimited vacation. And you always have time to take a vacation, unless you’re running your own small business or something. People who think they can’t take a vacation are fooling themselves. Things can wait or someone else can do it for the week you’re gone. It can be. One of those things you have to stand up for yourself on and a lot of people don't for fear of getting bad reviews or fired. Great argument for prioritizing gently caress you money though.
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Mar 27, 2019 02:36
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Nephzinho posted:Yeah, I used to get paid out my unused time and it was functionally an extra paycheck for the year. Your workplace hasn't heard of the bus factor I take it
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Mar 27, 2019 02:51
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Volmarias posted:Your workplace hasn't heard of the bus factor I take it It is a weekly discussion / keeps our COO up at night.
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Mar 27, 2019 03:45
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Dude I went to a gigantic state hospital to work and accidently became 1 of only 2 SMEs on my job for the first 6 months, then the only SME for another 6 months before I said 'gently caress this poo poo, I'm out'. Every. Day. Was. Horrible. Being the only person who can do your job is a goddamn nightmare and no company with their heads outside their asses lets it persist. I suppose everyone learns this the hard way, but it bears stating regardless: if they can't get people to do the job, they aren't paying enough for how lovely it is. Bus chat gave me flashbacks. Do they have that drug for soldiers yet that makes you forget bad things happening to you, cause weed doesn't work on me.
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Mar 27, 2019 04:09
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BonerGhost posted:Dude I went to a gigantic state hospital to work and accidently became 1 of only 2 SMEs on my job for the first 6 months, then the only SME for another 6 months before I said 'gently caress this poo poo, I'm out'. It isn't a matter of pay or anything, we're a consulting company that works exclusively on one company's software implementations/contracts/audits, and we spend a ton of time dealing with policies that I wrote when I worked there. It is just a super niche knowledge set that doesn't really exist anywhere but in the head of like 4 people.
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Mar 27, 2019 04:23
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Ixian posted:The thing is, that's not even why it exists and has gotten so popular. It allows companies to keep accrued vacation off the books as a payroll liability. In larger companies that can add up to quite a sum. Yup, this. Corporate social pressure is far more cost-effective than accrued liabilities on the books or post-termination litigation.
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Mar 27, 2019 04:59
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Nephzinho posted:It isn't a matter of pay or anything, we're a consulting company that works exclusively on one company's software implementations/contracts/audits, and we spend a ton of time dealing with policies that I wrote when I worked there. It is just a super niche knowledge set that doesn't really exist anywhere but in the head of like 4 people. Do you have an ownership stake in your company? Because if not, holy poo poo you should be escaping and setting up your own consultancy to take advantage of your niche knowledge and also to hire others who can learn and then fill in for you when you're away.
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Mar 27, 2019 05:36
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jbusbysack posted:Yup, this. Corporate social pressure is far more cost-effective than accrued liabilities on the books or post-termination litigation. The best part of this twisted mentality is we have employees in other countries with friendlier worker laws who have always had more paid vacation - 5, 6, or more weeks - and still do, because the new policy doesn't apply to them - who bought in to the bullshit "unlimited" policy so much they actually complain about it/think they are now losing out. These same people always take their max vacation too, because of course they should, a company gives you 5+ accrued vacation weeks a year means you not taking it (or otherwise being comped for it) is exactly the same as giving yourself a pay cut. They get that but somehow miss that "flex time" or whatever HR bullshit name they give it in the states is in no way for the workers benefit and corporate pressure causes most people to take less, while the corporate bottom line is massively improved.
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Mar 27, 2019 06:33
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Nephzinho posted:It is a weekly discussion / keeps our COO up at night. Does your company have a backup COO?
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Mar 27, 2019 07:38
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Raldikuk posted:It isn't an HR error, it is a redditor doesn't know how calendars and plan years work error. Looks like his plan year is a normal year of January through December, and he started in June. He set for $5000/"year" where year here is the plan year, which for him only had 6 months remaining which is also the period he needs to make the payments over. Which is why it is around 400 per paycheck instead of month. Even disregarding that he should have seen his error after the second check. Don't get me wrong, the guy's a dweeb for not noticing that. But accelerating the payments so that they're equivalent to a normal year is stupid as hell, or purposefully done so new employees can accidentally pay the FSA plan's costs when they have to forfeit the unspent money.
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Mar 27, 2019 13:37
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Inept posted:Don't get me wrong, the guy's a dweeb for not noticing that. But accelerating the payments so that they're equivalent to a normal year is stupid as hell, or purposefully done so new employees can accidentally pay the FSA plan's costs when they have to forfeit the unspent money. Can't you use FSA money for the entire plan year, even if you only join mid-plan? I know you can't use it for prior plan years, but I don't know if there's any exception to using it for expenses from before you were part of the plan, yet still within the plan year... Also if the guy filled out the paperwork to say $X/month and HR set it to $X/check, then I would see an easy out to tell them to give the money back or something... I mean he probably filled the paperwork out wrong, but if not gently caress HR.
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Mar 27, 2019 13:47
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Weatherman posted:Do you have an ownership stake in your company? Because if not, holy poo poo you should be escaping and setting up your own consultancy to take advantage of your niche knowledge and also to hire others who can learn and then fill in for you when you're away. Yes, and I have been trying to teach people to cover for me but don't trust anyone to do it yet. It took ~4 months of scheduling to set up project plans in such a way that I could actually disconnect for my honeymoon last year -- coming back was not pleasant. As previously stated BWM; we are entirely remote, i could work from a cabin in the woods if there was a decent airport nearby.. but I live in NYC.
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Mar 27, 2019 14:07
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The thing with benefits enrollment is it's always loving confusing. At my current company you have to take the amount you want to contribute in a year, deduct what the company contributes, and then divide by 26 paychecks to give you the right number to put in the box which is just labeled "contribution amount". Unless you're not there for the entire year, in which case it gets more confusing as you have to account for how many paychecks you will have and when the company contributions disperse.
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Mar 27, 2019 14:34
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SpartanIvy posted:The thing with benefits enrollment is it's always loving confusing. At my current company you have to take the amount you want to contribute in a year, deduct what the company contributes, and then divide by 26 paychecks to give you the right number to put in the box which is just labeled "contribution amount". My current company's sign-up asked "what do you want the whole year" and actually gave me the full $5k, even though I started a few weeks in to the plan year. So I could have easily been in the same situation as our supposedly-screwed redditor, except lol day care I burn through that poo poo in a few months. Previous companies have done it mixed... one place gave the option for either full-year amount OR per-paycheck amount, you use a radio-button on the form to select how you want it calculated. But it seems lately everyone outsources benefits, so for at least the last 7 years I've only signed up for stuff via slick websites that show you exactly what your paycheck deductions will be before you hit "submit."
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Mar 27, 2019 14:54
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FSA's are horseshit kinda like our hosed up dozen plus retirement accounts all with different conflicting or additive rules. Remember that if you jump jobs you can double dip and spend $10k in a year. The funds people forfeit at the end of the year are used to cover the shortfall from you jumping jobs having cashed out $5k but only put in $2500. If the books wind up negative the company has to make up the difference, positive they keep it. Last year I had to hoard supplies like a prepper to get my money back out and now this year I am about to exhaust it in the next few months. Unlike the DCA where at least ours you can't cash it out until you deposit it, but receipts can be from anytime in the year. Once I have submitted $5k (or whatever) in receipts I just get a check every month as my paycheck fills the account.
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Mar 27, 2019 16:30
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Bird in a Blender posted:Unlimited vacation is a trap. People tend to take less time when given unlimited vacation. And you always have time to take a vacation, unless you’re running your own small business or something. People who think they can’t take a vacation are fooling themselves. Things can wait or someone else can do it for the week you’re gone. unlimited vacation is pretty much just a way for companies to avoid keeping liabilities on the books for earned vacation days
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Mar 27, 2019 16:46
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