Fishy fianances
Since this past Friday was the last day of Lent, my buddy @a4xjeeper and I decided to go out for one last fish dinner. It's always interesting meeting up with him for meals like this as he always has some pretty great stories to tell about his business. Despite what I keep telling @tarazkp, if I'm actually comfortable with the other person I can carry on a conversation quite well. Given the fact that this particular friend and I have known each other for the better part of 35 years, we definitely have that connection.
Inevitably, we usually end up talking about money at some point. It's not that money is the most important thing to us, but I think it's foolish to overlook the fact that money is an inevitable means to an end. Having more doesn't solve all your problems, but it makes certain ones easier. Also, given our familiarity, we don't feel the need to adhere to the societal stigma of not discussing money.
I've also mentioned this before, but he owns his own business which given the current state of the world has its ups and downs, but overall, I think it is doing quite well. We were talking this past weekend about how he recently had a meeting with another business owner in the area and based off of that meeting he decided to make a "radical" change to the way he pays his employees.
Instead of paying them on Friday like many people (at least in the US) are used to, he has shifted to paying them (including himself) on Monday now. The thinking is that many of the younger generation of employees simply don't know how to budget, and so paying them right before a weekend where they are more likely to blow through their paycheck given that lack of budgeting ability is not good.
As someone who budgets via copious spreadsheets, I don't think this would benefit me. However, knowing later generations, the idea of them spending all their money and then getting to Monday when the bills start coming in the mail isn't too far fetched. Instead, now they can cover those bills that come through the week and then do what they want with whatever is leftover by the weekend. Invest it, spend it, put it in savings, whatever.
He's really excited about implementing this for his workers and I hope it goes well for him. It seems there has been very little pushback so far. Which makes sense honestly. They are still getting paid, just on a different day. It makes me wonder though, if basic budgeting skills are no longer being taught, how are people going to learn it? Trial and error? That can be quite dangerous given the current state of inflation. Should it or could it fall upon employers to offer basic budgeting skills? It could be one of those intrinsic benefits that aids in employee retention, but who knows.
Like most businesses he has seen quite a bit of turn over in the past five years.
However, this lack of budgeting isn't isolated to just the newer generation. I saw this post on a local community social media group the other day:
"My 84 year old mother is looking for a part time job to help with her bills. Preferably 20-30 hours per week in or near "some city". Does anyone know of any businesses that are willing to hire the elderly? She has applied to about a dozen places so far and hasn't heard back from any."
Heartbreaking right? Of course I don't know all the circumstances, bad things happen to good people all the time, and you can't always plan for every situation, but I really hope by the time I am 84 I have things on lock so I don't have to go back to work. Heck, I hope by 64 I am in that position, but who knows. I get it, some people work forever because they enjoy it. That's clearly not the case here.
It's possible this old lady did everything right with her financial planning, and then one twist of fate upended all of that. We may never know, but if she didn't, it's just more evidence that financial planning is a severely overlooked skill for the past century, and I fear is is only going to get worse as we move forward.
What do you think about the current state of financial skills across the globe? What about the whole paid on Monday thing? Would you be able to handle that or would it totally upend your way of life? Let's talk about it in the comments!
My Sports Account - @bozz.sports
Come hang out in The Pub
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:u37t33dyaufvrqujwmvm54ln/post/3mj2oyytmgs2e
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:u37t33dyaufvrqujwmvm54ln/post/3mj2oyytmgs2e
The rewards earned on this comment will go to the author of the blog post.
🚀🔥 KLINGEX LISTS BLURT – BIG MOVE FOR THE ECOSYSTEM 🔥🚀
https://blurt.blog/blurt-192372/@outofthematrix/71ywct-klingex-lists-blurt-big-move-for-the-ecosystem
Things are getting crazy here with the energy costs and the fuel prices.
Here we do get a monthly payment of the Salary. I do get paid in 2 terms. At the end of the month, around the 24th or 25th day of the month, I do get a prepayment of my salary, which is around 90% of what I should get. The other 10% is paid on the 10th day of the next month. This has something to do with the days worker in the previous month. For instance I do get some extra when I am at the office of the client. They only have those figures when the month is completely over.
Luckily our salaries here are protected by an Index. When that specific index crossed a border due to inflation or increase costs of living, the companies are forced to give a pay raise to all employees, the increase is based on how much the index has crossed the specific border. Depening of the unions this salary increase is the month after the index did cross the border, or in my case I did get the accumulation in January the year over. The year after COVID I got a 11% salary increase due to this. But that was exceptional, normally it is around 2 to 3%.
That sounds quite complex! :) We just get paid every other week. It's a decent system that I have made work for us. There are a couple months each year where we get paid three times, but most months are just the two.
It is what you are used to.
We get paid on the last Friday of the month so should have money for the bills that come in when the next month starts. Generally we are okay, but I expect other people struggle between paychecks. We pay for a lot of things with the credit card, but if you can't pay it off then it gets expensive.
Yeah, credit cards can be bad if you don't manage them well. However, if you do manage them well, they can be a nice source of benefits. You just have to be careful. There are times I put stuff on a credit card that I would normally pay cash for simply because I know I can pay it off and I earn rewards points for using the card.
We get reward points too, but the rates are not great. Years ago you got more per pound. At least we get something back.
Yes, that is true. It's pretty much the way everything is going though!
Great story.. the fish & chips looks amazing btw! :)
!PIZZA !HBIT
urielkinnear, you mined 0.9 🟧 HBIT and the user you replied to (bozz) received 0.1 HBIT on your behalf as a tip. You can receive 100% of the HBIT by replying to one of your own posts or comments. When you mine HBIT, you're also playing the Wusang: Isle of Blaq game. 🏴☠️ | tools | wallet | discord | community | daily <><
What's more, you found 1.0 ⚪ BLAQ pearl as a bonus treasure token!
Your random number was 0.12980555320411769, also viewable in the Discord server, #hbit-wusang-log channel. Check for bonus treasure tokens by entering your username at block explorer A, explorer B, or take a look at your wallet.
There is a treasure chest of bitcoin sats hidden in Wusang: Isle of Blaq. Happy treasure hunting! 😃 Read about Hivebits (HBIT) or read the story of Wusang: Isle of Blaq.
Thank you! They really were! We have some good fish in these parts!
$PIZZA slices delivered:
urielkinnear tipped bozz
@bulliontools(20/20) tipped @bozz
Join us in Discord!
It's heartbreaking how many senior citizens are having to work into their 80's now. We just took a day trip to Redwing MN and had lunch in one of the local restaurants. There was a waitress working who appeared to be well into her mid-80's. She seemed really unsteady on her feet and shuffled when she walked. The experience stayed with me all day. It feels like a lot of people are just teetering on a financial tightrope (many through no fault of their own) and all it takes is one slip for disaster to strike. Right now it seems to be most difficult for the younger generations just starting out and the elderly.
That's part of the reason I have always said healthcare scares the crap out of me. It's like you are one fall from being totally wiped out anymore. Even if you have a plan, the deductibles are so high or the out of pocket bills add up and you still get hammered. Servers at places like that have always intrigued me. I used to know a girl and that was all she did. At several restaurants. I mean if you live right and plan well you can eventually retire, but otherwise it seems like you just resign yourself to doing that until you can collect social security or you die.
Oh yes, healthcare is a huge burden here in the US. It's beginning to feel like universal healthcare might never happen. The amount my wife and I pay monthly is astronomical and the coverage isn't great. Thankfully we can afford it right now but many people can't and have to choose between surviving and healthcare. It just isn't right.
We have a good friend, Tommy, who bartended all his life. He lived within his means, paid off his house, and is living a very good life now in retirement. I think the cash tips really helped him along the way. I can imagine it's tougher to make it now in the hospitality industry though. What struck me about him is because of his late night shifts almost all of his friends are in the industry because they had a completely different schedule that people who work regular day jobs.
We have a teacher who works at one of the local bars a few towns over. He only works on weekends, but he said he can make about half his annual salary in tips just from working during the summer and some weekends through the year. I really do think if you manage things well it can work, but you have to be smart and disciplined. I was looking at the healthcare portal the other day trying to figure out what my monthly hit would be like if I needed it. Looked like about $1200 per month for the top plan, but I wasn't sure if I was reading it right.
I am actually paid every other Thursday 😀
I would have never thought that a day you are getting paid would ever make a difference. But then I have undergraduate and graduate degrees in accounting from the university of Kansas school of business...
I think it just has to do with people not being taught how to budget these days. Back in the day they used to have classes for stuff like that, but not it has to all be aligned to state standards for testing and a lot of the common sense stuff is falling to the side. If their parents don't teach it to them and TikTok doesn't teach it to them, they are never going to learn.
I love relationships like that! It reminds me I need to text my buddy to meet up. We haven't hung out in a few years, but it's just like old times when we do.
I think budgeting is increasingly a hard problem for newer generations with how prevalent credit cards, cash advances and loans are.
Man, that fried fish looks fantastic! Now I'm hungry! 😆
!BBH
!PIZZA
!ALIVE
I try to keep in touch with him, but he has a pretty busy life running his business. This time of year we spend a bit more time together than usual hitting the fish fries.
the fries look good, but not the financial talks lol
!BBH !DUO !PIMP
You just got DUO from @dewabrata.
They have 1/1 DUO calls left.
Learn all about DUO here.
We are both in good spots, so it is easy to talk about stuff like this.
The food looks super delicious, I felt like taking a bite
Fish and chips look good. I’m by no means in bad shape money wise. But pretty much all of my friends make significantly more money than me. If they don’t, the way they all live is not sustainable!!!! But, I’ve owned my own business for over 30 years, I’ve made hundreds of clients very happy with my work, unless I’m on an actual job site I work from home with no log in requirements. I can work whenever I want to, no restrictions.
Most people don’t know how to budget at all. It’s a foreign entity now.
My mom has a bunch of friends that work part time because they can’t survive on social security and whatever other income they have. All of them are over 70. I know one works at the dollar store cashiering, another works as a crossing guard. The rest i don’t know what they do. It’s rough out there.