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Would an unexpected bill of $400 cause you a problem ?

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Chat' started by Bernie2, Apr 30, 2016.

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  1. Chicken Dinner

    Chicken Dinner Low-Roller

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    This is silly. Every generation is smarter, more educated and works harder than the one before. If there is less time to do what Ken wants blame the boomers for taking every last dollar necessitating the rest of us work 50-60 hrs a week just to stay above water.
     
  2. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    We're doing fine, thank you very much!

    As a nation we think we're smarter now. We're just deluded.
     
  3. abraxis

    abraxis Low-Roller

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    I'm in my early-to-mid 30s and i have to say that i disagree. Many of my peers and those younger than me seem to abhor hard work and generally have a strong sense of entitlement. I don't observe my generation working as hard as my parents' generation, nor my grandparents' generation.
     
  4. Backagain1

    Backagain1 High-Roller

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    I have to agree.
     
  5. thecarve

    thecarve Misanthrope

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    :nworthy:
     
  6. Electroguy563

    Electroguy563 Vegas Joker

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    From what I experienced I agree that the younger generation is smarter and more educated. I don't think they work any harder than the generations before them. I see a trend toward the opposite.
     
  7. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    I guess it all comes back to what "smart" means. Standardized-testing scores? Income at various threshold ages? Being able to pass the citizenship test (I bet a lot of citizens would blow this one)? Being able to juggle two smartphones, a tablet and simultaneously check in with five social media sites or a recipe and an assignment to hit the grocery store and cook for six?
     
  8. Chicken Dinner

    Chicken Dinner Low-Roller

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    Maybe yes. Maybe no. I think our personal anecdotes are just that - personal. This article says that according to the US Labor Depo we are working many more hrs than we were 30 years ago. And for the same pay.
     
  9. salemorevegaslover

    salemorevegaslover Low-Roller

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    jagdan61,
    I quite loaning money out to friends or family about a decade ago. I now GIVE people that need help financially money. Why........for the exact reason you mentioned. When I decided that to GIVE instead of a LOAN would ease my mind and eliminate hard feelings, it made life so much easier. I, too, have been burned many, many times. So when I decide to help someone, it's a gift, not a loan. Of course if you can't afford to give money, don't do it. Believe me.......you'll sleep much better at nights AND the sight of that person the next time you see him, will be more of a friendship basis rather than a "business" relationship.
     
  10. Sonya

    Sonya Queen of VMB

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    Just a quick note about this thread. I love these discussions. However, we have a set of rules of conduct here and threads like this tend to run off the rails in a few ways and I'm already seeing some trends and have already been deleting posts. :(

    Just remember:
    • Let's avoid making this us vs them. I don't really see this as a boomer vs millennial issue. The article didn't say it was only the under-30's having this problem. I know that's not what I see in talking to people in my life.
    • Let's keep the political opinions out of the discussion. Be it the all the fault of the Illuminati, government policy, corporate shenanigans, big brother, taxes, the "system", etc. It's irrelevant to the discussion and a violation of our "No Politics" rule.
    • And lastly, it's possible to disagree with someone without being disagreeable. Nobody should feel attacked for having an opinion here. If you disagree with someone, please feel free to share why, but let's avoid the personal attacks and insults.

    Thanks!
     
  11. NickPapageorgio

    NickPapageorgio OG of the Sal Sagev Hotel

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    More educated, yes. Smarter, there's no proof of disproof of that, on any front.

    Works harder? Reading ahead, we're connecting increased hours to harder work. Today's cubicle commandos putting in 60 really aren't putting in work, rather time. The factory workers, ditch diggers, farmers and manual laborers of yesteryear likely worked much harder than today's over OSHA'd, OT heavy, lawsuit at the drop of a hat white collar folks. Technology has made the vast majority of today's workplaces easier.

    Nick:beer:
     
  12. deansrobinson

    deansrobinson VIP Whale

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    Excellent points. I look back at my grandfather and father. They did manual strong-back work, calloused hand stuff (cotton mill, heavy equipment mechanic, etc.). Neither made it deep into high school, but were able to purchase (paid-in-full) houses and property. When they worked overtime, the complaint was the physical toll not the merits of the additional pay. They never suffered from mental exhaustion, it was always physical.

    The most dangerous thing in my working career (software development) was the risk of a paper cut in the printer room. Then again, I had to exercise to maintain some semblance of muscle tone and there were times when I would just lapse into a coma when I got home in the wee hours of the morning from mental exhaustion.

    The great recession (or employment colonic) had an incredible effect on 'hard work'. Millions of jobs were eliminated (and will ne'er return) because business discovered they could get along just fine without staffing them. Then you had the great divide in the middle class...some went up the ladder, others - many others - slipped a few rungs or fell completely. The ones who traveled downward, many of them, are stuck in minimum-wage gigs. The ability to save is diminished. It takes all of that revenue just to get by. So what was once an inconvenience, a $400 unexpected expense, suddenly takes on a much larger crisis-level threat.
     
  13. leo21

    leo21 VIP Whale

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    There are lots of things going on. You have wage stagnation and folks at the lower rungs are barely making it paycheck to paycheck. The interest rate is barely 1% so there is disincentive to save. We have a consumer economy so thing break down when people actually save money over spending it. I don't know if any generation should feel superiority over the others. It's pretty easy to point out financial negatives on all of them.

    Some folks are making wrong choices if a $400 debt would be a crisis but there are lots of bigger issues that make it worse for some.
     
  14. nostresshere

    nostresshere Mr. Anti Debit Card

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    Agree totally.

    Folks come here often and seem to have a problem if the casino hotel puts a TEMPORARY hold on their credit card of a few hundred bucks. Comes up quite often.
     
  15. Sonya

    Sonya Queen of VMB

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    This reminds me of my paternal grandfather. I remember always seeing him reading a book, despite never attending high school. He worked in the oil fields in Oklahoma and Kansas. My dad remembers being very poor as a child. One of his chores when he woke up in the morning was to sweep out the snow that blew through the cracks in the walls overnight while his sisters got breakfast going for the family. Being a dust bowl baby was hard.

    When my dad was in junior high school, my grandfather told him that he had a choice in life. Dad could take the same path he did and leave school to dig ditches and work labor in the field, or he could leave home and pursue an education and "be somebody". Dad had to leave home as a teen to stay in school. He eventually got his doctorate in engineering from Stanford and had a pretty successful life. I can't imagine having to make a decision like that. College was always a given for my sister and I. Took both of us awhile to get around to seeing the value in it. Ah, the privilege of a middle-class youth. :wink2:
     
  16. bigalbr

    bigalbr VIP Whale

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    Credit limits and ability to pay expenses aren't necessarily related. I've never had an issue with a $400 emergency expense, but a $200 hold on my CC when I first graduated college would have been a big issue.
     
  17. jgates8

    jgates8 VIP Whale

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    Luckily we have an emergency fund. Right now only $3200 in it, when our 'goal' is always 5000. But a few sets of new tires dug a dent in it & now a leaking water heater will do another $1400 dent (dang thing only lasted 28 years lol). Would I be smarter to put the EF on my credit card? Yes, but then that cuts back the pressure I feel to work at paying that off myself. Two small ones all clear-working in the big ones. (They got a lot of use with 5 years of college lol).


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    Easter again..:
  18. Rush

    Rush MIA

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    Bingo!

    "I'm only bringing my card with a $500 limit on it". Bullshit, You're broke.
     
  19. Bubbavegas

    Bubbavegas VIP Whale

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    Damn well stated Ken!!
     
  20. Bubbavegas

    Bubbavegas VIP Whale

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    It is a sad reflection on todays world to say the least, and I do not see it getting any better any time soon. Most of the so called millenials I know have next to nothing saved let alone a retirement fund of any kind and its not because of living paycheck to paycheck is a necessity but instead a choice. My wife and I went through some damn tough times when the oil patch collapsed shortly after we married in the 80s and learned the hard way to not live beyond your means and whenever possible put extra funds back be it in a bank or just a cookie jar, just have something to fall back on. Today its all about spend, spend, spend and the future be damned.
     
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