Living paycheck to paycheck (article)

[frogger]

22 minutes ago, SHP said:

This really highlights what I am seeing. It is a lot of luck and who you know to get in the door. It really shouldn't be this way. 

The option to test out is "offered" here. But not really. My husband sat through a class he could have tested out of blindfolded. He begged to test out. He offered references to confirm his work experience. He spoke to multiple people and quoted the test out policy. Still no. He ended up paired with a clueless student and was basically an unpaid teacher's aid. 

That sucks! He should have been allowed. If he was asking the school I wonder if they just wanted to make a buck off him and that is irratating. Sometimes I feel like most schools want money without bothering with the education. I thought you meant the training but now I see you meant the testing. 😕

I honestly am very frustrated with the whole online job search thing. My husband can do so because he is well known for his work but really my kids have had to network the old fashioned way. Get out there doing the door to door type stuff dropping off resumes. I don't think they have managed to get an online job yet. Actually, oldest worked at an amazon warehouse for a very short duration in Alabama but usually online ads are not useful.  I don't know how to fix that. It is still who ya know. But honestly my kids were out there looking and we didn't know everyone who hired them beforehand but they also had opportunities given to them because people knew them or knew our family.

But many kids don't have those social networks. It has to be harder for them. 

 

Edited January 23 by frogger

[Heartstrings]

4 hours ago, frogger said:

That sucks! He should have been allowed. If he was asking the school I wonder if they just wanted to make a buck off him and that is irratating. Sometimes I feel like most schools want money without bothering with the education. I thought you meant the training but now I see you meant the testing. 😕

I honestly am very frustrated with the whole online job search thing. My husband can do so because he is well known for his work but really my kids have had to network the old fashioned way. Get out there doing the door to door type stuff dropping off resumes. I don't think they have managed to get an online job yet. Actually, oldest worked at an amazon warehouse for a very short duration in Alabama but usually online ads are not useful.  I don't know how to fix that. It is still who ya know. But honestly my kids were out there looking and we didn't know everyone who hired them beforehand but they also had opportunities given to them because people knew them or knew our family.

But many kids don't have those social networks. It has to be harder for them. 

 

There have been reports done showing that a lot of jobs listed in Indeed, or elsewhere online, don’t really exist.  They call them ghost jobs.  Indeed keeps reposting  old jobs as new to look like it has more results.  Companies keep jobs listed to make competitors think they are growing.  
 

I know my son has gone into many places that have Now Hiring signs up all over and gets told they don’t have openings.  I don’t get it. Or the kids get an interview only to find out the job is 5-10 hours a week.  
 

It’s a weird job market. I have no idea what BS business theory places are operating under.   
 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/karadennison/2023/11/27/how-ghost-job-postings-are-creating-a-false-sense-of-hope/?sh=23446c617dc0

Edited January 23 by Heartstrings

[Pawz4me]

I don't know how long ghost job listings have been a thing, but I know for sure some large chains here were doing it long before the pandemic. The nearest Target to me was always "now hiring."

Edited January 23 by Pawz4me

[SKL]

15 hours ago, frogger said:

What is interesting is my 18 year old has been pricing things to move out. He would prefer not to stick around with mom and dad. I think he just wants to feel independent which is understandable.

Yes, I think it's a good exercise, and one of my goals for this year is to help my kids understand what's involved in moving out - both financially and physically.  I think it's pretty common for older teens to think the grass would be greener if they didn't have their naggy mom reminding them to pick up after themselves etc.  This is normal/healthy, but it doesn't mean said teens are ready to take the plunge.  I hope it does at least encourage them to start putting money aside for that day, though.

[Arcadia]

10 hours ago, frogger said:

When I was young and living on my own in a different state from parents off of three minimum wage jobs one of the obstacles I discovered was fire codes and limits placed by landlords. 😂 I completely understand that more people use more utilities and wear and tear on the apartment but boy was it frustrating

When we relocated to the states, we were given a rental to stay for 2 months by my husband’s employer so we had time to look for apartment to rent. We went for the cheapest we could find at a very walkable neighborhood quite near his office. Thing is the fire code says 3 to a one bedroom unit, 5 to a two bedroom unit and 7 to a three bedroom unit. Most of us have parents staying as guests to help so it was typically 4 adults and 1 or 2 kids in a one bedroom. Luckily there was never a need for evacuation due to fire or it would be a horror to get that many people down the corridor and stairs in time. I live in a condo and when the fire alarm goes off, people walk at a normal pace down to the open air parking lot because we don’t see or smell smoke.
There was a fire many years ago when a nearby apartment building was burned down during construction due to sparks from welding. Luckily no one was hurt. Everyone living nearby ran down the stairs to see what happened because we could see and smell the smoke but wasn’t sure which building was on fire. 

[Condessa]

The first home purchasing thread has clarified things for me.  I can certainly agree that the experiences people describe there of being able to purchase homes in their early to mid twenties straight out of college or after only a few years of working a job not requiring higher education would be very unlikely now.  I don’t know how typical those experiences were.  Ours were very different.  
 

Dh and I came out of law school into the Great Recession when no one was hiring with a new baby and lived with my parents for the next two and a half years.  I left my baby with my mom to go and care for other people’s kids while dh did every job that was willing to take him, working part time at subway and a frozen yogurt shop, eventually as a paralegal, before dh finally managed to get a job in his field.  We dug our way out of medical debt twice in the early years of our marriage.  We had to move to an area with a lower cost of living before purchasing a home was possible for us at 33 and 38.

This doesn’t seem out of the ordinary to me.  The recession timing was especially tough, but it’s in line with what our older siblings and prior generations experienced.  Each of our sets of parents had three kids and 8-12 years of marriage behind them before they could purchase their first home and took decades to pay off their student loans.  Both sets worked very, very hard and lived very frugally in their younger years, and both are very affluent now.  When I see statistics about how much more wealth Boomers hold than the younger generations I think, well, obviously, isn’t that the phase of life when that normally happens?  When you are past the starving student phase, the church-mouse-poor young married life phase, the paying off school debt and getting a home phase, and the putting your kids through college phase?  
 

I wouldn’t expect our kids to buy homes in their twenties.  They may need to live with us after adulthood while going through difficult times or saving up for the next step.  They may need to move to a less desirable area or work a job that they dislike.  If they can work hard and do these things and have a good shot of making it financially (barring the unavoidable financial disasters that strike sometimes), then I am satisfied.  If they can do all of these things and still be unable to move beyond living paycheck-to-paycheck to become able to build up reserves to weather financial crises, the situation is indeed dire.

[HenryHanson]

I feel you

Edited April 2 by HenryHanson