Well paid government employees who can't afford a one or two week shutdown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not being smug. I'm genuinely confused how people taking home five to eight thousand a month, have no kids, have no major medical expenses, and have paid off most or all of their student loans cannot save enough for a one month emergency fund.

I am a gs 13. After paying for the best health insurance and putting sevenpercent into my 401k, I take home 4400 a month. I spend two thousand on housing, and otherwise spend between six hundred to 1400 a month (300 student loan payment). I save at least a thousand a month without even trying hard.

How do you know what people have? Just because you've paid off your loans (no grad school?) and are healthy (assume you are young?) doesn't mean other people live your life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not being smug. I'm genuinely confused how people taking home five to eight thousand a month, have no kids, have no major medical expenses, and have paid off most or all of their student loans cannot save enough for a one month emergency fund.

I am a gs 13. After paying for the best health insurance and putting sevenpercent into my 401k, I take home 4400 a month. I spend two thousand on housing, and otherwise spend between six hundred to 1400 a month (300 student loan payment). I save at least a thousand a month without even trying hard.

That's a helluva long list of qualifiers. I'll bet you your right index finger that most people in this area have one or more of those extraoridinarily common expenses.

You are being smug. You know perfectly well you're being smug.

I am not talking about all government employees, or all well paid ones. I am talking about my friends and some of my coworkers, who fit the description above.

Ok, so....good for you!

While your friends and some of your coworkers were going out, living life...you stayed home and saved money. Now you have savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. As I stated, in not talking about gs 7 s etc. I'm talking 100,000 plus no kids.

Ok, my SES makes over 100,000 and has no kids. She also has her mother in hospice care and has been paying for her sister in Detroit (their family was all laid off a few years ago) and their kids.

She won't be able to afford it because she won't be able to afford her mothers care or her sisters family needs.

That makes sense. The folks I know are not dealing with expenses like that.

[Anonymous]

Op here. People are missing my point!

I am talking about people who have paid off their loans to the point of being down to the low interest government loans (people in their late 30s etc), have no kids or sick parents to take care of, and no major health issues.

And yes, I do go out and live life. I go to free museums and openings and other events. I go to dinner and order water and an appetizer or cheap entree. I go to hh and stop after one drink. I don't have a car. I have health issues but they are not hugely expensive.

[Anonymous]

I am a GS 15. If we get swhutdown I won't be able to pay my $800.00 student loans next month. I have no kids but forget the Infe3rtility treatments... I won't have any kids if Congress keeps this up. My husbands salary will cover mortgage and whatnot. We have savings but I also resent using them because of tea party nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a GS 15. If we get swhutdown I won't be able to pay my $800.00 student loans next month. I have no kids but forget the Infe3rtility treatments... I won't have any kids if Congress keeps this up. My husbands salary will cover mortgage and whatnot. We have savings but I also resent using them because of tea party nonsense.

This feels circular to me. The career federal employees come across as intensely political and 99% behind Obama, which makes the Tea Party types even happier to shut down the Government. I don't know when this stops, but I think some recognition on the part of federal employees that they also work for people with whom they disagree politically is part of the equation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a GS 15. If we get swhutdown I won't be able to pay my $800.00 student loans next month. I have no kids but forget the Infe3rtility treatments... I won't have any kids if Congress keeps this up. My husbands salary will cover mortgage and whatnot. We have savings but I also resent using them because of tea party nonsense.

You say you have savings, but can't pay the 800 t of them? Or you don't want to? Can't is different from dont want to.

[Anonymous]

Boohoo hoo to the people with savings who will actually have to use them. That is kind of the point of having savings, dingbats.

[Anonymous]

I try not to judge, if someone has no savings and blew all their money on going out every night drinking on a GS15 salary, so what? It's their money!

The point is, the federal government is stoping their paychecks from coming (they weren't fired).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a GS 15. If we get swhutdown I won't be able to pay my $800.00 student loans next month. I have no kids but forget the Infe3rtility treatments... I won't have any kids if Congress keeps this up. My husbands salary will cover mortgage and whatnot. We have savings but I also resent using them because of tea party nonsense.

This feels circular to me. The career federal employees come across as intensely political and 99% behind Obama, which makes the Tea Party types even happier to shut down the Government. I don't know when this stops, but I think some recognition on the part of federal employees that they also work for people with whom they disagree politically is part of the equation.

Op here. I oppose the shutdown and the tea party. I think what they are doing is bad not only for govt employees but also the entire country. That's not the issue.

I am just surprised that people who have been working for a decade or two, with six figure incomes and no dependents and no major life expenses such as medical issues are saying they cannot survive for a month without their paychecks. Some of these people have nice cars and condos. It kinda surprises me they feel okay spending on such things when they have no emergency savings.

[Anonymous]

There are a lots of people(government and privately employed) who live pay check to pay check. It's part of the culture of the US and the only thing driving the economy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I try not to judge, if someone has no savings and blew all their money on going out every night drinking on a GS15 salary, so what? It's their money!

The point is, the federal government is stoping their paychecks from coming (they weren't fired).

True. But it's hard for me to sit there and nod sympathetically (which is what I do) and listen to them complain and freak out about it while they are sipping a twelve dollar cocktail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a GS 15. If we get swhutdown I won't be able to pay my $800.00 student loans next month. I have no kids but forget the Infe3rtility treatments... I won't have any kids if Congress keeps this up. My husbands salary will cover mortgage and whatnot. We have savings but I also resent using them because of tea party nonsense.

This feels circular to me. The career federal employees come across as intensely political and 99% behind Obama, which makes the Tea Party types even happier to shut down the Government. I don't know when this stops, but I think some recognition on the part of federal employees that they also work for people with whom they disagree politically is part of the equation.

I'm a career federal employee. 15 years in the fed and I'm a senior manager. I did NOT vote for Obama and do not consider myself a democrat or a republican. I think the tea party is a bunch of idiots.

My years in government have taught me that those people who are party-centric are really just sheep and lead us to things like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I try not to judge, if someone has no savings and blew all their money on going out every night drinking on a GS15 salary, so what? It's their money!

The point is, the federal government is stoping their paychecks from coming (they weren't fired).

True. But it's hard for me to sit there and nod sympathetically (which is what I do) and listen to them complain and freak out about it while they are sipping a twelve dollar cocktail.

It's hard for me to work at an agency which planned for things like the shutdown, only to have to furlough employees because the BOP can't get their act together and Congress is too afraid to ACTUALLY shut things down and release inmates into the street.

If you are going to be a life-long fed, you smile and say "I know, right?" Then go home and get very drunk.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you OP. I think congress is just a bunch of spoiled babies, but I am not going to freak if I miss a paycheck.

When I created the "essential" employee list, I just asked who will freak if they don't get a paycheck. That is my essential employee list.

It was about 50/50.