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

[Anonymous]

Let me say first I totally oppose the shutdown and think the Reublicans driving it are insane and idiotic.

Having said that...I have a lot of friends who are gs 13 to 15, single with no kids, who are saying they cannot afford to miss a paycheck.

Wtf? Really? Do people who get paid over 100 thou and have no dependents really have no emergency savings?

Am I the only one thinking when people say this, "um, take this as a sign you should reconstruct your budget so you are saving more?"

FYI, I am a gs 13, no kids, and I have a three month emergency fund.

One of the friends who was stressing about the shutdown last night spent sixty bucks on dinner, ordered two drinks, went to a movie after, etc. I nodded sympathetically but really wanted to say, "so drink water, order a ten dollar appetizer, and go home and watch TV."

[Anonymous]

Yeah-a lot of people make poor financial decisions. I have a friend like that. Drives me crazy.

[Anonymous]

You sound like a fun person!

[Anonymous]

Well, my DH is a GS-15 and I work for a nonprofit. We cannot afford for my DH to not get paid. I don't think we live extravagantly but somehow cannot save much. Due to some unexpected expenses lately, we have only $2k in savings. We have 2 kids in elementary school. We cannot afford this at all.

[Anonymous]

Not everyone is a 13/14/15. Married two fed household, neither of us are 13 or higher (we are lower GS levels).

We live well within our means and have investments but our life is lived planning on pay for jobs we have. We have our first baby on the way So expenses have gone up.

The only thing we can do is use savings, which to be honest, I had hoped to use someto turn into savings for my child so we could start him on a good footing for college. The long term impact for a family like us of this instability is pretty disheartening. It isn't always so cut and dry.

[Anonymous]

I'm a GS-14, my husband is a contractor, we could afford several weeks of shutdown. It would hurt (bad) but we could.

But, see, it's not about me. It's about my GS-7 secretary who went on food stamps in 1996 during the last shutdown. It's my GS-12 staff member who has two kids in college and is living pay check to paycheck to pay for those kids.

It's the thousands of hardworking Feds who are trapped in this political game between a bunch of rich, old white men (mostly).

[Anonymous]

My DH is a GS-15. I work part-time. We absolutely cannot afford to miss a paycheck. We won't starve, but we won't be able to pay our bills for more than about a month.

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of single people who've fallen for the urban marketing hype, which encourages them to spend most of theirmoney on urban real estate, expensive restaurants, and travel, and look down on people who get married, spend judiciously, and live in housing they can actually afford, even if it's in the suburbs.

If you fall in that category and have a government job, rainy-day funds either aren't something you consider, or only something you associate with the little people in flyover territory who have to deal with real layoffs. If the cash runs out, you just look for free wi-fi and complain about Congress.

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

Would you say the same thing to the autoworkers and steelworkers who were furloughed in the 80s and 90s? They were well-paid too.

Going without a paycheck for most people in this country is difficult. Don't be so smug. Have a little more compassion.

[Anonymous]

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.

[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.

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

I am a single mom GS-12 and I have three months of savings. Not that this is how I was planning on spending it....

[Anonymous]

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.