What'll keep ya interested in work.

jon f mn

Well-known Member
Funny how $2,000.00 in unexpected bills in one month can keep you motivated to work. lol. Guess I'm lucky to have a job where I can add some extra to help make up for it. What do you do when that happens?
 
Maybe not a great answer. The wife and I try to spend as little as possible except on the necessary items. We have a little savings set aside, so when those things happen, which they always do, it lessens the blow.

If not, I have had to use the credit card, and pay it down over a few months.

Braces, extra reading classes, etc. Another one will come along by end of summer based on my track record.

Rick
 
Geeez Jon, I don't know what to say. I don't know the whole story, but have pieced a few things together over time.
If it weren't for bad luck, would you have much luck at all?
Things were hand to mouth here for years. Our kids hated it. Fortunately nothing major ever went wrong. I got stupid one day and got my hand stuck in a corn picker. Even that turned out OK. Now we can breath easier, as we have a little cushion.
Best wishes.
 
Like you I only log 50 to 55 hrs in a 5 day week so I have some fudge room to work on the weekend if needed.
If I work a full week but need extra cash I can do a Memphis turn on saturday. That pays me 668 miles.
If work is slow and I get called off for a day during the week I try to get a Dallas lay down. That pays me 978 to 1082 miles depending on what if any stops I need to make on the way.
 
I have never worked just 40 hrs a week,normally it been at least 70 and of course with livestock its being on call 24/7.Work is the best weapon one can have in the War on Poverty.
 
People being paid to do a job aren"t hurting this country. It"s the millions of people not working and being paid that hurts.
 
(quoted from post at 06:20:49 03/17/13) Times are hard. Us middle class are losing ground, and the big wigs are making more money than ever.

I hope when you say, "big wigs" you are talking about the politicians? Wash D.C. has the best economy in the country! If you were talking about rich people outside of politics,..don't worry,..they will not stick around this country for long!
 
You forgot the "do nothing class" 3rd generation in some cases that receive public assistance,and have it as good as we who have to work for a living do.
Loren, the Acg.
 
I have never refused an hour of overtime in my life. Something the younger generation doesn't understand.Get it well you can -Janis Joplin
 
Didn't mean to sound negative. Guess I do tend to post when things go bad. Actually things are going much better for my wife and I now. With the new house our payments are much less than rent was and the new truck is going fairly well and I sold my old truck so for the first time since my wife got disabled we are not only caught up on bills but have a couple thousand in savings. That hasn't happened in many years for us. Since we were doing ok we decided to do some over due maintenance on the pickup. We thought it would be just rear brakes but ended up being brakes and axle bearings so $500.00 turned into $1100.00. Then I managed to get an over weight ticket for $385.00. Then we finally found a medical insurance that I could get and the bill for that was almost $500.00. We could have easily taken that out of the savings but we like having that so I'm trying to get by with just a bit extra work to make it. I think I can, but it means not going home as much as I like. For me that will be a fair trade if I can keep the savings intact.
 
I always worked all I could. We also always lived well below what we earned. That way we could keep an emergency fund. We had times that ends did not meet but we managed to get by and just would work harder to get the emergency fund back. I usually like to have at least a few months income in that fund.

As for how the average wage/living is going. The average working man has lost ground the last twenty years. I do not blame the rich like many do. If you look at the actual numbers the top 10% pay 90% of the total tax load. Most of us that just make an average income really do not pay that much in direct taxes after you take all of the exemptions off. I think the trouble is the one that do not earn anything. The people drawing a government check is way higher than any other time in the country's history. Also the the medical cost caused by those that do not pay for their care. It is passed along to the rest of us.

Also the attitude that people have about never being at fault for any of their actions. Burn your tongue on hot coffee you sue the restaurant. Then jury's that treat any business that is sued like a Lotto pay out has cause extra cost all through the system. It also is helping cause a loss of productivity that is helping the job loss here.

I often wonder what discovery we are missing because of liability concerns. Think about it. Penicillin has saved millions of lives but it also can kill a small percentage. If it had been developed today it would never have made it out of trials. The first person that reacted to it would have cause the Feds to shut it down as too dangerous to ever be used or if some one died they would have sued the company for millions. That would have stopped the company from making it.
 
The work does as along with trying to scratch out a living.It is never easy and you can never have a big enough rainy day fund as has been proven by this prolonged economic downturn.

JMHO

Vito
 
This may sound odd but be thankful for the hard times as well as the good times, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about one day.
 
Don't know where you got the idea we don't run heavy. LOL. In general about 50% of my loads are max weight, 40,000+ lbs. My current load is 43,743. It seems I get burned about every other year on a weight. I have a gage on the truck so if it's not to close to max on the manifest I don't usually scale it. In that case the manifest was off by at least 20,000 pounds and it was back heavy so it didn't show up on the truck gage.
 
Cause I've been netting about #37000, but I've only got _____ axles!!!!!!! Oops, better not incriminate myself!
Neighbor is hauling away my wheat, at least he has five axles. Carries almost twice what I do.
 
I don't know. When I 1st started working for the megacorp, in 1979, the ceo made 300K. The production workers about 30K. 30 years later, the ceo was making 12 million, and the production workers 58K. And the number of production workers was reduced by about 90%. ( in this country ). Some folks are doing a lot better at the expense of some others.
 
just keep stashing away a little bit consistently to a rainy day fund--it can add up quite impressively-
i paid for about 75% of my 3 kids college education by buying $25 savings bonds consistently when they were born.
 
So your one of those people who believe no one succeeds of their own hard work, sacrifice and initiative? its always at the expense of ''others'', even though the majority of the ''others'' are too lazy and or too stupid to make the most of their opportunities. Your unions drove the factories and jobs away from your neck of the woods, if you want to find those jobs and a lot more look south in the ''right to work'' states where unions are despised. There have been attempts to unionise the oilfield my whole working life and the workers were the ones who always drove the union thugs away, no union means the employer gets an honest days work and that is why we have good wages and benefits.
 
I ain't to interested in work/working as i used to be but there ain't much else to do ..is there?
Money is no longer a problem either for a change.
I sure as heck had more fun when times were thougher 20-30 yrs ago and the kids were still around.
These days life is oftentimes rather boring so i just keep plugging along doing what i need to do....
 
JD, I like the way you think , even though I always get flak when I talk like that. I just got done telling my 13 yr old Grandaughter this morning , "when you hear your parents or others preaching about your getting a good job or get educated so you can get a good "job" , tell them you prefer the word "profession" to the word job". The main reason being , you will only go so far working for the man and punching his clock. Find what your passion is and you will do it better than others because you love it and will never work a day in your life. Own the bussiness , don't punch a clock for the other that was smart enough to own their own bussiness. We ,in our schools and universities , seem to promote "getting a job" as apposed to getting a profession and owning the company. The word "entrapeneurism" (sp?) is hardly heard of in education anymore. It's like they would rather have a bunch of followers as apposed to leaders. If it wasn't for those , there would be no jobs. Our Govt. is no better , they would just as soon penalize an entrapeneur and give to deadbeat union factory worker who has no work ethic and knows he doesn't have to. I better stop before it ge's deleted.
 
I'm long retired and I say work while you CAN so you don't have to when you CAN'T!!
Well actually...I worked when I could so after I retired I could work when I felt like it!!
 
jon f,

Could always be worse. We just got a suprise bill on our son's emergency appendectomy. Will cost us $4,000...PLUS another 20% of the bill after our 4K deductible (and that is the best deductible that money can buy at my husband's place of employment).

We are thankful it was not something more serious (or more costly either).
 
Jon I would kill for a ticket of only $385 for overload. They usually are over $1000 around here. The belt trailers we run are heavy. So our empty weight is around 32-33 K. We are legal licensed to 84,000 lbs. Most guys are contracting grain in 1000 bushel lots. So we are at 88K then. So you either haul heavy or you will not get the load. They dock you back to 80 K if you go over the 84 K exemption.

Last ticket was in Nov. weighted 87 K fine was $3500.
 
My last one was for 38,000 on the trailer tandems in IL. It cost me $2,000.00. This one was only 800 over on the trailer and I would have gotten off for that if I hadn't had an air leak at the glad hand. He gave me the choice of the air leak that goes on my csa score or the over weight which doesn't.
 
No chance for overtime since we are both on salary, so we keep some savings for the unexpected. When that doesn't happen we are that much ahead. Things going pretty well now, knock on wood, so we'll be farther ahead if this keeps up.
 

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