The roof's all done on the back of the house. Three guys on the job, two of which were tradesmen who knew what they were doing and the third guy was just hired muscle for the tear off and for keeping them supplied with shingles and making trips up and down the ladder. All three of them are currently laid off. They all are on unemployment now. No need for them to be standing in line at the soup kitchen, however. With the state unemployment and the money from the feds, they're maybe not making as much as when they were working but they're doing OK.
The problem as I see it now, though, is the number of people who were living on the edge and all of the businesses that were operating on a small margin. I've been reading about the uptick in people starting gardens, doing more cooking and baking and obviously saving more money, much of which is the result of no place to go to spend it. If you're relative debt free, it doesn't take much to live on. If you've got house payments, car payments, student loans and credit card debt and you're laid off for an uncertain length of time, let's hope your up to date on your meditation techniques because it's going to be a very stressful time.
Obviously the lesson to be learned here is to live within your means, try to get yourself debt free and make some preparations for any emergency that might arise in the future. Easier said than done for a lot of people, I know, but it seems that a lot of people are trying to move in that direction now. It's also obvious that while the government is handing out a lot of "free" money so there won't be any need for soup kitchens, someone is going to have to pay for this. That would be the working stiffs of America. When this all calms down a bit and things are back into a routine - I'm pretty sure it'll never be back to normal - hopefully the lessons learned from this will stick and we'll once again see people taking more responsibility for their lives. It's not too late to start that garden, by the way. Maybe plant a couple of fruit trees if you have the room.
We're living through some hard times and it's liable to get worse before it gets better. Now's the time to prepare if you're not already. It's not really like we're all in this together. It's more like what people have been saying for years: The get rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Act accordingly.
2 comments:
Bekah and I became debt free last week by paying off Bekah's last undergraduate school loan. $98,500 paid off in 29.5 months with cash flowing a baby. :-) We are pretty proud of ourselves. We thank the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps for showing us the way.
That's a large sum to have paid off in such a short time - very impressive. Now you can set aside a decent cash reserve and prepare for the next round of college expenses and retirement. There's going to be an increase in food prices (that's already beginning) and inflation due to the trillions of dollars of "free" money the government is giving away. Since you're now debt free, you can start laying in some essential supplies and you'll be ready for whatever comes along next.
Well done, Kevin. I'm proud of you both.
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