When I got my first pay increase, I put 1/2 into savings and the rest into my pay check. And continued doing that over the years. Over the years, it has grown and I am giving more than I ever expected to charitable causes. RMD's all go to charities. There used to be a Chicago S&L that advertised the "Bohemian easy payment plan", Save your money, pay 100% down and there will be NO easy payments. You don't need a new car every year. You don't need to see every movie. The Library has books, and videos. Try not to need everything that is being sold. It requires WON'T power. But over a few years, you will have a nest egg that will empower you. And it will earn you freedom.
Ulrich still beats stuffing the matress with dollar bills.
Yeah, just think of what a thousand dollars will buy you 30 years from now, compared to today.
Easier to do when you're young for sure. I started my first job at $22K gross.. I saved $12K of that in my first year. I don't think i could do it now.. I'm still saving but no more than 10% of my earnings..
Convicted One Ulrich still beats stuffing the matress with dollar bills. Yeah, just think of what a thousand dollars will buy you 30 years from now, compared to today.
More provided it is invested properly..
Plus, a trip to Machu Picchu when you are in your 30s will give you half a lifetime to savor the memories. If you instead depend upon waiting until you are 70 to make the trip, there likely will be far fewer waiting at home for you to return and share your experiences with.
Convicted One Plus, a trip to Machu Picchu when you are in your 30s will give you half a lifetime to savor the memories. If you instead depend upon waiting until you are 70 to make the trip, there likely will be far fewer waiting at home for you to return and share your experiences with.
Very true..its a balance between living now and saving for the future.
Well, in sum total, I'm not necessarily "anti" investment. Especially if one has an employer willing to match employee input.
But I've certainly witnessed plenty during my life to feed skeptcism. Annual inflation rates (at one time) of 7% made anticipated rates of return negative. Stuff like that. Plus I feel like the small investor is often at the mercy of the big boys, and can suffer the (intentional) consequences of decisions made well out of your own control.
I remember losing big on Chrysler through a trust fund set up by one of my benevolent relatives, Because of the way it was set up, no one was accountable. And since the money was not my own hard earned cash, the pain really didn't set in as it might have otherwise. But once I reached the age to gain control it was a no brainer to clear it all out.
So, my personal perspective is, if one is making enough money that you have a surplus, and NEED TO FIND some place to put it (the 100K guy), then yes by all means invest.
But, if you're that 40K guy raising a family and just covering expenses, then eating TV dinners every night and buying the kids clothes at goodwill just so you can squeeze a couple grand a year into Hupmobile, likely isn't going to be the yellow brick road one would hope for. (YMMV)
Ulrich Easier to do when you're young for sure. I started my first job at $22K gross.. I saved $12K of that in my first year. I don't think i could do it now.. I'm still saving but no more than 10% of my earnings..
My first professional job paid $20k back in 2000 and my wife was making $12k a year teaching in grad school. Cost of living allowed me to buy a new Wrangler two years later. We lived paycheck to paycheck.
We felt "wealthy" because we had no debt beyond very small student loans ($90 a month) and that car payment.
But we also had no extra money to pay into investments or retirement. It took another eight years and two jobs before I reached a point where I had enough discretionary funds to start paying into a retirement account.
FWIW, I still have that 2002 Wrangler. It's still a daily driver. Make good purchases and sqeeze everything you can from them.
Cost of living has increased significantly faster than salaries. I have been fortunate to continue to grow my salary because I work in tech, but my friends in the trades are not.
Paul F
I can honestly say this about the OTR industry. The last few carrier's that paid more attention to shareholders than their own employees and businesses well let's just say have been very large and spectacular failures. Arrow was the first pumping up the revenue from double billing to make the shareholders more money. The CEO and several other people went to prison there. Then we had Celadon who got caught by the SEC over calculating the value of assets they literally imploded from the loss of value at one time they were the largest cross border carrier in the USA between here and Mexico.
SD70Dude .......... All they care about are the numbers, and employee (dis)satisfaction cannot be measured in dollars. Well, unless your business grinds to a halt because no one wants to work for you..........
.......... All they care about are the numbers, and employee (dis)satisfaction cannot be measured in dollars.
Well, unless your business grinds to a halt because no one wants to work for you..........
cx500 SD70Dude .......... All they care about are the numbers, and employee (dis)satisfaction cannot be measured in dollars. Well, unless your business grinds to a halt because no one wants to work for you.......... And of course when the business disappears, so do the incoming dollars. But that is OK because they do not show up on the balance sheet, and the bean counters stay in happy ignorance by cutting further.
Exactly.
As long as you cut costs faster than the decline in revenue your OR will still go down, and that's the only number that matters. Right?
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Yeah to you that point were you're fixed costs exceed your revenue that you manage to bring in. A company cutting off profitable business and expecting revenue to increase while costs are going up. Sooner rather than later the ship will flip over and these railroads will find themselves underwater in a hurry. We may be seeing the start of it now with the problems they're having getting containers moved. If the volumes keep up Lord help them come the holiday rush season.
But revenue hasn't been declining.. this year's revenue way up over last and revenue growth has overall been on a steady growth trajectory over the last 15-20 years. The OR has taken a bit of a hit over the last couple of years, post PSR mania. I guess that can be a good thing as they nolonger appear to be completely transfixed with lowering the OR at the expense of everything else.
Not to mention that you might not even live to see the age of 70. People who live an ascetic lifestyle to save for a prosperous retirement are making a huge bet that their lives will conform to actuarial tables.
UlrichBut revenue hasn't been declining.. this year's revenue way up over last and revenue growth has overall been on a steady growth trajectory over the last 15-20 years. The OR has taken a bit of a hit over the last couple of years, post PSR mania. I guess that can be a good thing as they nolonger appear to be completely transfixed with lowering the OR at the expense of everything else.
Considering what 2020 was - comparing 2021 to 2020 is a false argument on year over year results. A better comparison would be 2019 to 2021 - years with intentionally active economic engines. In 2020 the economic engine was being operated with the brakes in full service position.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Revenue looks like it was increasing however most of the increase was from the sale of assets like locomotives and facilities that were shuttered deferment of maintenance costs and other one time items. My boss can do the exact same thing with his books for about 6 months then the *** will start hitting the fan around here massively especially in the maintenance area. We've had 2 bad ordered UP locomotives sitting on a rip track here in Streator for about a week. The problem burned out traction motors that locked up. Hulcher was by yesterday to replace them and the trackage rights train picked them up today going from 1 engine up front to 3 I watched them pick them up.
Convicted One Backshop You just live under your means. Yeah, foregoing "excess" for a lifetime can have benefits, provided one is cozy with the sense of sacrifice. My point was that after one's basic necessities are taken care of, your 100K guy has more discretionary income to decide what he wants to do with it...live large or invest. The scale of that determination is decidedly more limited in scope for the 40K guy. I find now that I am in my 60's, my physical limitations will not allow me to do many things I previously enjoyed. So, in that context, I am glad that I often splurged back when I was still young enough to enjoy it. A lifetime of sacrifice eating beans and weenies kinda sux too if you don't live long enough for the pay off.
Backshop You just live under your means.
Yeah, foregoing "excess" for a lifetime can have benefits, provided one is cozy with the sense of sacrifice.
My point was that after one's basic necessities are taken care of, your 100K guy has more discretionary income to decide what he wants to do with it...live large or invest.
The scale of that determination is decidedly more limited in scope for the 40K guy.
I find now that I am in my 60's, my physical limitations will not allow me to do many things I previously enjoyed. So, in that context, I am glad that I often splurged back when I was still young enough to enjoy it.
A lifetime of sacrifice eating beans and weenies kinda sux too if you don't live long enough for the pay off.
W/out seeing the information, I'm assuming, along w/UP, the NS & CSX are the other two. Not surprising. The culture and enviorment has become basically a depressing feeling of just showing up to work. Having to fight to get paid a spcl claim doesn't help either. No one minds doing 'extra" work, but when timekeeping plays their tatic games of constant declines, which we forward and ends up in claims conference, many do get processed months or longer down the road, it gets old. The lineup projections are horrible and many times you don't know when the o/d 1st out call will come. I had one a few months ago that in a span of three hours, moved up 12 1/2 hrs--on a pool board! Being on these trains well after HOS has expired is becoming more the norm. No one likes being on duty and not getting paid. No one cares. Many of us have to stay in dump lower teir hotels that the carriers put us in and that has become a constant fight that management deflects off their shoulders.
Case in point of being called to work on a double-ended condr pool board: The guy ahead of me on "my" board went o/d like 0915 one morn. I would be the next HT condr called. Ahead of me were the AFHT condrs. My projection kept falling back from early afternoon to middle of night. 18 AFHT condrs were called ahead of me. That evening I simply did an immediate PLD, which was accepted. It came to the point I don't care what I'm called on, just call me. The extra board cut in turn was called like 0330 after my turn sat 1st out for 18 hrs. And you come to work 'rested" This is the side non railroaders do not see or have knowledge of and it is ugly and as one becomes older in life, it becomes more ugly only because the carriers makes it that way.Used to be a good occupation to be in but not any longer. Thankful ole Sam has something like 1590 days left on the ballast
You actually have people???
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
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