Has the Government shutdown...................

Please, just stop. Admit that you were wrong, move on. Nothing you contribute further will make people agree with you.

I don't think I'm wrong. Sorry.

Everyone fails to remember that we civilian (non contract) government employees already lost 6 days of work this year (some lost more based on when their summer furlough started before it was ceased). The 4 days I lost earlier this month equates to 10 total days off of work. That is 2 weeks worth of pay. I had to dip into savings. I drained our savings making up the difference.

We are middle class. Most weeks we scrape by. We're trying to prepare for our future via Dave Ramsey's advice. His advise is to pay off first, THEN save (with the exception of the $1,000 emergency fund, which does NOT replace my wages - it helped, but we still suffered). Now that $1,000 emergency fund is empty thanks to my previous 6 days off work. I have nothing for the 4 days I lost last week.

If the VA can't make it's disability payments on the 1st, I will also not be able to make my mortgage payment. I don't have the luxury of USAA providing me with a paycheck to tide me over. I have the misfortune of waiting until an appropriations bill is available to pay my wages for this week - which could mean no paycheck on the 25th.

No one has any right to judge anyone else's financial well-being. You have no idea what they have been through or what they're dealing with.

PS, my boss, a GS-15 with 34 years of service makes $150k a year - not quite $200... she's well off, but very few people make it to that level. Most of our 20 years of service civilians here are only making 80k a year. A small drop in the bucket to what our military make for doing the same job. AND they don't receive housing allowances, free health insurance, subsistence allowances or a commissary with no sales tax. Nor do they get to buy vehicles sales tax free, etc, etc, etc. You can't compare military to civilian - that's like comparing apples to oranges. I've been on both sides - active duty military and civilian, so I do know a thing or two about the pay and benefits packages.

Only 80k? Wow, us poor lowly contractor who do the same job as the GS-11s and 12s make much less than that. That difference is not made up in the 6 days of pay that was lost in the furlough.

It's tough on everyone, I understand. We are all trying to make it. The contractor that gets paid big is a rare thing and is usually deployed. The regular government contractors like myself make much less than our civilian counterparts.

You keep saying that people who have worked for 20 years should have savings, that's an assumption. Yet, you just said you can't because of xyz. Ever think for a minute that maybe xyz happens to everyone?

I know **** happens. It happened to us when my DH got out of the military and we had to live off savings for a while. It took almost 2 years for them to start paying his disability. And it's been hard. So, I KNOW crap happens. I also like to think that after my husband has been at the same job for 20+ years that we'd have a little bit saved up. As does all 40+ year olds I know. So, Maybe it's a central US thing where things are cheaper... Who knows.

I went hiking and the government shutdown caused the bathrooms at the trailhead to be locked! UGH! So not cool!

affected you or someone you know personally? My DW is a civilian government worker who got to go back to work this past Monday. We're fortunate that we don't have to dig into our savings to make it now, but there are lots of people I know who will be greatly affected till it gets resolved. One isn't going to be able to pay her mortgage after being with the government 20 years.
Others I know have had to cancel sessions with me (I'll be fine because there are other members who want my services).

Opinions?

Why can't she pay her mortgage? If she's been w/ the government that long shouldn't she have some savings?

We were affected the last time they had a shut down... and if they're still shut down come the first I guess we will be then if they cut into veterans benefits. I hope we still get disability and BAH because if not we'd be screwed.

affected you or someone you know personally? My DW is a civilian government worker who got to go back to work this past Monday. We're fortunate that we don't have to dig into our savings to make it now, but there are lots of people I know who will be greatly affected till it gets resolved. One isn't going to be able to pay her mortgage after being with the government 20 years.
Others I know have had to cancel sessions with me (I'll be fine because there are other members who want my services).

Opinions?

Why can't she pay her mortgage? If she's been w/ the government that long shouldn't she have some savings?

We were affected the last time they had a shut down... and if they're still shut down come the first I guess we will be then if they cut into veterans benefits. I hope we still get disability and BAH because if not we'd be screwed.

I am with out on this. Everyone was aware that the government shut down was in the future. This was talked about since last year. People needed to start cutting back , as someone said, no name, Starbucks, stop eating out etc. Working 20 years with the government should have more. What about saving all the raises however meager they were. Before a raise you never had the money, it should be the same thing after a raise. Wonder how many times she refinanced.

Good grief. People living paycheck to paycheck may have honest to goodness reasons for doing so. Fresh out of school? elderly parents to take care of? Childcare expenses? Childcare expenses for children with disabilities? Etc. Someone may have legitimately just blown through their reserves for a perfectly good reason (like their car just died, or need a new roof). Who are you to judge them as daft?

To call people daft for living paycheck to paycheck is passing judgement on folks you don't even know. It'a short sighted and makes you a massive d-bag.

Um just an FYI - talk to the president who is also acting like a spoiled child. Just saying. It is not just ONE party's fault. Just sayin

Actually, nothing out there from non Fox News is saying that - the general consensus both in the media and on the Hill / around Washington is that this is a Republican hostage situation.

I think the best article I've come across on the topic is The Economist - which is a *conservative* newspaper coming out of the U.K.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21587211-land-free-starting-look-ungovernable-enough-enough-no-way-run-country

I see it as a Republican hostage situation too. The way someone explained it to me was this:

Husband says we need to buy a new car. Wife agrees. Husband says we can spend X amount of money on new car. Wife says no, we will spend Y, and if you do not agree to spend Y on the car, I won't allow you to make the mortgage payment either.

Doesn't make sense now, does it?

You got your analogies all wrong. It doesn't even make sense in relation to what is happening. Try educating yourself on the Republic form of governance, and where the Constitution fit's into what is happening. All spending originates in The House, not from the edicts of a dictator.

Um just an FYI - talk to the president who is also acting like a spoiled child. Just saying. It is not just ONE party's fault. Just sayin

Actually, nothing out there from non Fox News is saying that - the general consensus both in the media and on the Hill / around Washington is that this is a Republican hostage situation.

I think the best article I've come across on the topic is The Economist - which is a *conservative* newspaper coming out of the U.K.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21587211-land-free-starting-look-ungovernable-enough-enough-no-way-run-country

I see it as a Republican hostage situation too. The way someone explained it to me was this:

Husband says we need to buy a new car. Wife agrees. Husband says we can spend X amount of money on new car. Wife says no, we will spend Y, and if you do not agree to spend Y on the car, I won't allow you to make the mortgage payment either.

Doesn't make sense now, does it?

You got your analogies all wrong. It doesn't even make sense in relation to what is happening. Try educating yourself on the Republic form of governance, and where the Constitution fit's into what is happening. All spending originates in The House, not from the edicts of a dictator.

Your right on one thing. I should have said, "Wife says no, we will spend Y, and if you do not agree to spend Y on the car, I won't make the mortgage payment or allow you to make the mortgage payment either." There, that should fix it.

aaaaaaaaactually, it's more like this:

husband wants new car. wife does not. husband asks their child if they should get a new car. child agrees with husband. 2 votes against 1 means they're getting a new car. but now, it's time for the husband and wife to figure out their family's budget for the next year. wife says they can't afford the new car. husband says too bad it's already being delivered and there's no returns.

... I'm thinking you don't know how much government workers make. Also, a lot of people's savings are in 401ks/IRAs/other assets that are not liquid because they have a steady job and know there will be a paycheck coming. That is, unless the government gets shut down, and who expected that?

Sorry but anyone who doesn't have a savings or any amount of money stashed away some where that is liquid, available and accessible because "they have a steady job and know there will be a paycheck coming" is rather daft. I had a steady job and a paycheck coming and yet I still had my 401(k) and a savings account because I don't believe in living paycheck-to-paycheck (which if you have nothing saved that's what you're doing) for one and two I didn't live in a fantasy bubble where I believed "it can't happen to me" because guess what? It CAN! (Thankfully it didn't and I quit my job to start my own business but believe me that savings came in very handy when my husband struck out on his own fifteen years ago).

And Romney expected the Government shutdown. I believe he said that if Obama was reelected that people should be prepared for a Government shutdown.

This exactly. Everyone should have at least 3mo pay saved up. We don't because we've been struggling after my husband UNEXPECTEDLY got out of the Army and Veterans disability benefits are a joke. If you've had a steady job for 20 years you SHOULD be able to have enough money in savings to pay your bills. I know we would have.. Shoot my husband was in the Army for 6 years.. We had 10k in savings (not as much as we wanted) and lived off that for quite a while.

It's really idiotic to say what people should or shouldn't do with their money or to assume you know what they do with it just because you've been given one teeny tiny detail about them.

Judgey Wudgey was a Bear....

I'm not judging. I'm stating simple facts that you'd think they'd have enough savings to cover their mortgage. If not, If they're military most loaners are helping them out.

I know USAA gave us our paycheck last time the gov shut down.