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Living Wage

Weather people should make under minimal wage and get tips if they get a forecast right! Maybe they’d get some ---- right! They’ve gotten lazy!
 
Cadi40 said:
You do realize the cost of living & business has already been steadily rising within the past decade without wage compensation? Since 2009, the cost of a house has gone up 72K. Nearly 1-2K at secondary education locations. Prices of Milk & Meats have all gone up. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Collegeboard, U.S. Census Data).
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This is something people over look, the prices at most fast food places/small businesses have increased steadily over the last 10-11 yrs however the federal min wage has not.....in that same time the cost of living has gone up 20%, so businesses have been able to increase prices but maintain low employee overhead....so businesses raise prices to keep up with COL increases but not their employees wages.....
 
NoSnowATL said:
The key is to make money and it never goes. Saving money is great but you need to grow the money you make. Buying and house, property, investments etc. The worst place to keep your money is on a bank. I got lucky in my early 20s buying property for the land it was on. The key is to never pay taxes on the investment you buy so you are always buying and Selling which makes you money but it’s not real money you can spend because it’s always going to the investment and turn so you keep that train moving and if you’re doing it right you growing your portfolio with bigger investments each time.
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May I ask what exactly you did in your early 20s?
 
Round Oak Weather- Zeb said:
May I ask what exactly you did in your early 20s?
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My 1st real job after college I worked with land Acquisitions. I was able to take some good advise from some smart people about what to buy and how to determine what properties are good buys. Land is gold these days.
 
NoSnowATL said:
My 1st real job after college I worked with land Acquisitions. I was able to take some good advise from some smart people about what to buy and how to determine what properties are good buys. Land is gold these days.
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Dang it you durned anti tree person! smh! Selling land for these cheap neighborhoods then escaping further out cuz you ain't want to be near em!
 
Who here has worked a minimum wage job? I started out as that for a couple years and worked my way up as I went to college.

Both sides of my family come from poverty in the rural south. My dads grandmother moved to Atlanta from Alabama in the 50’s and hacked her living out with no education while raising her grandkids. My moms side is a similar story. They moved when needed and worked their way up the ladder and left the next generation off better than they had. Minimum wage has some benefits but plenty of people make a way in poor areas.
 
$15.00 Per hour equals $30,000 Per year. In NC outside the big 10 school districts, thats starting wages for a 1st year teacher. Who spends 30 to 50,000 out of pocket just to get certified to teach. So right off the bat taxpayers,NC govt will have to raise starting teacher pay, or have less of a shrinking employment pool to pull from. Economics 101. Go in debt 30-50,000 to teach or go flip burgers without the 30-50,000 debt, headache of paying it back,dealing with parents, etc.
 
EmersonGA said:
Who here has worked a minimum wage job? I started out as that for a couple years and worked my way up as I went to college.

Both sides of my family come from poverty in the rural south. My dads grandmother moved to Atlanta from Alabama in the 50’s and hacked her living out with no education while raising her grandkids. My moms side is a similar story. They moved when needed and worked their way up the ladder and left the next generation off better than they had. Minimum wage has some benefits but plenty of people make a way in poor areas.
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I’m 26 years old. Worked at the grocery store starting my junior year of high school making minimum wage ($7.25/hr). I’d work 18-23 hours a week during school and I’d bust my tail to get tips taking groceries out. Nobody wanted to work Sunday’s, but I’d always work the 12-8 shift on Sunday and load up on $30-$50 in tips a day. Working on the front end turned into being offered frozen food manager after I graduated high school. I would go to community college and work the frozen foods around my classes. Frozen food manager paid $9.25 and maxed out at $9.65/hr. I absolutely loved my job and it taught me a lot. I lived at home during this time, so was able to save a lot of this money. Bought my first starter house at 22 years old and got married to my wife. That house was brand new and we built it ourselves. Sold it this past September and made a decent amount to go towards a much nicer house that we can start a family in.

My dad and I own a restoration company and my wife works for UAB. We have always paid off our credit cards and buying the house at an early age really helped us. We both work our butts off and live rather comfortably at a combined income of under 100K. I’m always looking for ways to make extra money for myself whether it be stocks, selling football tickets in the fall, cutting yards. Starting off at minimum wage and working at the grocery store for 5 years opened my eyes to saving money. Save your money, build good credit, and buy a house when you can afford it. Building equity instead of just paying rent can really help. Not knocking the rent stuff, but I know buying our first house at 22, has helped us a lot. We were able to move into a house that is over 3,000 square feet and we could raise our family here if we wanted to. We couldn’t have done that without the equity we built in that first house
 
From the perspective of a old small business owner. I’m not smart like a lot of you guys but I have been blessed to have made 2200 weekly payrolls. Recently I have been trying to hire a entry level employee. Offering $ 13.00 hour to start with benefits no experience required I get very few responses. So in my business like many others the federal minimum wage is irrelevant as we have difficulty finding employees at double the legal minimum wage. And I will add I am located in central Alabama not a area of a high cost of living.
 
TileDude said:
From the perspective of a old small business owner. I’m not smart like a lot of you guys but I have been blessed to have made 2200 weekly payrolls. Recently I have been trying to hire a entry level employee. Offering $ 13.00 hour to start with benefits no experience required I get very few responses. So in my business like many others the federal minimum wage is irrelevant as we have difficulty finding employees at double the legal minimum wage. And I will add I am located in central Alabama not a area of a high cost of living.
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We can’t find people in our business either. We are a small business and I do the grunt work and run the business. Hard to get people to show up and be on call. They want all the money in the world but don’t want to work for it. I have lots of hard days, but am very grateful for what I have. It’s more of a job for me to look for someone and hire someone than it is to actually do my job. The labor force is awful right now In our line of work. They can get more money sitting at home then coming to work...
 
I will say that our first child will be here in a couple of months and the price of daycare is crazy. I’ve been working hard at getting both of our vehicles fully paid off. I’ve had mine paid off for a year, and hope to have hers paid off before daycare begins. The cost of daycare is higher per month then our first mortgage monthly payment. That will be an adjustment, but I know the Lord will provide. Prices of daycare is very eye opening.
 
TileDude said:
From the perspective of a old small business owner. I’m not smart like a lot of you guys but I have been blessed to have made 2200 weekly payrolls. Recently I have been trying to hire a entry level employee. Offering $ 13.00 hour to start with benefits no experience required I get very few responses. So in my business like many others the federal minimum wage is irrelevant as we have difficulty finding employees at double the legal minimum wage. And I will add I am located in central Alabama not a area of a high cost of living.
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I'm on the way. Thanks for hiring me, I always wanted to move to Alabama personally. My cousin was born there.
 
NoSnowATL said:
My 1st real job after college I worked with land Acquisitions. I was able to take some good advise from some smart people about what to buy and how to determine what properties are good buys. Land is gold these days.
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I gotcha a lot of peoples fortunes have been made with land at least where I’m from. One of my dads friends was a big time buyer and seller of land back in the early 2000s. He made it really on his first purchase the trees payed for the cost of the land so when they sold the land they made double what they had payed for it. I’ve mainly been interested in real estate like section 8 houses but I don’t have the money for that yet so I’ve been sticking with long term stock investments
 
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Round Oak Weather- Zeb said:
I gotcha a lot of peoples fortunes have been made with land at least where I’m from. One of my dads friends was a big time buyer and seller of land back in the early 2000s. He made it really on his first purchase the trees payed for the cost of the land so when they sold the land they made double what they had payed for it. I’ve mainly been interested in real estate like section 8 houses but I don’t have the money for that yet so I’ve been sticking with long term stock investments
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We have a lumber farm down towards you in Lexsy Ga. South Georgia is primed to explode with new builds in the next 50 years. I would also look at the Panhandle of Florida. Right after hurricane Michael hit, the investors swarmed the area and bought up everything they could pennies on the dollar because most people where under water and couldn’t afford to rebuild. You still have tons of areas near Mexico beach East to App Bay. Just 1 care in Mexico beach is around 80k. You can build a 4/2 for around $90 sqft and sell it for $350k- 500k depending on the location of course. It’s closer to $115 sqft beach side. Straight crazy ?.
 
NoSnowATL said:
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We have a lumber farm down towards you in Lexsy Ga. South Georgia is primed to explode with new builds in the next 50 years. I would also look at the Panhandle of Florida. Right after hurricane Michael hit, the investors swarmed the area and bought up everything they could pennies on the dollar because most people where under water and couldn’t afford to rebuild. You still have tons of areas near Mexico beach East to App Bay. Just 1 care in Mexico beach is around 80k. You can build a 4/2 for around $90 sqft and sell it for $350k- 500k depending on the location of course. It’s closer to $115 sqft beach side. Straight crazy ?.
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That's horrible. I love money but I love my nature better, its why I don't get terribly disappointed when I see hurricanes sweep away beachside houses. Should have never been there in the first place, too ecologically sensitive of an area. Especially considering these are the second homes or first homes of well-off folks anyways. That's just excess, excess at the cost of our nature! I'm fine with excess if you can afford it since limiting it requires government intervention, however excess at the cost of our beaches? Nope! Look at our beautiful OBX and the money they spend just to keep them existing since they built on them, Miami Beach, VA Beach, New Orleans ( under sea level now), the Netherlands, etc. Look at Florida! Its an ecological disaster!
 
Lickwx said:
That's horrible. I love money but I love my nature better, its why I don't get terribly disappointed when I see hurricanes sweep away beachside houses. Should have never been there in the first place, too ecologically sensitive of an area. Especially considering these are the second homes or first homes of well-off folks anyways. That's just excess, excess at the cost of our nature! I'm fine with excess if you can afford it since limiting it requires government intervention, however excess at the cost of our beaches? Nope! Look at our beautiful OBX and the money they spend just to keep them existing since they built on them, Miami Beach, VA Beach, New Orleans ( under see level now), the Netherlands, etc.
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As they say if you build it they will come. If you don’t someone else will.
 
NoSnowATL said:
As they say if you build it they will come. If you don’t someone else will.
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I'm personally afraid of the future of our region. Kind of developments across the south are unsustainable, only funded by municipal debt and continued growth. Once the growth dries, the debt will keep piling, and cities across the south won't afford to keep the water on. We will look like Detroit by the time I'm 60.
 
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TileDude said:
From the perspective of a old small business owner. I’m not smart like a lot of you guys but I have been blessed to have made 2200 weekly payrolls. Recently I have been trying to hire a entry level employee. Offering $ 13.00 hour to start with benefits no experience required I get very few responses. So in my business like many others the federal minimum wage is irrelevant as we have difficulty finding employees at double the legal minimum wage. And I will add I am located in central Alabama not a area of a high cost of living.
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Bingo! And, was the purpose of my last post.
 
Lickwx said:
I'm personally afraid of the future of our region. Kind of developments across the south are unsustainable, only funded by municipal debt and continued growth. Once the growth dries, the debt will keep piling, and cities across the south won't afford to keep the water on. We will look by Detroit by the time I'm 60.
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If any region can make it, it’s the SE. we are not slowing down anytime soon.
 
NoSnowATL said:
If any region can make it, it’s the SE. we are not slowing down anytime soon.
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People are becoming less and less inclined to pack up and move across the country, the population is aging, immigration to the US is slowing, birth rates continue to drop. We will peak in the next 2 decades. The Titanic was once considered to be unsinkable as well! The 2008 recession brought parts of the southeast down to its knees and that's nothing compared to the mounting challenges to our growth. Not too mention the wrench the increase in remote workers brings, it can both benefit and harm us.
 
NoSnowATL said:
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We have a lumber farm down towards you in Lexsy Ga. South Georgia is primed to explode with new builds in the next 50 years. I would also look at the Panhandle of Florida. Right after hurricane Michael hit, the investors swarmed the area and bought up everything they could pennies on the dollar because most people where under water and couldn’t afford to rebuild. You still have tons of areas near Mexico beach East to App Bay. Just 1 care in Mexico beach is around 80k. You can build a 4/2 for around $90 sqft and sell it for $350k- 500k depending on the location of course. It’s closer to $115 sqft beach side. Straight crazy ?.
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I wouldn’t have thought South Georgia really had much of a future growth wise since they’ve really stagnated over the past ten years. I remember right after Michael hit they were already talking about the investors going in buying up properties. It seems kinda cut throat but I guess that’s how things work.
 
Round Oak Weather- Zeb said:
I wouldn’t have thought South Georgia really had much of a future growth wise since they’ve really stagnated over the past ten years. I remember right after Michael hit they were already talking about the investors going in buying up properties. It seems kinda cut throat but I guess that’s how things work.
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The key to growing South Georgia is passing legal gambling in Georgia. If that can pass you will see a boom along the Georgia coast.
 
NoSnowATL said:
The key to growing South Georgia is passing legal gambling in Georgia. If that can pass you will see a boom along the Georgia coast.
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This past year I think they’d tried to pass a horse racing bill that would’ve brought in the first legalized gambling to the state but it was shot down. I may have to check some land out around the coast. I couldn’t buy it right now but I graduate next year so I should start to have a little savings to use.
 
Cadi40 said:
I’m not advocating for handouts?? Wage is earned not given.
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Then they need to earn their $15 /hr wage. Not just get it mandated to them from the Gov't, like a lot of us here did.

I grew up on Food stamps in a single mother household with 3 other siblings. I had to work to through high school and in college I worked closing every weekend. It sucked, but it was good money. I joined the National Guard and went overseas to get the GI bill kicker to be able to financially make it through college. The best part is, I never finished college. I got an internship with a company 700 miles away running virus scans on computers. Worked my @$$ off staying late, coming in early, working weekends, and volunteering for everything and made myself so invaluable that when the internship was up, they didn't want to lose me and offered me a job at $13 /hr or $27,000 a year. Did that for the next 12 years and now i'm $70K a year. 70k a year and never graduated college, never went to a trade school, just started in an entry level position and worked and worked and worked. If someone wants to earn more than they need to get out there and go earn it.

There is a Latin saying "Non Palma Sine Pulvere" that I live by. Even have it tattooed on my leg. Its literal translation is "No Palms without dust." The meaning is that you won't get dates off the palms without stirring up the dust from your work in the field. The euphamism is "No reward (fruit of the tree) without Effort (Dust in the field)" You need to work for what you want.
 
Round Oak Weather- Zeb said:
This past year I think they’d tried to pass a horse racing bill that would’ve brought in the first legalized gambling to the state but it was shot down. I may have to check some land out around the coast. I couldn’t buy it right now but I graduate next year so I should start to have a little savings to use.
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No horse racing!
 
weatherfide said:
You mean no betting on horse races or no racing horses? You know the horses love to run, right? The are bred to love it! They actually suffer when they can't run.
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And when they are not fast enough they often end up slaughtered.
Ferdinand who won the Kentucky Derby was killed for meat.
 
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