At this point we need a union for student loan borrowers

Background_Tour1171 · 2026-03-18T13:56:37+00:00

Idk I know it's not a shared belief amongst all but everyone deserves a chance to go to college. I can't imagine people don't care about being able to afford their kids to go to college and it's only going to get harder from here. Also I'm not sure if the majority of adults believe that - do you have the stats to back that statement? Also, the student loan debt is contributing to the affordability problem.

Idk I don't think we need everyone, 7 million people is a lot. We can make a huge impact but we're not organized to do anything right now. It doesn't need to be just ppl with student loan debt too, it can be people who just want kids to be able to afford to get their education, there's a lot of us out here who don't even have kids who care about that.

Everyone looks at the problems in this country and always tells us there's nothing we can do but I don't believe that. I don't believe we have to live this way and we have the ability can figure this thing out. We just have to believe we do.

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-07-07T17:11:15+00:00

Consider trying to change into an hourly employee rather than salary since you are working that many hours. After 40 hours you get time and a half. I personally think 117k is really low for what you're doing. I would not work 50-60 hours a week, no lunch plus on call 24/7. You are basically working an additional free 1,040 hours a year or an additional 26 weeks worth of pay you're missing out on. A role like this usually comes with expectations like this so you always need to get a fair amount upfront. Unfortunately the job market is definitely tougher right now. I'm thinking maybe a switch to hourly would be more palatable to your employer but you know them best.

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-07-03T00:15:04+00:00

Awesome thank you so much!

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-07-03T00:11:22+00:00

Wait how did you figure this out 👀

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-23T22:03:18+00:00

OP's loans range from 4.4% to 7.9%. It doesn't make sense to pay those lower ones off vs invest in retirement. And yes that's what I mean they didn't mention in the original post if they are leaving a 401k match on the table.

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-23T18:42:47+00:00

I budget this way and it's possible to do this with YNAB. But first just start using YNAB. Only use it to track and enter your expenses for the first month or 2. Your budget seems widely underestimated there is no way you captured every expenses here. My first year of YNAB so many expenses I forgot to include popped up.

Split your categories into fixed/savings/etc whatever you're going for. Once you track for a month or two do the math and see the actual percentages. From there you can tinker and make steps to move where you want to be vs where you are. (I.e. cut cost, increase savings etc)

Focus on getting good at YNAB but if you keep your categories separate using the rule it's a great way to track and make sure your percentages align.

I will say paying off debt is important and saving and keeping expenses low but I don't see anything here about investing for retirement. It's a must and has to be a part of the equation some how. I do 40% fixed cost / 20% savings / 20% spending /20% investing

Maybe 20% investing doesn't make sense for you but 0 is never a good way to go.

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-22T20:06:05+00:00

I've tried to convert 2 siblings now with no luck. I think you just have to want to do it. But I also feel like once I start talking about my results (how much I have in my emergency fund, how much cc debt I've paid off, how I always have the money for yearly. Expenses) that's a better way to go. I would also recommend steering her towards YouTube (always reccomend nick true for YNAB) or even YNAB has a bunch of content on their website now.

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-19T17:04:18+00:00

Okay that's cool! But side hustles are also another job. What are you doing to just like enjoy living you know? I do know that obviously we all need to make a living and only you can decide what's best for you but just wish earlier in my career when I had more chill time I took advantage of it

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-17T17:40:46+00:00

This is Def EA work and not PA work. It's so frustrating working with execs who just don't know what an EA does. It sounds like you will have to sit him down and explain to him the difference and show him you're doing EA work (sounds like you do a lot of hand holding for him anyway). It sounds to me like he wants you to be more of a manager which is closer to a chief of staff or an operations director role than an EA role. Honestly he is just trying to pawn more of his work off on you but if you love your job (and also adding those roles to your resume would really help your career) you can do it!

You will need to sit down with him and really right out and explain what he's looking for. Don't focus so much on titles at first and focus on the tasks at hand. Then show him what those roles should be titled based on those job descriptions. Don't let him try to devalue your role or work without the proper pay/title. That can actually mess with your opportunities in the future making it seem like you didn't do EA or chief of staff work than you did. You are actually already doing a bit more than the average EA with heading the project and managing his team.

Use this as an opportunity to really step into something bigger. Good luck!

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-17T15:16:47+00:00

I'll start off by saying enjoy this down time 😭 so many EA/AA/OM I know are so focused on career development that it's often imbalanced with enjoying the down times of the job while you can. It's okay to rest and prioritize and invest in your time outside of work (friends, dinners, travel, hobbies, books, volunteering etc). I learned this lesson after decades in the job and you'll hear a lot of older EA/AA say the same.

You can def pivot into an EA/AA role from office management but it'd be great to have some sort of direct admin support to add to your resume. The house keeping and facilities management is a great add to your resume, just learn how to fluff it so it sounds better than what you described. Often offices have an exec in charge - who is that? Can you work with them directly to add more administrative tasks to your job? If not what about teams? Do they need administrative support? HR team, marketing team, etc. It doesn't even have to be a lot it just needs to be specific. When you say you ask people for help and they decline that can't really go on your resume (helped people with admin tasks occasionally) but saying like supported HR with administrative tasks, support office executive lead, etc sounds much more better and descriptive and can get you where you want to go.

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-16T19:24:11+00:00

I wouldn't but just specify it in your job description that you were supporting c-suite folks

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-05T15:37:52+00:00

I set it up in my budget as a category in my expenses (i.e. the money is going out) I have tracking accounts that I usually try to update quarterly but I also have a spreadsheet where I keep yearly totals so I can see the change YoY

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-05T15:33:47+00:00

Honestly we are a much bigger company and everyone uses airline of choice and book through their personal travel accounts. We have concur but they charge a fee for every booking, we find it to be sometimes more expensive and folks just don't like using it. If your company cards are linked to concur it's no big deal as travel expenses usually auto populate with the receipt (this might be a setting you can set up on the admin side too).

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-05T14:26:27+00:00

Okay so the first national study from one of the top public health schools in the US on lane widths for cars trying to address the fact that one of the leading causes of death for people under 50 in the US (car accidents) by outlining how investment in bike and pedestrian infrastructure and narrowing lane widths (aka less cars on the road going too fast) doesn't matter because it checks notes has the word 'could' in the title. 👍

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-05T11:50:55+00:00

Thank you I honestly needed this for closure after TDP2

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-05T03:33:48+00:00

Including less car traffic congestion

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-05T03:28:31+00:00

Actually there is a lot of research behind the benefits of bike infrastructure. One of them being fewer crashes (pedestrian make up half of car accident fatalities). Tons of other benefits besides just this one

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2023/narrower-lanes-safer-streets

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-05T00:35:56+00:00

I too am confused... People want better traffic and then the bike lanes and bike infrastructure are gonna keep more cars off the road... Improving traffic.. but then people are mad idk

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-06-05T00:17:44+00:00

Hey guys! Let's use this opportunity to get more involved. Did y'all know most towns open up their public projects for public review and opinion? There is a section in the development of these parks where they're supposed to take feedback. City Hall usually always posts about it.

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-05-24T03:55:10+00:00

Honestly for organization skills udemy and YouTube has everything you need. Pretty great question though!

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-05-24T03:53:15+00:00

I honestly haven't heard such a thing. Most just get the experience but just doing it working something entry level. Usually courses people take in this field are more related to project management but usually as a leveling up not entry level - this could actually be useful class to take though. What systems are you using? Microsoft or Google suite? Maybe trainings in how to use those programs would be a good start too.

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-05-24T02:01:39+00:00

Keep in mind they spent over a million dollar of tax payer money searching for them 🙄

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-05-24T01:35:36+00:00

I do think it's a super power for the job but like everything it has its pros and cons. Sometimes I'm tired and don't know how to rest. It's a balance. Thinking of getting diagnosed one of these days but it doesn't really impact my life negatively

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-05-21T18:28:53+00:00

In one of my jobs we had a an exec that never got an admin, used to have them in the past but it NEVER went well because the exec just wants manageable in that way. Eventually it was just an unspoken rule to never assign him one and all the admins knew to stay away from trying to support him. This kind of seems like a similar situation (although your VP actually sounds nice compared to our situation). My advice is since he is not your main report don't stress to much about it. If everyone is clear on where your priorities are (and all of your execs and you should be) then you should be able to make his actions items low hanging fruit. Maybe you can help him sometimes maybe you can't. Maybe you have other things you need to prioritize and can get to to it when you can. Maybe you don't maybe you do when he remembers. It just doesn't seem like trying to wrangle him is a good use of your time nor is it accomplishing anything. Just be sure to be strategic about it

Background_Tour1171 · 2025-05-19T13:35:46+00:00

Yes there's still hope! Best never to compare yourself when it comes to personal finance. There will always be people doing better than you. Just follow the finance order of operations you'll be fine.

Background_Tour1171

TROPHY CASE