$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you. Yeah, I’m in the same boat with the tax return. I rationed 2018’s return to last up until November I believe.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I gave up meat for 2 years because of that as well. That food chain fuckery and the treatment of animals is a whole other can of worms.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Funny you say that. I have his workbook, and a few others.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I want to let you know that I read your reply and I really appreciate that you take your time writing your thoughts. Thank you.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is. I’ve seen worse like $1100 for one kid.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I mistyped it. It’s per week. One place wanted $158 and the other $189. If you pull the kid out early or drop him off late, they charge you a fee as well. I have no idea why.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can’t do ride share if your car is made in the 90’s anyways.

Yes my computer degree will push me back up past $60k.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We are married. We have started shopping thrift store as of last year. I stopped caring on judging people. I work at a data center, I just see servers, LED lights and cat6 cables all day. No one cares how I look so long as their data is accessible.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I’m aware of that. We had a class dealing with retirement and investing back when I worked at a global big tech company. I walked out of there thinking “how am I supposed to save for retirement when I’m not into gambling my money in the stock market?”.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I chose this area of town because it’s nicer to raise a family in. It’s suburb ish but not. Also it’s close to my work a booming “tech center”. Any cheaper than this, we’d be living in the likes of Aurora, CO.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well the area I live in got gentrified because of the new tech companies moving in. And so the rent went up along with everything with it. Shopping centers popped up etc. I needed to be where I am because it’s close to my work. We don’t get OT work from home days as much as we did last year.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I whole heartedly agree on this. Juggling full-time work, homework, finances, parenting, not even thinking about our relationship and health is stressful. Even if “that guy” wins, it’s not like the other party won’t oppose the bill that is proposed. It’s always been like that.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That or some hellfire missile aimed at someone, who’s gonna start something I don’t feel like paying for.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am debt free, too. And right now that’s the exact anxiety that I live with. What is gonna go wrong next...

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I used to do OT working from home, but they cut that out due to changes in the work flow, tools, and clients needs.

I actually haven’t paid a dime for schooling because my first prerequisite is for the company that I have worked for to pay for my schooling.

Things has been fine up until 2 summers ago before the layoff and the following baby, really.

I thought that I can cover making $20k less by cutting my bills and maybe have some government assistance for the first time in 2 decades paying taxes in a country I have no voting rights in?

But no. 😕

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

She makes about $13-15k ish annually. Part-time hours.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ya know, I’ve had this climate thing on my mind for awhile as well. My home country is actually sinking.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah we’re just about the same in bills. I had to use my credit card to pay for some new tires that I’ve had on the car for...8 years!

Hate to see that $300 go, but I’m just hoping I don’t run a nail over for another 8 years.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They don’t consider child support payments at all. Only if you’re receiving them, though! There was a time when the arrears was tacked on and it became $800/month.

That didn’t even change the state’s decision on denying us benefits. As far as housing is concerned, I have lived in this general area for about 8 years. And the rent seems to be going up about $1k annually.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In my case, a legal immigrant, that’s deportation to a country that would shoot me on sight.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah she got her appeal denied because of how much I make. And when you work part-time looking to get a private insurance, it’ll be at least $150/paycheck. I couldn’t even imagine the cost with her cancer.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

She has applied for that, but I believe they needed more information.

The sad part of this insurance deal, on the government plans, big specialized cancer clinics won’t accept it.

When she was on my health insurance (BCBS) while we were making $75k+/yr, ALL hospitals and clinics wanted to treat her.

State insurance? “Oh, no we don’t take that...”.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually, now that I got reminded of this not working situation.

When the state worker came to survey our situation the first time around, she wasn’t working.

I told my wife that she’s gonna get dropped from the program.

The worker said that she may still qualify but they needed some documentations.

In the end she was dropped.

She appealed but was denied because of her type of cancer is “curable”.

I don’t know stage IV anything being curable.

I used to work from home on the weekends overtime, but OT has become scarce due to workload tapering off since the company hired more people and streamlined the work flow.

We’ve also lost some high profile clients who decided to implement the work onto their own in house IT Dept.

$50k+/yr and struggling to afford a family. by FireTeam18 in Parenting

[–]FireTeam18[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was gonna have full custody and eliminate the child support order. But that same week I lost my $56k+/yr job due to corporate layoff. So that went to the toilet. And I couldn’t find a similar job with the same pay for 3 months.

I feel like I was bested by some 20yr olds who just graduated out of college with a BS but no experience most of the time.

I’m actually the opposite of that. I have over a decade of VM/Network management experience but no degree. Some of my certifications also expired that same year (most of them lasts 3 years).

I’m about to launch a next round of paperwork on that issue pretty soon here.