I graduated college at the end of 2011 with very generous scholarships and grants from a Polytechnic University which covered most of my costs. Hopefully, those grants and subsidies was tax money in the hopes for the new generation make our nation and also the whole world a better place.
However, that pillow cushion of financial support was just only one lift I was able to do with that help out of the many other weights I still had to tackle later on.
Compared to other colleagues, my parents were both deceased. My mother died out of cancer when I was at the age of 12 and my father died out of Parkinson Disease and natural causes when I was at the age of 20.
I had to live independently. I had to survive compared to my other colleagues. I couldn't take it easy and go with the flow. I was living like the lifestyle of my ancestors who experienced World War 2, as my consciousness was filled with tragedies and limited resources.
To make matters worse about limited resources, most of my relatives live in Greece, which at that time (and still is), are in a more financial turmoil, where their problem is not getting a low paid job, but actually finding a job, any job.
So I immediately accepted an offer near the Los Angeles area on working in a small company that little did I know that it was slowly rusting out at that time (or had a lot of problems to say the least). The company had a big client that relied on their software for many years. However, a lot of the small clients were dwindling out. Most likely the employer could use his own savings he saved a lot of years to maintain the company to still churn gas if it fell on any of those worst case scenarios. However, given their business model of the company was in a stall state and not skyrocketing like other companies where they on board 4-5 employees in one year and double it the next year, the location of the working environment was very inappropriate if they didn't had enough funds or any benefits to compensate for employees living there. The rent and standard of living for an average employee is very expensive within that location, let alone the state tax (compared to other states), taking in the end some significant pile out of your income.
I am going to philosophize a little about this on this end anyways because many think that I overlap the concept of minimum wage into the equation, which I do not. For instance, New York proposes to raise the minimum wage to $15 for people who work in fast food chains. When a lot of the fast food chains have kiosks inside instead of people, when I read articles about Obamacare where fast food chains try to do loop holes to circumvent people getting any health benefits, when fast food chains have a lot of huge turnover. What can we get out of this? The answer is pretty simple. Nobody actually wants to work in fast food chains when these services can be easily automated for most of its part. People go there as a last resort. We are coming at a stage where services need to be re-structured where 1. Services that can be automated should be automated within rich densities in the world to output the maximum productivity of an individual. Services with good business models should be located in rich densities as people who work there have past experience on tasks that are yet to be automated instead of already automated 2. Services where their business model is inefficient or they don't have the capacity or enough funds to produce the desired automation should be located in more poor densities where it creates positive productivity to an individual. I do not agree to the current rules of the capitalistic system taking competitive advantage of its own without caring the collective level of the world, but I agree some of the nature of the capitalistic system we live in: We cannot live in a world without accepting and experiencing failure (i.e. the state of being poor). The point of failure though should not be so bad as to the point of not able to stand on your two feet, but the point of failure should be bold enough that you can distinct whether you are in the correct or not correct side of the equation. How to perceive an environment that lives in failure is an interesting topic. For one, we can cover up the failure by having the value of land and commodities in cheaper face value so people can still be able to stand in their two feet. The benefits of living in a world that is more automated, more of a success, is like living in the future, while living in a world that is not automated, like living in the past. Which path to take is up to you - either is not bad - but the future is always best. You may think the past is the same world and product as the people of your past, that they were working "for the future". However the same product is run "now" instead by people who are working for the past instead of a future, a completely different mindset, living in a world going backwards instead of forward, something that distinctly our nature of our mind does not work in such state or wants to work in such state - denial, shifting our mind to the future by covering our mistakes or learning our mistakes so we don't land on the same past spot again is some of the natural responses people will go through when they land on such space. The latter is not happening, and because the latter is not happening, along the strategy of the capitalistic mindset not thinking about the collective level of the world, together, intertwined, I suspect that is why the capitalistic world shows an effect of great inequality. Inequality is actually not a correct word to put, but a much better word to put it is "misaligned" (the process or the formula of our nature of our world is not optimized. The growth of our economy could run in a faster pace if there was more engagement, less stalling around for most of the population that are stuck in the past world). The most iconic view to illustrate this example is seeing the poor and rich version of Hong Kong, like a great divide. Such a divide is natural, it is need it, it shows failure, and progress will not come if we don't have visibility of failure, of problems, like an ache or a pain in the body.
What happens when inefficient business models are located in a rich location where people are taught the basics, the foundations for young graduate students? An anomaly occurs. If you are working on a white collar job with a paycheck that is low as almost working in a fast food chain with paid overtime in New York City, then watch if the business model is going forwards or backwards, whether it nurtures the collective level of the world. If you are learning something backwards, hey, it is not bad at all, believe me. For one, learning the perspective of failure from others will make you less blind to fail yourself over that mistake later. It will save you a huge time later thinking you are invisible, invisible to your own mistakes. But doing that in New York City with the high rent is totally unreasonable. In New York City, if you are lucky, and have good grades, catch only the ones that pay you extremely well. Otherwise, move to a cheaper city and relocate there, as you will find plenty of jobs with that "same environment" that offer almost the same income as working in a fast food restaurant with overtime pay. You will have plenty of space to breath, as well for the employer to you, as it is a "safe zone", a world that lives in the past. You see, that "same environment", is more a live or die situation, when it is faced in a world that is i.e. New York City. You will experience an anomaly. What anomaly? With the same effort, you will not get the same results and same treatment as in other "work environment" that breathes a good business model. To stop the anomaly is to solve the anomaly. You really need to convert the business model to a sustainable on that location as it is otherwise the same as spending over your budget. So if you don't have the guts or strategy on that plan, the rest will be a demise within that work organization.
Let me elaborate more in detail:
Here are 3 sample incomes that I am going to demonstrate while living in California:
1. $19000 : An income of a person starting to work as a cashier in California (income above average compared to other states)
2. $31200 : My starting income of my first job in California.
3. $36000 : Hypothesized, not actual income for my second year of my first job if my raise was done immediately after my first year of work in California (My actual income for the second year was definitely less than $36000 because I got my raise very late within the second year).
First sample Income
- Income Given: $19000.00
- Monthly Gross Pay: $ 1583.33
- Federal Withholding $ 170.31
- Social Security $ 98.17
- Medicare $ 22.96
- California $ 20.41
- SDI $ 14.25
- Net Pay $ 1257.23
- Annual Net Pay $15086.76
- Federal Refund $ 1170.00
- State Refund $ 124.86
- Total $16381.61
- Actual Monthly $ 1365.13
Second sample Income
- Income Given: $31200.00
- Monthly Gross Pay $ 2600.00
- Federal Withholding $ 322.81
- Social Security $ 161.20
- Medicare $ 37.70
- California $ 58.98
- SDI $ 23.40
- Net Pay $ 1995.91
- Annual Net Pay $23950.92
- Federal Refund $ 1186.00
- State Refund $ 157.34
- Total $25239.34
- Actual Monthly $ 2103.27
Third sample income
- Income Given $36000.00
- Monthly Gross Pay $ 3000.00
- Federal Withholding $ 382.81
- Social Security $ 186.00
- Medicare $ 43.50
- California $ 82.10
- SDI $ 27.00
- Net Pay $ 2278.59
- Annual Net Pay $27343.08
- Federal Refund $ 1195.00
- State Refund $ 168.32
- Total $28706.32
- Actual Monthly $ 2392.19
How it works?
When a job advertises you get $36000 per year, you actually get $27343 per year. And that is for the low brackets. For higher income (higher brackets), the cut taken out of your tax is more staggering. Ironically, if you are married, you pay less tax. However, we all know that living single alone is more expensive (tax refunds above are based living as single). Most likely, they promote people to marry, but that is another story, now that gay marriage is legalized.
Social Security, Medicare, SDI (Disability) are withheld and are used for your retirement income and health insurance. You cannot opt out unfortunately and don't expect any refund from it. That alone took out $2667 out of my annual $31200 first year income. Of the rest estimated $3300 cut out of my $31200 income, $550 goes to the state and the other $2750 goes to the federal. In total, around 25% of my income is cut by the system's retirement funds and tax collection. Compare to the 14% cut out of a $19000 income and you see the due is almost cut by half (You have to note that incomes $19000 or less have their health insurance subsidized or even free, requiring less monthly expenses to paying the current mandatory Obamacare insurance compared to other income holders).
First year of income
- Gross: $31200
- Actual Annual: $25200
- Actual Monthly: $2100
- Rent + Utilities Bills: $1100.00*
- Food daily intake: $600.00**
- Health Insurance: $200.00***
- Dental Insurance: $20.00
- Transportation Bus $60.00****
- Cell Phone: $10.00
** How it was calculated? $12 for lunch + $8 for dinner => $20 multiply by 30 days = $600. The lunch is usually expensive for dining out, especially a healthy one which will fill your tummy up. I couldn't take shortcuts, and thank god I didn't, as I had some mild/moderate gastronomical problems at that time.
***Given premium health insurance was starting to become mandatory due to Obamacare, this is the minimum that I had to pay around my area. For my first year of my job, this was optional, as the law did not pass on effect yet.
****How it was calculated? $3.00 round trip multiply by 20 working days = $60
Savings after income and budget
- Actual Monthly: $2103.77
- Actual Costs: $1990.00
- Savings: $ 113.77
- What can I do with $113.77 per month?
In 12 months, I can save $1365.24?
Is it enough? - Miscellaneous costs not included in budget:
What if I want to use a car instead of a bus? How much will the gas cost me per month?
I didn't even include the monthly cleaning costs, such as laundry, drying, detergent, cleaning spray for toilet floor and carpet. - Spending my savings:
What if I want to buy a new laptop or I need to buy some medication? Can I afford it?
And to my surprise there are so many suckers who get a job like that living a lifestyle of said above, without a budget, splurging by backup loans and credit cards, not looking at the mistake early on that they picked the wrong job and align it to a wrong lifestyle. For those job opportunities, they are only best if you have some support from your family or already have a second income that shares the same assets as you (i.e. husband/wife), unless you have kids or your wife is pregnant, very rarely you will see benefits from companies that are struggling in a rich developed world.
Every person has different needs.
My needs were:
- I need it a laptop for my own personal use in order to improve my technical skills. The laptop in the office was antique. The laptop felt literally like I was reading the specs of the <<new laptop in town>> 5 years ago.
- I had a lot of trouble with my teeth to the point it bothered me on my daily activities so I need it a lot of extra dental treatment.
- I had a girlfriend that was out of United States doing her degree where she didn't had enough money to make her studies more convenient and have the basic tools to complete her assignments.
My regular fixed actual budget to allocate my misc cost needs was
- Rent + Utilities Bills: $550.00 (Overall Experience: 30%*)
- Food daily intake : $450.00 (Overall Experience: 70%**)
- Health Insurance: $ 0.00 (Overall Experience: 0%)
- Dental Insurance: $ 20.00 (Overall Experience: 90%)
- Transportation: $ 0.00 (Overall Experience: 80%***)
- Cell Phone: $ 10.00 (Overall Experience: 90%)
- Other stuff: $ 73.77 (Overall Experience: 80%)
- Actual Monthly: $2103.77
- Actual costs: $1103.77
- Savings: $1000.00
**I was locked on a 9 to 5 job - work organization was eerie if you work a little bit later than usual, not accommodating much flexibility. I had to spend some money for dining out which was usually around $10 to get a full good meal. Dinner was cheaper at $5 by eating microwaving packaged steam chicken and basmati rice (I still miss "that" basmati rice!) or a subway sandwich on the small occasions (they used to always be on sale those sandwiches constantly with different campaigns).
***$0 folks, $0. I bought a "bike"!
****laundry, detergent, drying, spray bottles for cleaning floor/toilet, toilet paper, filtered water, and so on.
Aha, wow, now that is staggering. My savings are almost equal to my actual fixed basic need costs. I was able to save or do misc costs with this lifestyle by the volume of $12000 per year (most of it spent on different misc costs). Most of them where for actual good reasons. I spread the wealth. Without that capital savings on my hand, I could not had the liberty to buy a new laptop, to fix my teeth or to use my savings to travel to other countries. Instead, I would be tied out to a workplace environment that I had to conform for my own survival.
But I have to say the following:
Aftermath: Don't live a frugal life - How can you be productive by living beyond your means in a developed location?
Meeting the old world in the new world and the new world in the old world
While my girlfriend had the joy of using her new digital camera and using her new digital phone that I gave out of my own generosity in a country that is not developed, I was stuck with a small phone with a screen so small that had no touch screen, that I only used it to find when the bus was on time so I can go to my dentist appointment or my journey to visit a mall and eat something nice (and on few occasions, watch a movie).
At the other side of my work office, they had the veracity about giving one of my co-workers a new upgrade of their next phone for free, a phone that he doesn't often uses based on observation, but my girlfriend uses it often. With so little effort they have the ability to word out those words out of their mouth. It is a tragic irony when they cannot see 2 feet besides me, there is an employee here me living with so many hardships I had to endure on my basic daily living standards with the smelly apartment I used to live in order to afford the very same things, not for me, but for my girlfriend, which they said they would give others for free.
Living affordable is not an option
Support from company is essential
They would joke me often how I was able to pay my dental costs for my orthodontics. They were thinking I was paying a monthly payment out of it like most Americans do, which I did not. They were treating me like I was a fool with a budget that would make me happy so I can be tied later to credit card debts and loans. Maybe that is what they wanted me after all to be: To have no savings so I can conform to them.
When I asked them support for assistance on some tax refund due to my heavy medical orthodontic costs, they wouldn't bulge to help me. They only cared to do the minimum paperwork for each employee. I could have gotten some substantial tax refund that could have increased my savings if they helped me do the paperwork required.
Provide ideas with long term positive effect
At other times, they told me to replace my bicycle with a scooter. If I wanted to stay long term with the company, I wouldn't buy a scooter. I would buy a car and learn how to drive. I never had the opportunity like other children to learn how to drive and it seems interesting how it is like. For others that take driving for granted, I take it still as an opportunity or a new experience that I can't await to try out, before I become too old.
If you can't afford it, hire or transform people to have support out of job (i.e. hire people that live in the area and don't pay rent, relocate people in cheap areas and let them work remotely, etc.)
All the people living there had either someone to support them or had their own challenges. One of the best co-workers who worked there had at least a house and was able to drive a car and had somebody from his family to support him. I think the standards of the house he lived was comfortable and didn't made him grumpy like it did to me (I rated my room 30%. It was that horrible, words can't describe the experience I had, but I can't argue much for the price I paid). He was very absorbed with the technological world and I don't think he was too pre-occupied with relationships at that time. At the other hand, there was another co-worker who had a girlfriend, but had his own challenges dealing with his own girlfriend. Lastly, there was another one that worked remotely and was a great leader while having his own family. Owning or renting a house in Los Angeles is absurd, so working remotely from another state, like he did, may save you tons of money.
I don't think the idea of working remotely was trusted for me by my employer. I sometimes used to come late and leave late at work and I was interrogated sometimes why I was late instead of allowing me to have more flexibility with my time.
For me, I think I was in the worst situation compared to everybody else. I was trying to find a motivation, a motivation that I could substitute out of my bad living standards with a culture that inspires people to do great things. However, the software was a mess, hierarchy ruled the organization due to the crumbling state of the software, it was best to have patience and appreciate life beyond job, as in lunch, when I listened to the management and co-workers on what they were talking - they were all talking about the slice of life and were completely oblivious about the future of our software. They just showed to me how hopeless they were with the software in front of me. I worked in a team that had the same exact fashion some months ago. Talking about the slice of life? Guess where that went?
Note about talking about slice of life: Talking about "slice of life" is not so bad at all, but like if that topic becomes the main thesis of an essay or becomes the meat and not the potatoes within the main course you are served, then it may be chances of following the cognitive strategy of self-handicapping ourselves, so we can use it as an excuse why we ended up on the wrong road in the end. To illustrate an example, from an excerpt from black box thinking, med students that studied so hard for many years could flunk the exams by getting drunk instead of studying hard, self handicapping themselves, in order to make a proper excuse of their failure not falling unto our "self-esteem", but "objectively" to an "unexpected event".
Conclusion
However, beyond job, given the income and the freedom and the means of a balanced life I wanted to keep, it was not a realm I could dive in. With no choice where to go, I had to take a break, a vacation, for 3 months. When I came back, they told me they already fired me and I was not entitled anymore to the paid vacation I accumulated/saved over 2 years which was about worth of one month's income. (yup, no severance pay). My salary bump increase of $288.92 was useless as it would take 2/3 out of the mandatory Obamacare insurance that was going to come (yes, no benefits) and it was already wasted already with the salary I did not receive for my paid vacation.
He had the tenacity to ask me if I would work back again, and if so, in what income. I suspect, given I did not got my vacation pay, that he expected me to get paid in lower income due to being hopeless. It is pretty simple that if you look at the 3 samples incomes that I provided before, that if I had to choose a bad culture with a bad lifestyle with savings of $1073.77 compared to living in a family while working in a supermarket store where you could keep all your savings for $1257.23, it is a no brainer anyone would have chosen the latter in the end.
Lesson learned: Next time, if you work in a small company, with strong background education and competitive skills, never ask for less than $80,000 as your starting salary. Getting into a small company should not be an easy task to get in, and if you get in, you have to work hard while the boss giving you all the amenities so you are able to focus more on your job and less on your personal problems. They did not achieve that to me and I was not experienced at that time to understand at that time on what type of culture I was going through.
Maybe they learned the lesson now as they are hiring now at this time I am writing this blog post - a customer service job in the range of 30-36k gross income - which does not require any educational background or heavy abstract practical work experience, the same income range for the IT job I took.
This individualistic experience can be conceptualized to a lot of other business models (this pattern happens everywhere)
I have to admit though that most of my mistakes was my own lack of general picture. I was very passive and just lived with the consequences that maybe I could have ended it much better. Even now, I did recently some mistakes with the current company I work for, enriching my general picture further.
But regardless, I am getting a better sense that these applications of old world vs new world, automation/non-automation, cheap versus expensive living costs, are all correlated, can be seen in our everyday life, and we can't violate those natural laws that exist in the capitalistic system, but at the same time, lets think how to do things for the collective of the world in the best way we can. If we live in anomalies, we have to fix them, and if we fix them, people see the effect and not the original cause, and we have to underlie the cause instead of covering it up, to have honesty and transparency instead of cognitive dissonance.