All Forum Posts by: Jeremiah Dunakin

I find the work full time job comical. I have been working seven days a week for 13 years. We shut down for a day in spring, the forth of July week and sometimes Christmas week. Literally we work every day for months at a time. We also will work 12 hour days 75% of the time. 14/1500 hours of overtime at my shop is normal. That said we remodeled a small house and manage it working those hours. I have gained seniority and down work those hours as much anymore but I will still work seven days a week with a couple 12s. Most days would work 3 am to 3pm go to rental rehab work till 5/6 eat shower and go to bed by 8.
It is doable people just want an excuse. It’s doable if you want it. 

I think is a bit of luck in things, however a lot of “luck” is being right place right time. But you have to put yourself in that place. Some examples of luck I’ve heard. People buy a unit thinking they were getting a single family. They bought expecting a single unit, come to find out it was zoned multi family, adding a 2000$ window makes a multi. I work with a guy who had bought mineral rights to his property(not luck) then had a massive oil pipe bust that no one knew about. Now what he collects in payments from oil company more than pays his mortgage. 
We make some of our own luck. That said playing sports there is luck. A guy hitting a 3/4 shot in basketball who couldn’t hit a standard three point shot is luck. A Defensive back slipping at line of scrimmage and Wide Reciever catching a wide open pass is luck. Hitting the lottery is luck. Rich family members leaving some idiot offspring an inheritance is luck. 

I will say this though most things are blessings and neither luck nor skill. I was blessed to be born in USA. I was blessed to be able to think somewhat logically. I am blessed to have pretty good health. These things are way beyond the scope of anything I could do. I can’t choose where I was born and raised, I didn’t choose to have good health it was given to me(yes I know lifestyle choice factor into health). 

 It’s cool. Most people when they think of the word inflation they think about buying power for the most part. We can go by the technical definition. 95% of people will not go by that. People just know that they ain’t got no  money now. They know that credit cards balances are all time high. They know that it cost double for everything. Call it devalue of the dollar, inflation, or dollar erosion. Call it what you will. The government has changed the terms and how inflation is measured. Call it what u will. 

Gas, food and lumber was every bit 1/2 of what it is now. Things doubled in a matter of a couple years. Not over time. Yes the poor will continue to struggle. They make poor decisions. Wages have not kept up with inflation. When I started my union negotiated job I made 4x what a McDonald’s worker made now I make 2x. Wages have gone up some but not for a lot of middle class jobs.according to Fox News or CNN take your pick. Americans are paying 709$ more per month for same goods and services than they were two years ago.By my very simple calculations. At 160 working hours a month that is  4.43/ hr lost. I don’t know anyone in my area or line of work that have gotten more than 4.44 an hour raise to keep up with that. Let alone outpace it. Yes some unions have gotten that. But the majority of Americans have not seen that wage growth. Most people get around 3% a year. 80000$ year job at 3% is about a 1.15$ / hr increase. Over two years that’s 2.30$/hr far below the 4.43$ we have lost to inflation. Again I’m a simpleton factory worker but what I see in working class has been a huge reduction in wealth. 
As far as traveling. People are doing that. We also have a credit crisis in our nation.Maybe all these people aren’t paying on credit but I’ve a hard time believing they ain’t. 

 I don’t know a lot I’m a simpleton. Here is what thoughts are. We live in a society that does value work. From the top down there is encouragement not to work. Culture has dictated less work more money. This is a recipe for disaster. At my shop we just went through a union contract. The new hires wanted the whole world given to them and they loathe seniority. This also goes in the public sector. We have an administration that has encouraged people not to work. The labor shortage is very real. This causes not as much to be produced and what is being produced is more expensive because of labor cost. 

A short while ago I bought gas for 1.60 and a family pack of chicken thighs were 4.00. So I could go to work and eat dinner for 5.60. Today it’s 3.00$ gallon and 8 dollars for thighs. Same trip 11.00$ yes it’s doubled. Ground beef was 1.75/ 2.00 lbs. now it’s 6.00+ a lot. A 2x4 is 3$ plus used to 1.66$. This is true inflation forget all the metrics. That is just accounting. Most Americans are paying twice what they used to pay for stuff. Rent is through the roof. The cost to borrow money to invest is insane. Look at the price of a new truck compared to 5 years ago. Co pays at the hospital is higher. My work insurance is about to go up 25%. A few years ago I could go to McDonald’s get a double cheeseburger and a medium chocolate shake3.50 now it’s 8$ and it takes twice as long to get it

While I agree that most don’t know. Here is my two bit thought. Making a rational educated guess can help you navigate waters.Basically plan for the worst and if it happens you prepared, if not you in better shape. There are things that you can try and predict. Rates will start going down next year. Inflation will “go down” gas will go down, food will go down, there will also be cold and flu season. It is an election year. I would be willing to bet in the months leading up to November prices will be down so that the last four years are forgotten for better or worse. Especially in today’s political climate some things are easier to predict than in years past. Me personally I try and sometimes fail to think about future events and how they can affect my wallet. If there is a changing of the guard in the next election cycle I think most can tell where things will go, or if they stay the same we can also know how that wil go. 

I have a vanguard 401k account at my job. I am able to take up to two loans out on it that I pay back to myself. I did one for first property and I’m glad I did it every first of the month. 

If I had something destroying my property I’m taking care of it and worrying about details later. Not saying this applies in every scenario, however in this I feel it does. Go set a live trap catch remove it and be done with it or pay a local company to do it. If that thing starts to destroy the house a 100$ will be insignificant.

In my case the foundation is good. However they do not inspect every beam, nor do they look at covered old sub floors. They don’t measure any sag in a 150 year old beam. The methods of construction then was no code and build with what you got. That stuff gets buried behind walls and and add ons. I am half way handy and have remodeled a couple houses. In one of my bedrooms I had two ceilings one that you saw and one underneath it a foot above that hid a whole bunch of stuff. Once I ripped it out and the wall i discovered there had been a fire. The top plates for the wall was so bowed and bent that it looks like the wood is smiling. That’s because they are scraps 1x4s. My point is the whole house is this way. No inspection could show that or would an inspection show my joist beam with shims on top of it that is buried beneath 3” of sub floors. 
I’m not saying not to buy an old house but just be prepared that things are hidden and that they didn’t use 2x4s as we know it nor was any code followed in 1880. It can be done but give me a 1950s ranch any day of the week.  A lot of these problems with floors and such will never arise until you tear things apart to really see it, or until you live there for a few months and noticed a spongy spot near where the dogs bed is in the corner. 

I would steer clear as Patricia said. I live in a house that was made for n 1880. I just got a quote to help reinforce floors that was 2500$. The main beam in my basement still has bark on it. I see square nails. The framing to the house is all balloon framing. The house has settled over 150 years  and the rooms all have a nice slant to them. In order to get that slant out you would have to gut the entire two store house as the drywall would all crack, windows and doors would not work. Not to mentioned when I opened a wall up nothing is remotely to code as far as structural. All that said the house has made it for 150 years. But to improve it is challenging. I also lost track of how many different sub floors I have in kitchen under tile. The house has been “worked on” for 150 years of people. Most of which were poor farmers at the time just trying to get by.