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I apologize if Robert interprets my rantings on society as a personal
jab. That wasn't the intent.
I was ranting about our AMERICAN SOCIETY and how we all take on more
debts than we should because the SUV commercials tell us that we'll be
better off if we have a gas-guzzling truck to go tearing into the sides
of mountains and causing environmental erosion and bothersome noise for
the wildlife. And gee, they'll even give us $1000 cash back if we sign
our lives and first-born away! We can do whatever we want with that
money, like spent $100 of it to see the 3rd annual, must-see, farewell
Rolling Stones tour... assuming we can tear ourselves away from 300
channels of programming that is just now (with A&E, the History Channel,
and PBS) approaching 24-7 of quality programming.
[*** I do have a pay cut example below ***]
I should have mentioned that I had times right out of college and in a
new job some 15 years ago when I had credit card debt, made worse when
the job was taken away from me. (I had a CD player, ghetto blaster, and
30 CDs to show for the debt.)
An enlightening experience for me was later on when I had a new car that
I was making payments on and found it expedient to leave my loser
employer and go back to grad school. One of the first courses I took as
part of my Telecom Master's was on economics. Basically, it was the
power of compounded interest and how it can work for you or against you
over time: present value, future value, etc. and how to use
spread-sheets.
It inspired me to sell my new car, purchase a 1979 Honda Civic for $350,
and simplify. (Why was I using my student loan to pay my car loan?) By
the way, the $350 one-time fee was only about $50 more than my monthly
car payments at the time. When I went on study-abroad to Germany, I
loaned the car to my sister. When it would no longer pass the emissions
test, we ran the numbers on our options. The rebuilt engine cost $900; I
told my sister that this was 3 months of car payments on a new car that
I was willing to pay. If the new engine lasts 3 months, we've made our
money back. Now, a decade later, my oldest brother is still driving that
car. Honda has been very, very good to me.
[*** pay cut info ***]
As for the salary cut information, I took a pay cut when I went to
Austria. I didn't negotiate it that way. In fact, I was trying to
negotiate net salary and felt that what I would be earning was
equivalent. It wasn't. I was down about 5%. The exchange rate made it
even worse. Normally, I like to think in local currency, but the
exchange rate did play a role because I had expenses (e.g., mortgage,
insurance) in the US that wasn't completely offset by my rental income.
I admit that my debts now are higher than I would like. This is due to
the fact that the exchange rate was so bad at the time I moved back, I
couldn't justify transferring my overseas earnings into my US account
and losing so much value all at once. So I invested it there and lived
on my VISA card for awhile (which I converted to a personal loan). I
mean, I have the money to pay it off in full. The money is just in a
different currency. Gotta have patience.
Glenn
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Darren Barefoot [mailto:Darren -dot- Barefoot -at- capeclear -dot- com]
> Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 9:09 AM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: RE: Biggest salary cut you've taken?
>
>
> How to put this best:
>
> Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
> Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
>
> There, that'll do. DB.
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A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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