Governments exist exactly to protect people who would otherwise be screwed by all out competition.
Hmm....I'm thumbing through my US Constitution and I'm having a very difficult time finding within the limited, enumerated privileges and responsibilities of the Federal Govt. where this is listed as one of its jobs as you stated it to be.....
When the supermarket is a 5-min walk, you just make multiple trips as needed. I hit a supermarket once or twice a week, and hit a convenience store once or twice a day (about 1 min walk). It's really not that different from walking across the barnyard to grab a couple of eggs from the chicken coop. (Trust me, I'm from Iowa.)
Evidently, I'm not as "price conscious" as you are, but luckily for me, Taiwanese people are. (A Jewish pal who used to live here would joke that if his girlfriend got pregnant, their kids would be the stingiest people on the planet...;-) Thus, the local market is very competitive, and you're unlikely to save more than a few percent, no matter how far you travel.
If I put my mind to it, it's not hard to cram a couple of weeks' worth of groceries into two or three bags, easily portable with two hands for the short distance involved. (I'm single too, and do a lot of cooking at home.) But for the most part I don't HAVE to put that much thought into it. My grocery store is five minutes away by foot... If I need something that I can't get at the 7-11 in five minutes, I'll get it from the supermarket in fifteen minutes. They are both open 24/7.
Sounds like a royal pain in the ass to me.
But things like what I like to do on the weekends..for instance. I decide on Friday afternoon that I wanna have some friends over to watch football.
I need to go buy a couple cases of beer...and two large bags of ice for my pelican ice chest (keeps it cold for days).
I also want to fire up my smoker, so I need to grab a bag of logs at Academy Sports, which is about 40-50lbs. I also need to get a brisket (12-14lbs) and maybe some ribs....
NOw...how am I supposed to do all that without a car? I don't see how to do that in a couple hours on a bike or on some form of public transportation.
Sure you *can* do things...but why would you want to make life harder on yourself than you need it to be? Hell, I can't imagine having to depend on public transport of a bicycle next time I wanted to have friends over for a crawfish boil or something....
I don't just eat ham sandwiches....or processed foods or take out. And I'd rather spend most of my time at home cooking and having fun, or using my time to go hang with friends. Time is my most valuable commodity. Not having my own private transportation that can get me around and haul things would eat up too much of the little time I have for myself and the enjoyment of my life.
I know someone who's a contractor, working for several companies at once, and a few of his employers have gone the route of only hiring contractors through temp agencies to avoid law suits. Those agencies then try to verify that the contractor is properly classified through some rather arbitrary criteria (do you bring your own tools, are you allowed to work for more than one company, can you sub-contract to another person or agency, are you required to work full time, etc).
Well one way to mitigate this..and I'm surprised Amazon didn't require this..is to make sure the contractors are incorporated, so that the relationship between employer and employee is bridged by a corp-to-corp contract. That way, the employee is legally working for his corporation which has a contract with the employing corporation...this way you can help keep the lines of legal division cleaner.
It isn't a big deal...you just have to put on your Big Boy pants and know how to negotiate a bill rate.
The difference between contractor and employee?
Contractors have to pay their own social security(none paid by employer)not eligible to same workers comp benefits if injured, not eligible for unemployment, when laid off, don't get access to employer matched 401k...the list goes on.
Again, no big deal, this is one of the reasons contractors have MUCH higher bill rates than W2 employees. You figure this into the bill rate.
As for retirement, you can set up IRA's or something like a solo 401K and load it up with money pre-tax. You can also set up a HSA (Health Savings Account) which you can load up pre-tax for your routine medical needs...and unlike the FSA you get with W2 employment, it is NOT use it or lose it...you keep rolling it over year after year, building it up. Whatever is left over in HSA at retirement can be converted to retirement money.
The only difference is...YOU have to be adult enough to handle the paperwork rather than some HR person at a company.
These days...a W2 employee gets pretty much no loyalty from the company, nor any true stability...so, I figure if you're gonna be treated like a contractor, you might as well get the BILL RATE of a contractor.
If you didn't like the terms of the job....DON"T FUCKING TAKE THE JOB....?!?
I mean, we're all grown adults...you read the writing before you sign the dotted line...so, why get the job and then decide to sue?
This ruins things for all the people that DO like and prefer the contractor paradigm. Shit like this makes it harder for those that DO want to be contractors to get jobs, due to potential contract employers are afraid of sue happy idiots.
It is just fine if you don't want to work contracting....just don't, there are plenty of other jobs to be had and no one is holding a gun to your head to work for this employer. Why sign up and sue rather than just go somewhere else that hires you as a W2 user?
Ok, let's look at your utopian view of the world. Let's say we got rid of all the cars and trucks.
Now...where is the money going to come from to build and maintain these same roads for bicycles?
Also...how will large loads of goods be moved about the country? Sure we'd still have trains, but without large trucks, how are the food and necessities of life transported?
Where I live a LARGE majority of the funds for road construction and maintenance is from gasoline taxes. SO, I'd argue that still today most of the money for roads that bikes use...come from motorists. If they all went away, ignoring the problems it would cause society....who and how are the roads going to be paid for if we all bicycle everywhere? If there is a bicycle tax that has to support all the infrastructure...I gotta imagine a lot of folks are going to get a bit upset at how $$$ it gets to own and ride a bike since they will no longer be subsidized by motorists.
Yes, I do drive cars I enjoy (why not make everything you NEED as fun as possible?)....but they are necessary for me to live the lifestyle I enjoy in this modern day in age.
I like to come and go as I please....travel door-to-door at a good rate of speed, and if I decide I want to load up the ice chest with beer and a couple large bags of ice....fire up the smoker with a few bags of hickory logs...and maybe 14b brisket and other fixings for a BBQ party with my friends, I don't want to wonder how I'll get that all bought and started in a 1-2 hour window with only a bike and/or public transportation like a bus.
And during football season...what I said above isn't just a once or twice a year enjoyment.
Well, if you have a car in the city, you have to go out there and dig it out of the snow, you have to scrape the windshield, maybe find someone to help push you out of a drift.
Why not just keep the car in the garage so that it doesn't get all the ice and snow on it?
The cost of owning a car (let alone fueling it) will FAR exceed any savings you obtain by getting "deals" on your weekly groceries.
Well, there is also the cost/benefits of being able to come and go from door-to-door on my own schedule..there is a LOT of value on that, especially on days with tight schedules and inclement weather.
Hell, I'm trying to figure how to do simple things without a car...like days I want to load up the big Pelican ice chest with beer and ice for game days on saturdays....how would I get my two large bags of ice from the store to home, much less beer to fill it....without a car? I can't imagine trying to do that with a bus even if the stops were within blocks of my house and destination, on a nice weather day...much less a stormy day.
My nearest supermarket is a five-minute walk. Three minutes in the opposite direction is a traditional "wet" market. Another ten minutes beyond that is another supermarket (though I usually take a bus for that one). Some things are farther away, but this city has excellent public transit, so nothing is more than about 35~40 minutes away.
But how DO you shop when you need more than a carton of milk?
How do you haul around15-20 bags of groceries, 12 pack of beer, etc....from the stores to bus(es) to home?
I'm a single guy right now, and I couldn't carry all the stuff I buy weekly on public transport, hell, some times I have trouble fitting it all in my car..especially on a Costco run.
for you to demand that tax-payer money is blown on constantly rebuilding the roads that your car is destroying, and for you to demand that tax-payer money is blown on free parking so you can hog a 6 foot by 20 foot piece of prime real estate while you sit through a movie.
I think you're forgetting that YOU as a bicyclist are the one piggybacking onto the car owners for those roads in the first place.
I don't see a lot of bicycle taxes paying for roadway construction or maintenance.
When I travel to Evanston, I always end up parking on the outskirts and walking everywhere I go.
So, how does that work out for you during in climate weather? I'm led to believe that in the Chicago area, winters can be pretty long and harsh. You go around walking in that type of frigid, windy weather? What about heavy rainy days or high humidity days (more of what I get here in New Orleans)?
This all seems well and good on a few nice days of the year, but what about the rest of the time when nature doesn't want to cooperate?
The only downside is the crime rate here is rather bad
Yeah, that's one of the things I was thinking of when reading your post (and others similar)....what good is it to be so very walkable, when you have to worry about getting mugged by thugs.
That way, if you just need a carton of milk (for example), you wouldn't have to drive to the supermarket, you could just walk a couple of blocks to Mrs. Smith's house.
But that wouldn't allow you to get the best DEALs. I tend to look at all the ads for the sales at the various grocery stores in my somewhat immediate area.
I pick out what's on sale at the various stores and on my shopping day (usually one day a week mainly)...I hit anywhere from 2-5 different stores to get what is on sale and I make up what I'm gonna cook largely based on that.
I usually only hit the grocery store once a week, but I buy a ton of stuff...most to use that week (I don't buy processed foods really, just fresh ingredients to cook from scratch)...some to freeze (large cuts of meat on sale, like pork shoulder for $0.99/lb).
And that doesn't even come close to what I grab when I make a trip to Sam's or Costco warehouse stores.
I dunno how people that really cook can manage in cities without a car. I just have to guess your choices are severely limited on what you have available and what prices you can get.....
"Black Rogers" sounds like an early-70s blaxploitation knock-off of the original...
That said, where does it say he's going to be black anyway?!
I dunno if it states that, BUT it does seem to be a popular thing to do these days...turn classic white characters black for some reason.
I mean, if Little Orphan Annie wasn't the whitest cartoon on earth....and yet turned into a black girl recently, I don't know what would stop the transformation of any other character.
Hey, they're free to do what they want, but I'm puzzled why this trend to change the race of classic characters, rather than create NEW characters of various races to be new heroes, or cartoons, etc.
The trouble with that is after the ACA even the high deductible plans have sky high premiums in most states. Unless you make little enough money to qualify for subsidies you wind up subsidizing everyone else on the plan.
1099's are ok when used right but lot's of places want the control of a w2 worker but don't want the ACA, taxes, labor rights, worker comp, overtime, etc that comes with them.
Well, there is NO abuse if you as the contract worker know enough to adjust your bill rate to cover taxes, benefits, etc. You still get them, but you manage and pay them rather than some HR person.
And as a contract worker, you damn sure get paid EVERY hour your work. They want 80 hours that week...you get paid 80 hours of your billable rate. That W2 salaried person does not get paid extra.
Yeah, it sucks that the Feds changed the rules a few decades back and put programmers and IT folks in the category where you don't automatically get time and a half..but then again, you can negotiate for that right up front. And I still see that happen. Is kinda nice in a mix of contractors and W2's....if they need OT...the contractors often are let off work but the W2's have to stay....so the company doesn't have to pay the extra hourly money....so, who does better in that scenario?
Frankly, if they pay me enough money, I'm quite happy to care for myself....my rights, my $$..etc.
If it weren't for $$, I'd not be working ever...but I need to at this time to cover my lifestyle needs, so I work. I might as well get the freedom and bill rate of the contractor, because the traditional W2 drone these days, does NOT get any more job stability or company loyalty than a contractor.
As I've stated in previous posts...if you're gonna be treated like a contractor by companies....you might as well get the BILL RATE of a contractor.
basic health insurance for all is needed maybe even basic income.
Well, if contracting, all you have to do, is put on your Big Boy pants...and learn to negotiate your bill rate to be enough to cover your salary needs, vacation/sick day needs...AND you healthcare needs.
It isn't rocket science. That is why contractor rates are so much higher than W2 rates. You take the matters into consideration.
And as I mentioned before, there are advantages, get a high deductible medical insurance...which is about $1500 annually. This allows you to set up a Health Savings Account (HSA) into which you can sock away $3500 pre-tax...and use this for your routine medical needs, meds, etc. This HSA is also not use it or lose it like a FSA, you roll over the extras year after year.
We're not talking burger flippers here...know your worth (if you are worth it)...and adjust your bill rate to cover this. It isn't rocket science...you still get benefits, it is just that as a contractor YOU pay for it (covered in bill rate) and choose and manage it, rather than some HR person.
The days of a lifetime job at one company have been over for at least 3 decades really.
Best advice...get your first jobs out of school. Work, network....make business contacts and friends, and hone your skills to become marketable.
While doing this, incorporate yourself. This will prepare you for contract work when you are ready. Remember all those business contacts and all? Well, those will help lead you into contract jobs or even direct ones as you move from job to job.
But if doing contracting...INCORPORATE yourself. Learn to budget and plan. You have to save money while making it, for the down times...and retirement.
But for all that extra effort, there *IS* benefits. You are your own boss. You get to call the hours you work. And you can write off a shit ton of stuff perfectly legally...write those expenses off. And eventually, get a CPA to help guide you.
There are many ways to do it, I prefer the S-Corp method.
With this, yes there is more paperwork (CPA helps here, and their fees are reasonable and deductible)....but you can keep more of your hard earned money.
It can work like this. Let's say for simplicity...you bill $100K a year.
With the S-corp, you pay yourself a "reasonable" salary....the IRS is vague on this, but let's be reasonable and say you pay yourself a salary of say, $40K. Now, on that $40K, you pay out of that SS and medicare, employer and employee....and your state and fed taxes (if you state taxes you).
The rest of the $60K...at EOY, falls through to your personal taxes (assuming single person business)...now, take all your deductions from that....and what's left, is only taxed for state and federal....you save the SS and medicare taxation this way.
What's left is all yours.
100% perfectly legal, and if you just keep records...and play by the rules, you can save enough money to keep things worth the effort.
Also, don't forget, you have your own insurance. That's no biggie, especially if getting into this young. Get yourself a "high deductible" insurance policy, which today is I believe $1500 (I don't have my files handy right now for exact numbers)...with this, you can open a HSA (Health Savings Account) into which you can sock away $3500 pre-tax, which also decreases your taxable income. Out of the HSA, you pay your routine meds...Dr. visits, optical, dentist...etc.
The nice thing about a HSA..is that it is NOT use or lose like a FSA (Flexible Savings Acct. offered with some W2 jobs)....with HSA, any leftovers can be rolled over year after year. You can even invest monies in an HSA..and eventually excess can become retirement $$ for you.
So, yes, you have to be responsible.
Yes, you have to manage your money.
Yes, you have to learn your worth and learn to NEGOTIATE...so that you can cover your expenses, money needed for retirement and insurance, and vacation time off. But this isn't rocket science, you just need to learn to become an adult and take care of yourself and learn how to protect your interests.
One last piece of advice....if you are an American citizen, try to get into Federal Contracting...you can do LONG multi-year contracts that offer much more stability. If you can make sure not to have a lot of skull bong moment pictures of yourself on social media while growing up, you can pretty readily get a clearance....and then, you are really SET for profitable, long term money making with at least as much stability as today's W2 worker.
Yes, the days of steady employment and loyalty from a company have been LONG over...if you're gonna get treated like a contractor and not have any more stability than a contractor...you might as well get the BILL RATE as a contractor to make it all worth while.
That and you can save more of your hard earned tax $$'s this way too.
What are you talking about? Amazon charges sales tax on 26 states. It's only time before they charge it in yours.
Interesting, that's news to me...I've not yet lived in a state where Amazon collect sales tax.
Well, I'll keep enjoying it while I can....
Sure saved me a bunch of $$$ when I bought some high end camera gear not having to pay the unreasonably high sales tax in this area. You get up to 9.x% of things that are $2500+, it starts to add up.
They keep forgetting ONE BIG reason people order from Amazon.com.
You don't have to pay Sales Tax on the items.
Yes, I know you are supposed to pay use taxes in most states, but seriously, who does that?
In my area, local plus state sales tax is in the upper 9.x% range....when I buy a large ticket item online, I save a substantial amount of $$. I'd have to pay that sales tax if I bought the same item on Walmart.com or picked it up in the store.
I know that someday this will come to an end, but in the meantime, I'd have to guess a LARGE number of people order from Amazon and others to avoid high sales tax in states that charge it....
I don't understand "taking the piss" in your context? It sounds like you're wanting to urinate on him? Taking a piss is generally meant to go urinate, take a leak..etc?
This means that creditors can't take the piss by refusing to accept 20 pound notes (in England, tough luck Scots!), and debtors can't take the piss by insisting on repaying a grand in coppers.
Sorry, but I have absolutely NO idea what you're trying to say here. Are you saying creditors/debtors will get angry or "pissed off" about refusing to accept 20 pound notes or something? That doesn't make sense to me....?
It sounds like you have some impression of public transport that is not well grounded in reality. You are arguing against a phantom public transport concept that exist only in your head. You are also conveniently forgetting the downsides to car ownership, which is somewhat strange.
No, that is the public transportation system of the US that I've seen...and it isn't really practical for daily life.
I don't see a downside to owning a car, it allows me to come and go as I please when and where I want....and it is fun.
As for renting a car, seriously, you expect me to plan that day, call Enterprise rent a car to come pick em up, assume that day and hour they have the cheapest car available....rent it to me, I do my grocery shopping, drop of at home, unload and then drop back to car rental place....and wait for them to shuttle me back home.....every week for groceries?
Let's see...that adds a a bare minimum, 2-3 hours of extra time a day when I want to do shopping....at least once every week and the cost of renting that car etc piled on top.
Doesn't sound very practical.....and I'd have to do the exact same thing any time I wanted to buy one bulky item or several items that were too much for me to carry on a bus, or a cab (which IS very expensive)...?
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm....I'm thumbing through my US Constitution and I'm having a very difficult time finding within the limited, enumerated privileges and responsibilities of the Federal Govt. where this is listed as one of its jobs as you stated it to be.....
Sounds like a royal pain in the ass to me.
But things like what I like to do on the weekends..for instance. I decide on Friday afternoon that I wanna have some friends over to watch football.
I need to go buy a couple cases of beer...and two large bags of ice for my pelican ice chest (keeps it cold for days).
I also want to fire up my smoker, so I need to grab a bag of logs at Academy Sports, which is about 40-50lbs. I also need to get a brisket (12-14lbs) and maybe some ribs....
NOw...how am I supposed to do all that without a car? I don't see how to do that in a couple hours on a bike or on some form of public transportation.
Sure you *can* do things...but why would you want to make life harder on yourself than you need it to be? Hell, I can't imagine having to depend on public transport of a bicycle next time I wanted to have friends over for a crawfish boil or something....
I don't just eat ham sandwiches....or processed foods or take out. And I'd rather spend most of my time at home cooking and having fun, or using my time to go hang with friends. Time is my most valuable commodity. Not having my own private transportation that can get me around and haul things would eat up too much of the little time I have for myself and the enjoyment of my life.
Well one way to mitigate this..and I'm surprised Amazon didn't require this..is to make sure the contractors are incorporated, so that the relationship between employer and employee is bridged by a corp-to-corp contract. That way, the employee is legally working for his corporation which has a contract with the employing corporation...this way you can help keep the lines of legal division cleaner.
Again, no big deal, this is one of the reasons contractors have MUCH higher bill rates than W2 employees. You figure this into the bill rate.
As for retirement, you can set up IRA's or something like a solo 401K and load it up with money pre-tax. You can also set up a HSA (Health Savings Account) which you can load up pre-tax for your routine medical needs...and unlike the FSA you get with W2 employment, it is NOT use it or lose it...you keep rolling it over year after year, building it up. Whatever is left over in HSA at retirement can be converted to retirement money.
The only difference is...YOU have to be adult enough to handle the paperwork rather than some HR person at a company.
These days...a W2 employee gets pretty much no loyalty from the company, nor any true stability...so, I figure if you're gonna be treated like a contractor, you might as well get the BILL RATE of a contractor.
If you didn't like the terms of the job....DON"T FUCKING TAKE THE JOB....?!?
I mean, we're all grown adults...you read the writing before you sign the dotted line...so, why get the job and then decide to sue?
This ruins things for all the people that DO like and prefer the contractor paradigm. Shit like this makes it harder for those that DO want to be contractors to get jobs, due to potential contract employers are afraid of sue happy idiots.
It is just fine if you don't want to work contracting....just don't, there are plenty of other jobs to be had and no one is holding a gun to your head to work for this employer. Why sign up and sue rather than just go somewhere else that hires you as a W2 user?
Ok, let's look at your utopian view of the world. Let's say we got rid of all the cars and trucks.
Now...where is the money going to come from to build and maintain these same roads for bicycles?
Also...how will large loads of goods be moved about the country? Sure we'd still have trains, but without large trucks, how are the food and necessities of life transported?
Where I live a LARGE majority of the funds for road construction and maintenance is from gasoline taxes. SO, I'd argue that still today most of the money for roads that bikes use...come from motorists. If they all went away, ignoring the problems it would cause society....who and how are the roads going to be paid for if we all bicycle everywhere? If there is a bicycle tax that has to support all the infrastructure...I gotta imagine a lot of folks are going to get a bit upset at how $$$ it gets to own and ride a bike since they will no longer be subsidized by motorists.
Yes, I do drive cars I enjoy (why not make everything you NEED as fun as possible?)....but they are necessary for me to live the lifestyle I enjoy in this modern day in age.
I like to come and go as I please....travel door-to-door at a good rate of speed, and if I decide I want to load up the ice chest with beer and a couple large bags of ice....fire up the smoker with a few bags of hickory logs...and maybe 14b brisket and other fixings for a BBQ party with my friends, I don't want to wonder how I'll get that all bought and started in a 1-2 hour window with only a bike and/or public transportation like a bus.
And during football season...what I said above isn't just a once or twice a year enjoyment.
Why not just keep the car in the garage so that it doesn't get all the ice and snow on it?
Well, there is also the cost/benefits of being able to come and go from door-to-door on my own schedule..there is a LOT of value on that, especially on days with tight schedules and inclement weather.
Hell, I'm trying to figure how to do simple things without a car...like days I want to load up the big Pelican ice chest with beer and ice for game days on saturdays....how would I get my two large bags of ice from the store to home, much less beer to fill it....without a car? I can't imagine trying to do that with a bus even if the stops were within blocks of my house and destination, on a nice weather day...much less a stormy day.
But how DO you shop when you need more than a carton of milk?
How do you haul around15-20 bags of groceries, 12 pack of beer, etc....from the stores to bus(es) to home?
I'm a single guy right now, and I couldn't carry all the stuff I buy weekly on public transport, hell, some times I have trouble fitting it all in my car..especially on a Costco run.
I think you're forgetting that YOU as a bicyclist are the one piggybacking onto the car owners for those roads in the first place.
I don't see a lot of bicycle taxes paying for roadway construction or maintenance.
So, how does that work out for you during in climate weather? I'm led to believe that in the Chicago area, winters can be pretty long and harsh. You go around walking in that type of frigid, windy weather? What about heavy rainy days or high humidity days (more of what I get here in New Orleans)?
This all seems well and good on a few nice days of the year, but what about the rest of the time when nature doesn't want to cooperate?
Yeah, that's one of the things I was thinking of when reading your post (and others similar)....what good is it to be so very walkable, when you have to worry about getting mugged by thugs.
But that wouldn't allow you to get the best DEALs. I tend to look at all the ads for the sales at the various grocery stores in my somewhat immediate area.
I pick out what's on sale at the various stores and on my shopping day (usually one day a week mainly)...I hit anywhere from 2-5 different stores to get what is on sale and I make up what I'm gonna cook largely based on that.
I usually only hit the grocery store once a week, but I buy a ton of stuff...most to use that week (I don't buy processed foods really, just fresh ingredients to cook from scratch)...some to freeze (large cuts of meat on sale, like pork shoulder for $0.99/lb).
And that doesn't even come close to what I grab when I make a trip to Sam's or Costco warehouse stores.
I dunno how people that really cook can manage in cities without a car. I just have to guess your choices are severely limited on what you have available and what prices you can get.....
I dunno if it states that, BUT it does seem to be a popular thing to do these days...turn classic white characters black for some reason.
I mean, if Little Orphan Annie wasn't the whitest cartoon on earth....and yet turned into a black girl recently, I don't know what would stop the transformation of any other character.
Hey, they're free to do what they want, but I'm puzzled why this trend to change the race of classic characters, rather than create NEW characters of various races to be new heroes, or cartoons, etc.
My insurance is about $570/month.
That's pretty easy to cover in the bill rate.
Well, there is NO abuse if you as the contract worker know enough to adjust your bill rate to cover taxes, benefits, etc. You still get them, but you manage and pay them rather than some HR person.
And as a contract worker, you damn sure get paid EVERY hour your work. They want 80 hours that week...you get paid 80 hours of your billable rate. That W2 salaried person does not get paid extra.
Yeah, it sucks that the Feds changed the rules a few decades back and put programmers and IT folks in the category where you don't automatically get time and a half..but then again, you can negotiate for that right up front. And I still see that happen. Is kinda nice in a mix of contractors and W2's....if they need OT...the contractors often are let off work but the W2's have to stay....so the company doesn't have to pay the extra hourly money....so, who does better in that scenario?
Frankly, if they pay me enough money, I'm quite happy to care for myself....my rights, my $$..etc.
If it weren't for $$, I'd not be working ever...but I need to at this time to cover my lifestyle needs, so I work. I might as well get the freedom and bill rate of the contractor, because the traditional W2 drone these days, does NOT get any more job stability or company loyalty than a contractor.
As I've stated in previous posts...if you're gonna be treated like a contractor by companies....you might as well get the BILL RATE of a contractor.
Well, if contracting, all you have to do, is put on your Big Boy pants...and learn to negotiate your bill rate to be enough to cover your salary needs, vacation/sick day needs...AND you healthcare needs.
It isn't rocket science. That is why contractor rates are so much higher than W2 rates. You take the matters into consideration.
And as I mentioned before, there are advantages, get a high deductible medical insurance...which is about $1500 annually. This allows you to set up a Health Savings Account (HSA) into which you can sock away $3500 pre-tax...and use this for your routine medical needs, meds, etc. This HSA is also not use it or lose it like a FSA, you roll over the extras year after year.
We're not talking burger flippers here...know your worth (if you are worth it)...and adjust your bill rate to cover this. It isn't rocket science...you still get benefits, it is just that as a contractor YOU pay for it (covered in bill rate) and choose and manage it, rather than some HR person.
Best advice...get your first jobs out of school. Work, network....make business contacts and friends, and hone your skills to become marketable.
While doing this, incorporate yourself. This will prepare you for contract work when you are ready. Remember all those business contacts and all? Well, those will help lead you into contract jobs or even direct ones as you move from job to job.
But if doing contracting...INCORPORATE yourself. Learn to budget and plan. You have to save money while making it, for the down times...and retirement.
But for all that extra effort, there *IS* benefits. You are your own boss. You get to call the hours you work. And you can write off a shit ton of stuff perfectly legally...write those expenses off. And eventually, get a CPA to help guide you.
There are many ways to do it, I prefer the S-Corp method.
With this, yes there is more paperwork (CPA helps here, and their fees are reasonable and deductible)....but you can keep more of your hard earned money.
It can work like this. Let's say for simplicity...you bill $100K a year.
With the S-corp, you pay yourself a "reasonable" salary....the IRS is vague on this, but let's be reasonable and say you pay yourself a salary of say, $40K. Now, on that $40K, you pay out of that SS and medicare, employer and employee....and your state and fed taxes (if you state taxes you).
The rest of the $60K...at EOY, falls through to your personal taxes (assuming single person business)...now, take all your deductions from that....and what's left, is only taxed for state and federal....you save the SS and medicare taxation this way.
What's left is all yours.
100% perfectly legal, and if you just keep records...and play by the rules, you can save enough money to keep things worth the effort.
Also, don't forget, you have your own insurance. That's no biggie, especially if getting into this young. Get yourself a "high deductible" insurance policy, which today is I believe $1500 (I don't have my files handy right now for exact numbers)...with this, you can open a HSA (Health Savings Account) into which you can sock away $3500 pre-tax, which also decreases your taxable income. Out of the HSA, you pay your routine meds...Dr. visits, optical, dentist...etc.
The nice thing about a HSA..is that it is NOT use or lose like a FSA (Flexible Savings Acct. offered with some W2 jobs)....with HSA, any leftovers can be rolled over year after year. You can even invest monies in an HSA..and eventually excess can become retirement $$ for you.
So, yes, you have to be responsible.
Yes, you have to manage your money.
Yes, you have to learn your worth and learn to NEGOTIATE...so that you can cover your expenses, money needed for retirement and insurance, and vacation time off. But this isn't rocket science, you just need to learn to become an adult and take care of yourself and learn how to protect your interests.
One last piece of advice....if you are an American citizen, try to get into Federal Contracting...you can do LONG multi-year contracts that offer much more stability. If you can make sure not to have a lot of skull bong moment pictures of yourself on social media while growing up, you can pretty readily get a clearance....and then, you are really SET for profitable, long term money making with at least as much stability as today's W2 worker.
Yes, the days of steady employment and loyalty from a company have been LONG over...if you're gonna get treated like a contractor and not have any more stability than a contractor...you might as well get the BILL RATE as a contractor to make it all worth while.
That and you can save more of your hard earned tax $$'s this way too.
Well, maybe one thing we could do...in the US.
If you're on the public dole for more than X months or maybe a year, you have to be "fixed" if you want to continue on it.
This seems a reasonable place to start with US population control.
Interesting, that's news to me...I've not yet lived in a state where Amazon collect sales tax.
Well, I'll keep enjoying it while I can....
Sure saved me a bunch of $$$ when I bought some high end camera gear not having to pay the unreasonably high sales tax in this area. You get up to 9.x% of things that are $2500+, it starts to add up.
You don't have to pay Sales Tax on the items.
Yes, I know you are supposed to pay use taxes in most states, but seriously, who does that?
In my area, local plus state sales tax is in the upper 9.x% range....when I buy a large ticket item online, I save a substantial amount of $$. I'd have to pay that sales tax if I bought the same item on Walmart.com or picked it up in the store.
I know that someday this will come to an end, but in the meantime, I'd have to guess a LARGE number of people order from Amazon and others to avoid high sales tax in states that charge it....
Ok..I've heard of ONE of those before..Pissed Off.
Where do they use these other terms?
I don't understand "taking the piss" in your context? It sounds like you're wanting to urinate on him? Taking a piss is generally meant to go urinate, take a leak..etc?
Sorry, but I have absolutely NO idea what you're trying to say here. Are you saying creditors/debtors will get angry or "pissed off" about refusing to accept 20 pound notes or something? That doesn't make sense to me....?
No, that is the public transportation system of the US that I've seen...and it isn't really practical for daily life.
I don't see a downside to owning a car, it allows me to come and go as I please when and where I want....and it is fun.
As for renting a car, seriously, you expect me to plan that day, call Enterprise rent a car to come pick em up, assume that day and hour they have the cheapest car available....rent it to me, I do my grocery shopping, drop of at home, unload and then drop back to car rental place....and wait for them to shuttle me back home.....every week for groceries?
Let's see...that adds a a bare minimum, 2-3 hours of extra time a day when I want to do shopping....at least once every week and the cost of renting that car etc piled on top.
Doesn't sound very practical.....and I'd have to do the exact same thing any time I wanted to buy one bulky item or several items that were too much for me to carry on a bus, or a cab (which IS very expensive)...?