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really? I find it difficult to believe that a family with kids and 2 wage earners, each making less than $15 an hour would be able to save money unless they were not paying rent/mortgage or some other common expense. I know these type of families exist, I know them personally.
I’m happy about the direction of this conversation, too.
State employee here. I am required to pay 8% of my pay each month into the pension fund. At least in our case, it is a form of savings, (but we can’t access early.) Seems like this aspect is often overlooked.
This infuriates me, too. I was listening to a local radio talk show whose anchor is someone I like even though I disagree with almost all of his politics. Anyway, he made some comment about how he didn’t feel particularly bad for those who were furloughed/without paychecks because “they had to know the shutdown was going to happen, so why didn’t they save more money?” And then the callers all agreed with him! When it became a “bash-the-furloughed-workers” segment I had to turn it off.
Sometimes the radio makes me despair of humanity.
Oh, and I have a pension, but I save like crazy for everything else, too. I don’t think there’s necessarily a straight line between “eligible for a pension” and “saving money for an emergency fund.”
Personal finances are weird, and as my mother used to tell me “don’t spend other people’s money.”
For those who hark back to just 10 years ago, remember when there was a tax rebate-or some such-to encourage spending to keep the economy afloat. I thought this was a terrible message, as saving rather than spending should be encouraged as a prudent choice, though yes the spending does keep many afloat. Regardless, this was a government message to the American public. Which is why the current bashing of the average employee for not saving galls me, especially in an era of low interest rates on CDs and other saving devices.
Except the Coast Guard.
I agree with not spending other people’s money.
Our S is a fed employee. He said when prior furloughs were imminent, his supervisor would contact each employee individually to ask if she/he would be ok and have suggestions about how they could apply for emergency loans and similar. S was financially OK because he has a part time job and full-time job, but most of his coworkers did not have a similar dual income situation. He’s also single and does not have any dependents. He’s saving aggressively for retirement and to someday buy a place.
H was a 45 year fed employee—most of his career, we had a lot of expenses—medical, the kids education, etc. He was often the sole wage earner for our family. He doesn’t recall them talking ever about how he’d handle not getting his paycheck.
Most of fed employees didn’t seem think about contingency planning of not getting paychecks when H was working. Even if there was a short furlough of a few days, it never stretched out for weeks with no end in sight. H and others took fed jobs because of the job security—he could have made a lot more in the contractor jobs he was offered.
@sylvan8798, fedEE means federal employee.
Our insurance plan (under FEHB) says they will continue coverage through the shutdown and deduct catch-up premiums when we get paychecks again. Don’t know if all plans are doing that. Dental and vision, for agencies that offer them, may start requiring payments.
Will add this: federal employees also contribute a percentage of pay to fund their pension. That figure was increased a couple years ago for new hires. The feds are very clear that the pension’s not going to be large, and that you should put what you can in the 401k.
The old federal pension (CSRS) was more generous, but that benefit ended for employees after 1984, so there are relatively few federal folks still active and accruing service under that plan.
Wow, so many posts in such a short period of time.
What I also wonder is that again media portrays the picture in a certain angle, when some federal employees maybe enjoying this paid vacation?
I never want to question or judge other people’s choices, but mainly it is sad that my 19 year-old has more money or assets than most Americans. Yes, we are savers and I started saving money when I shared a studio apartment as a graduate student.
As a state employee with a pension who previously worked in the private sector with a pension, I do think that there may be different savings rates among people with and without pensions, but that really isn’t the issue here. Pensions are different than emergency funds. I’m sure most - if not all - of us know on some level that we really should spend less and save more, but that life gets in the way.
I do feel really bad for our federal employees. Not only are they not getting paid, but I hear stories about how it’s difficult for them to get unemployment (which may or may not be legal but no one can no for sure since the federal employees responsible for clarifying that aren’t working), as well as how it’s difficult for them to find temporary employment. I also feel for the tertiary economies that are affected who really have no recourse to recoup their lost income.
No paid vacation for the federal employees I know - they’re all on 4-hour call, meaning that they’re required to be at their desks working within 4 hours of being called back. Even if they’d had that day previously approved as vacation time.
I believe most people live paycheck to paycheck and don’t have a huge emergency fund. Federal workers may have a pension in their future, but they also have regular bills like the rest of us.
@SincererLove, your 19 year old is a very lucky person who won the lottery with their family.
I’m not sure what your point is, since it seems that you have a point of view that isn’t changing despite almost every other post here to the contrary.
I don’t think having a pension has very much to do with savings rate. According to a widely-quoted federal report last year, 40% of all adult Americans cannot cover an unexpected $400 expense (see link below).
I bet in that 40% there are plenty of both government and private company employees, plenty of people with pensions and plenty without. I’m sure that in that 40% you can find some furloughed federal workers willing to talk to NPR or other news organizations and tell of their increasingly desperate plight.
I have a lot of sympathy for the federal workers - especially the lower-paid ones such TSA officers. Through no fault of their own they stuck being used a soccer ball in a political game.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2018/05/24/money-retirement-student-loans/#593e0be61059
I would imagine that federal employees are more risk-averse as a group than non-federal employees. After all, part of the reason one goes into public service is for the security offered by a government job.
This might argue that Federal employees are more likely to have savings compared with private sector workers, at least within comparable compensation bands.
Friends of mine (fed EEs) had their savings wiped out 2 years ago helping elderly parents with nursing home expenses. Other fed EE friends recently bought a house and wiped out their savings for the down payment. Lots of reasons that you might not have savings at the moment to weather multiple missed paychecks.
Any enjoyment of this situation would be impacted by the ability to control worry, when this impasse does not seem soon to resolve. Heck, I don’t believe in worry as a good idea in any situation, but this shutdown is seeming far and far more dire on many fronts, far more so if your job, economics and family security are impacted. I am not personally impacted, but worried on many fronts for our country with this shut down. Seeing this as fun for anyone ameliorates compassion for those experiencing it as one of the scarier times for many. What ever happened to " Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes?"