The Money Mustache Community
Around the Internet => Antimustachian Wall of Shame and Comedy => Topic started by: LadyMuMu on October 10, 2015, 03:19:49 PM
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http://www.salon.com/2015/10/10/i_went_broke_teaching_your_kid_the_real_story_about_life_on_a_teachers_salary/ (http://www.salon.com/2015/10/10/i_went_broke_teaching_your_kid_the_real_story_about_life_on_a_teachers_salary/)
Yes. New York is expensive. So are kids. But it sound like this guy has a spending problem, not an earning problem.
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He also blew his 20s getting a PhD in American Studies and it sounds like a chunk of his 30s working in low-paying adjunct positions. Insisting on living in NYC and sending his kids to private schools. So many face punches here. Let's just move on.
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My reaction to these kinds of articles is to skip them.
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Why do people like these tell all their secrets? I'd be too ashamed to tell all that to a reporter.
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If they were stupid enough to get into that kind of mess, they are stupid enough to tell a reporter about it.
What's so hard to understand about that? :)
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Why do people like these tell all their secrets? I'd be too ashamed to tell all that to a reporter.
Some folks are attention whores, though. It's astounding what people will actually admit to and publish. Bits of it may even be true. Every time I read articles like this, I suspect a reporter is being trolled.
Cluelessness also has many dimesions. A person who doesn't grasp cause and effect is generally dim enough to think other people are just like him or her, so there's some kind of universal aspect to the mistakes they make. If they are glum about the "unpredictable" consequences of their jackass decision making, it may appear to them that others will be sympathetic.
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What a moron this guy is. I pity his students.
He claims to be "barely middle class," yet spends more than 32 freakin' thousand dollars (after a discount) sending his kids to a fancy private high school in NYC.
Someone want to explain to this clown that "middle class" people don't send their kids to fancy prep schools?
Yeesh.
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I couldn't read more than a paragraph of this. What a whiny pretentious asshole.
Just a clarification though: he's not telling this to reporters. This is an excerpt from a book about teaching.
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He is spending too much on tuition and housing. He appears to believe that these expenses are necessary and normal. He has no issues with admitting this because he thinks people will agree it's normal and sympathize.
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Not sure what the point of this excerpt is supposed to be. The thesis is, " teaching is interesting?". I mean, he talks about his finances but, the majority of the article is a meandering trip through the ins and outs of the teaching profession. At several points he even acknowledges how sub optimal many of his financial decisions have been.
I did laugh aloud when he called $32k of private schooling an "indulgence".
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I did laugh aloud when he called $32k of private schooling an "indulgence".
At least he admits it and acknowledges the cause and effect relationship between his family's spending and their financial state. Most of the woe-is-me bloviators don't.
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Exactly. Earlier posters are castigating this guy but, he's better than most of the complainers we see. He's not even really complaining - we're all just offended that his decision set deviates so much from our ideal.
I laughed at "indulgence" because it's a classic example of (mis)using diction to aid in rationalization. This is a history/English professor - he knows what he's doing here. In his heart he knows he can't afford 33% of his take home on tuition but, calling it an indulgence and saying it's typical for his peer group lets him sleep at night.
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Exactly. Earlier posters are castigating this guy but, he's better than most of the complainers we see. He's not even really complaining - we're all just offended that his decision set deviates so much from our ideal.
Yup, well said.
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1. As a teacher, I cannot relate to his whine. Oh, I recognize a topic here and there, but it's like he's teaching on a different plane.
2. He started teaching in 2001, and his starting pay was more than I make now. I am nearing the end of my career and will be collecting a full pension soon. I own a house and a couple cars. I have no debt. In spite of paying for my two children to attend college, I am saving aggressively. Why am I succeeding while he's failing? Several answers: He's paying $2300/month for a house (and more in property taxes!). He has twice as many children as the average family. He lives in a high cost of living. He has chosen a lifestyle that includes driving his kids (and dogs?) around the state for various activities. He is paying for private school. He has chosen this path.
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Huh. I pay $280 for my car payment. It's not the most mustachian, but I have no friends or family near me to help out if my car broke down and I have to have a reliable car for the trauma call I take every weekend.
BUT. I make $59,000 before tax, and that's not a number that hurts me. I manage to get by on $1500 a month, but I've CHOSEN that life. You aren't forced into an expensive lifestyle, and I opt to cut back in other areas of my life for a very reliable vehicle. How much money are they spending on take-out a month? The equivalent of a car payment?
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He is spending too much on private schooling and housing. It would be the same for a person here in London if you decided to make those expensive choices.
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Why do people like these tell all their secrets? I'd be too ashamed to tell all that to a reporter.
Some folks are attention whores, though. It's astounding what people will actually admit to and publish. Bits of it may even be true. Every time I read articles like this, I suspect a reporter is being trolled.
Cluelessness also has many dimesions. A person who doesn't grasp cause and effect is generally dim enough to think other people are just like him or her, so there's some kind of universal aspect to the mistakes they make. If they are glum about the "unpredictable" consequences of their jackass decision making, it may appear to them that others will be sympathetic.
Nah you got it all wrong, he talks to the reporter so now he gets the publicity that he can use to start his own GoFundMe account to pay off his life choices on the backs of other people that have probably made equally crappy life choices so they know how to feel sorry for him.
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Talk to reporter, get press, sell books, profit.
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Why do people like these tell all their secrets? I'd be too ashamed to tell all that to a reporter.
Some folks are attention whores, though. It's astounding what people will actually admit to and publish. Bits of it may even be true. Every time I read articles like this, I suspect a reporter is being trolled.
Cluelessness also has many dimesions. A person who doesn't grasp cause and effect is generally dim enough to think other people are just like him or her, so there's some kind of universal aspect to the mistakes they make. If they are glum about the "unpredictable" consequences of their jackass decision making, it may appear to them that others will be sympathetic.
Nah you got it all wrong, he talks to the reporter so now he gets the publicity that he can use to start his own GoFundMe account to pay off his life choices on the backs of other people that have probably made equally crappy life choices so they know how to feel sorry for him.
Very true, but anyone financially savvy will help him out with a facepunch instead of a donation. The only ones dim enough to empathize with him won't have any money to do it with, and their credit cards will be all maxed out from those equally crappy life choices.