so called “lone wolves” are actually organized white domestic terrorists
NRA membership in comparison to other organizations
More photos from the March for Our Lives
Parkland kids are still kids, amazing as they are
This is a pretty good use of the profits from fake money. (One morning this week I got a notification that something I’d donated to had been funded… turns out *everything* on the entire site had been funded.)
Wondering where to put your excess guilt money from the Republican tax cuts that are doing their best to doom America’s future? This month I went with Spread the Vote to help people in states like mine without voter ID to get the ability to vote. November 2018 is coming up and the whole world is at stake on that ballot. (I also did a little donors choose and a little $ to local democratic candidates– if we’re going to fix this country it has to start locally in purple states like mine.)
The newly passed budget in perspective
Turns out the Frugalwoods made a lot more $ than I realized! (Nonprofit 990 forms are publicly available and show income for highly compensated employees, of which Mr. Frugalwoods is one. And boy howdy is he one.) This whole forum thread is kind of interesting. And it brings up the question of whether or not a couple posts about acknowledging your privilege balance out saying you have a regular salary in the nonprofit sector when really you’re making an excrement-ton of money in spite of working in the nonprofit sector. Also… it makes me feel like we’re, you know, “middle class” by comparison when I know that rationally we really aren’t under any but the most clueless of definitions (at least not when DH and I are both working).
Non-apology apologies from Facebook in perspective
How to download everything Facebook knows about you.
How to download everything Google knows about you. Here’s how to limit what they know.
If you missed it, we’re still taking ask the grumpies questions for our next batch! (You can always ask or email us at grumpyrumblings@gmail.com.)
This Pacific Rim review is pretty awesome
inna bucket
Kitten photo shoots
March 31, 2018 at 9:47 am
Look, Frugalwoods are kind and gentle folks but I find myself saying “I told you so”over the past couple of days.
March 31, 2018 at 10:14 am
I’d always just assumed they had upper-middle class income. But no, they could have moved to a homestead in VT without all the stuff they talk about on the blog once he got permission to telecommute. Heck, there are plenty of Harvard profs who do that. It’s an odd sort of disconnect. Though I guess he doesn’t have tenure so it would be more risky… as I know from DH’s position, you can’t necessarily always count on that second big paycheck. Still… definitely a very different spin on things that what had seemingly been presented.
April 1, 2018 at 6:18 pm
It reminds me of all the ‘work-life balance’ advice for women that is all ‘Hire a nanny! Maybe two! And a housekeeper who lives in and also cooks! Voila!’ Lovely for those who can, but a bit useless for the average woman.
April 1, 2018 at 6:23 pm
Exactly! I think we have a post somewhere on not realizing how different different levels of insanely high income are until you start making high income yourself. Like, on 100K/year you have to sacrifice a LOT to hire a nanny (and it may not be possible depending on where you live), but 300K/year, it’s a not that big a deal so long as you haven’t gone insane with big ticket purchases (not that we have experience with 300K, but we can see it from our current vantage point). I should dig that post up…
April 1, 2018 at 6:25 pm
Oh hey, I had it linked already in this wednesday’s post: https://nicoleandmaggie.wordpress.com/2017/08/07/there-really-is-a-big-difference-between-comfortable-middle-class-income-and-upper-middle-class-income/
April 1, 2018 at 6:26 pm
No wait, that wasn’t it. Still a good post though. Hm… I wonder what I should search for…
April 1, 2018 at 6:27 pm
Aha! https://nicoleandmaggie.wordpress.com/2016/07/18/incomewealth-inflection-points/
March 31, 2018 at 6:21 pm
I’m not fussed by it and still mostly like their blog (my issues are just that it can get repetitive or overly wordy sometimes, so I skim posts). In order to save that high a percent of your income, you have to make enough money to have that much disposable income. It’s just not possible to save 70% of your income on $40k a year unless you’ve got someone else paying for some of your life expenses.
March 31, 2018 at 6:37 pm
That 70% number is from a year of their blog in which they were actually making “upper-middle-class” income. Having had upper-middle-class income and high income (but not as high as theirs!) I can tell you, there’s a difference. We’re only just starting to touch on it with our obnoxious tagged posts. I’ll need another year or so of having it to really come to terms with the difference.
I don’t have any issue with their blog other than the repetitive nature and just not really being into homesteading blogs (oddly I was into homeschooling farm wives blogs before having kids, but not so much after). It’s just that what I thought I understood about the blog is completely different when they’re in the 300K+/year range rather than the say, 200K (give or take) range I’d thought they were in. So a little cognitive dissonance. And the misrepresentation here and there about them having regular salaries and regular jobs… he’s got a big city high tech salary (plus bonuses!) for a high tech job, just like most FIRE bloggers do.
April 2, 2018 at 9:05 am
I figured they were making “a ton” (way more than I think I’ll ever make) when they started discussing the donor advised fund. That’s beyond my reach, honestly. But I find them WAY less annoying than most FIRE bloggers I’ve checked out. I think most FIRE bloggers are vastly tone-deaf and think “anyone can do this if they just work as hard as me” without realizing how well compensated they are compared to the vast majority of Americans. I also like that the FWs discuss giving to charity as part of their plan for the money they’ve saved, because lots of FIRE people don’t seem to. I suppose I don’t read tons of FIRE stuff, so I might not be 100% accurate there.
I did read one interesting FIRE blog once from a guy who is a public school teacher, and his wife is too. They pulled some really funny accounting (legal but strange) with jobs/retirement, did a lot of job hopping, and must have lived on a true shoestring to save up their money. He only blogged for a year or so, and I’ve lost the link now. But it seemed like they had “retired early” but maybe to a different country. And they worked super hard — teaching a class every period (no prep) plus coaching. No idea when they had time to get ready to teach or even if they were decent teachers with that kind of load. They did have a kid near the end of their crazy years of doing this.
I debate whether I should write about the possibility of FIRE when working at a boarding school. I think if someone started at a boarding school straight out of college with no debt, they could conceivably save really well and perhaps be in shape to FIRE after a decade. Maybe. But it would be rough and also involved summer work as well. But you can live on next to nothing at a boarding school if you get housing and food covered. Most people here don’t do that (they spend plenty, take fancy vacations beyond our normal standard of living at this income, etc). But it would be much more possible.
April 2, 2018 at 1:41 pm
Holy wow ALL of Donors Choose was funded in one go? I wish I’d seen it on the day :)
Did the Frugalwoods number get publicized somewhere or did someone look it up and share it? I don’t know what “a pooton” is in numbers but I made real money even while working at a nonprofit – I worked my butt off, earned the support of more than one highly placed exec, and negotiated really hard, and timed all of that well. Most of my big raises were gotten when working for a non profit.
April 2, 2018 at 2:00 pm
I think someone looked it up and shared it for Mr. (not for Mrs.), since highly compensated non-profit employees’ incomes is public (just like my state employee salary is public). So nobody has the whole picture of their entire income, just his. But his is a lot!
April 3, 2018 at 11:02 am
Big question. I thought the HIPPA laws made it illegal to disclose any medical information about individuals without consent.
How can women be prosecuted re abortion if this is true? How can federal government be preventing women who are pregnant when picked up for being in this country illegally from getting medical care/abortions and have their identities and medical needs known outside of the doctor who is providing the care? Because I have read that pregnancy/abortion is being monitored individually and denied woman by woman.
I called and asked the ACLU about this and was told they didn’t know. If I am 90 my children can not be told about my health by my medical providers without my permission. IF my child is 18 and 1 day, I cannot be told about their health situation without their permission. As employer dealing with a mentally ill, hospitalized employee, the medical provider cannot tell me even if the person will be able to return to work ever.
How does this fit with the Indiana law cited above? Isn’t disclosure of individual medical information without the person’s agreement against HIPPA law? Why aren’t people who share this information being prosecuted?
April 3, 2018 at 11:04 am
That is a really great question. We don’t know either. I guess that’s what the courts are for.