Politics & Current Events
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Re: Teacher Upset She Can't Retire at 47
I 100% agree with this!
It's articles like these that really hammer home how low the cost of living is in FL.
My initial reaction was to say; quit whining, no one can really retire at the age of 47. This chick needs to shut her hole, she is not shining a good light on this issue.
my read shelf:
We have someone here that started working a gov't job at 17. He was a bus driver, which was allowed then. His service started counting at that point.
I strongly concur with this. It's not like you get the benefits and retirement out of the goodness of someone's heart. You're getting them IN EXCHANGE for giving up certain things over the course of a career. In many ways they are bargained for.
With everything going on in education, my colleagues and I would also tell new people, "do not go into education." (if they asked) Our union president is even urging his colleague to leave if she has a chance; she has to go one more year.
There's more and more "accountability" by which I mean punitive measures for teachers while there's less and less authentic accountability for the students. In two weeks the kids take a test in which there is not one incentive for them to do well other than the intrinsic. Meanwhile, next year we'll have our names in the paper next to their scores. The crap's really hitting the fan in 2014. The tests are online, and we're told with the new standards none of our proficient students will pass----only the advanced and accelerated even have a chance at passing. The state it seems has a vested interest in teachers faring poorly if salary is tied to test scores. They'd pay less money and have more left over.
A lot of what makes government work attractive is job security and benefits. We tell people to start retirement planning the moment they finish school and enter the workforce, so with that in mind I get her annoyance if she has made life choices based on those expectations. That being said she still has some time to make some changes to either prepare herself financially or get herself mentally ready to continue working longer, so I don't think this is an excuse to not revamp a program that is overburdened as it is. But it is definitely a crappy situation and I don't sense entitlement at being angry that the employer is not keeping up their end of the deal.
I'm a lurker, but....
as someone with a teaching degree, in Saginaw, PLEASE RETIRE ANYWAYS. I would love your job.
Thanks.
If I had stayed in bmore, I could have retired with full benefits at 52....actually a month after I turned 52. It's nuts.
I have a lot of family friends that are two career people. They retired from the military or police force at 42 and then had another cop type job and retired at 62.... And now receive two full pensions. Not a bad life.
What the what now? Our col in fl is so much higher than it was in Indiana. Property taxes are insane, and even food prices are much higher. Yes, we have no state income taxes, but at my bracket that doesn't matter lol.
My parents live in FL and not even some fancy ass area of Florida either. They live in a two bedroom, two bath house in a pretty blah area. It's a nice house but it's not some kind of mcmansion either. They pay more in property taxes than we pay in rent.
Everything at the grocery store is significantly more expensive. Gas prices are higher, cigarettes, milk, alcohol, etc.
Click me, click me!
I am so glad you two validate my thoughts on the COL of FL. I tell people all the time that it's not that much cheaper to live here, especially since our food costs the same as when we lived in the NYC 'burbs. WTF? Also, I don't drive far but gas is damn expensive for a city that has a port IMO.
Our property taxes plus insurance is more than our mortgage payment. It's nuts. Our utility bill, for a house about 25% larger ( but more energy efficient in terms of design and materials) is 250% more, on average.
And on a smaller scale, it pisses ,e off every time I buy chicken breasts. In Indiana, I could buy organic breasts for less than I pay for regular here.
Oh I get ragey about our utility bills and we live in an apartment complex that is supposedly energy efficient and all that jazz. It doesn't make sense to me since our place in NY was far from energy efficient.
I almost cried the first time I looked at organic chicken breasts at Greenwise. I was luck, eff that I can die from the hormones of regular ol' chicken.
It depends on where you're comparing it to. One of the reasons we'd love to get back to FL (we're in MA now) is the COL is insanely high here by comparison.
We moved from NYC 'burb (Westchester County) to FL and trust me, the only thing cheaper here is housing. For some odd reason, I never considered that food prices would be the same if not higher here.
ETA: I forgot to add car insurance for us is the same effing rate. We lived 25 mins north of midtown Manhattan via train and I cannot believe we have the same rate. I guess that is what we get for living in the middle of hurricane country and the lightning capital of the world.
This is how people end up thinking they aren't rich lol
Click me, click me!