Just wondering how many hours everyone has to work before they can pay the bills, and put food on the table. Might be interesting to know...poll up in a moment... I need to work at least 25 hours to pay my bills. Currently I work around 30 hours, which is great because it allows me to treat myself every now and then. I wonder how well jobs pay over there, and what the expenses are compared to over here. Now when I mention bills, I mean the phone bill, gas/water bill, and even the internet bill. I don't mean the loan you are paying off because technically, that isn't a bill.
It doesn't really work like that for me. I work long enough to get the job done (overtime pay is something that happens to other people). Depending on the general work load, that will swing either side of the 40 hour mark (I also to paid on-call which complicates matters further). I probably spend about two thirds of my pay on "essentials" (rent, bills, food etc) but I earn an above average wage and live quite frugally out of habit.
I'm not sure what you mean by "bills" and what the response means. I know people who bought ridiculously expensive homes that they couldn't afford planning on selling it in eighteen months and making a bundle. Then the Frank/Dodd housing bubble burst and they're stuck with. Does the hours they have to work to pay for that have any meaning. When I lived in the U.S., my tax bill exceeded what I paid for housing, food, transportation, and clothing.
She's asking how many hours "you" need to work as a comparison for what others do. Heck you live in Mexico. How long does it take to earn $2.50 a day? I have 3 different jobs. A full time job, a part time business and another part time job. I need to work all the hours I work to make ends meet. Although if I didn't need to live a comfortable existence put money away for a rainy day and retirement, I could probably "survive" on the 2 part time jobs.
Well its a bit difficult to say, I could conceivably work zero hours and pay my bills, but thats not likely. I am paid to be on call 24/7, so I get paid at times to sit at home and wait for the phone to ring. I work about 40-60 hours a week, I would say that my bills that pay for the essentials account for about a third of my pay so I would say I have to work 10-20 hours a week. unfortunately I have to work even harder to pay off uncle sam, it seems backwards to me that the corrupt government gets more of my hard earned money then I do. Do not start the hate mongering that I get government services, yes I understand that, I just do not understand why we can not hold the government accountable for the spending. Go to a private construction site and see the efficiency of private contractors who are held to a high standard by a private business, then got to a government building project and see how crony capitalism does the same job.
Difficult question to answer. I consider housing (mortgage/rent) to be a bill. Also a car, which is a necessity for some (like those of us living in California). What about sales taxes, income taxes, and property taxes? All of those are huge. In fact the average American must work about four months a year just to pay off local, state, and federal taxes (the largest by far). "Tax freedom day" the day you stop working for the government and start working for yourself is April 14th in California. Total and complete insanity if you ask me.
OKay, I'll include rent and mortgage. Rent is fine as it is a bill, but a mortgage is more like a loan you are paying back.
The amount of hours per depends because of the nature of my non-profit business (I ‘own‘ a church and two humanitarian missions). Here in Appalachia the economy has historically been depressed compared to the rest of our nation save for Harlem etc. I often tell my redneck semi-racist buddies that we hill folk have far more in common with a black family in Harlem than a white middle class family, to their ire. Call it education I suppose. Anyway that holds down wages and sadly donations! When I worked as an ironworker while putting myself through school wages would be so different. For example the last manual labor job (way back in 1999> 2000) I worked prevailing wage was 15.50 an hour (skilled craft worker) here in east TN, however it was 38.00 an hour in Boston, so you see why I was in Alaska where the wage for skilled journeyman ironworker was even higher there than anywhere in the USA @ 52.40 per hour when oil was booming. During those years I rarely worked at home. The sad thing is that for unskilled workers even today I would guess the avg wage around here is around $8.00 an hour, if you can find it ! Food prices are the same here as anywhere, such as a pound of ground round being around 3.20 a pound and chicken breast bone out in going for around 3-4 dollars a pound. Bread is about $2.50, store brand milk is $3.60 while premium is $5.00 USA dollars. I have seen prices rise weekly such as a 25 cents on the milk. I support a family of three, two adults and one 'young adult'. My grocery bill is usually 250 to 350 USA dollars per week. Sometimes more rarely less. And we rarely eat steak, the house is paid for and utilities, electric, water and sewer usually run about 300 dollars USA per month. I drive a beater and own another 'beater' (a 96 ford explorer set up for off road and a 2004 Chrysler Sebring) so we have no car payments. I owe absolutely nothing on credit so I have no payments there either. I don’t like to rent money ha ha… Fuel is now a fairly big expense and runs about two hundred a month, because I conserve as much as possible, lets see….that is about the extent of it. Sorry you asked? Rev A
I'm still a full-time student, but I probably spend close to 40 hours a week studying. Close to exams it's upwards of 16 hours a day. I dont work, though. I'm surviving on savings and my families generosity.
Varies wildly. Sometimes, a simple 3 hour construction project covers all my bills for the month.... Sometimes, one poker hand pays the bills for three months... Sometimes, it takes 20 hours of backbreaking pain and aggravation to come up just short.
Actually I have zero debt....thanks for your concern. I can say that I used to...worked my ass of paid everything off....hooray for me, right?
Mortgage is a loan you are paying back plus interest. It is not free money and actually quite expensive. There is really no difference between rent and a mortgage as in a mortgage you are simply paying rent (interest) to a bank rather than an individual. Usury is an interesting topic to explore as it is responsible for much of the global financial problems we have today. It is also the single most prohibitive wall in preventing people from moving up the economic ladder.
used to work more than 40 hours sometimes more than 60 but that was because lived above means, wanted bigger house and nicer car so the payments were higher. today zero on unemployment for now
