This is a split off from the Key thread

> AnarchyAngel wrote:
QUOTE
> On this subject, I would like to add my .02 cents. Sorry for the long read.

I am 25 years old and unemployed, my wife is 22, and we have a 2 year old daughter. My wife works at Macy's for 8.00/hr about 20 hours per week. She picks up any shift she can, but rarely gets more than 30 hours a week.

I am an ASE certified Master Automotive Technician. I started an auto repair shop in 2009 called Unlimited AutoCare, LLC and worked my ass off 7 days a week until June of this year. I started the shop with a credit card and a 10,000 dollar loan from my father because the SBA and other organizations would not even look at my application.

The shop easily surpassed all of my expectations. We did 4 times the sales that I had projected in the first year and even more the 2nd year. I had 4 employees and the expectation that our volume would continue to grow. We had superior customer service, a beautiful lobby, highly trained professional staff, and a happy customer base of about 1,100 customers. Well all of that costs money, over 25,000 per month on average. The taxes, licenses, and fees were INSANE. It was so unfair it was mind blowing.

January of this year, we did 4,000 in sales... I have no idea why... Business picked back up in Feb.

Unfortunately, with my expenses the way they were I could not recover from a 20,000 hole. I am now in bankruptcy...

Obviously, I can look back and see everything I did wrong. It was always difficult to save money, not because it was spent on expansion or luxury, but because all of the expenses were necessary. If I had started with a loan and a financial foundation, I would still be in business today.

I resisted assistance programs for 3 full months but the quality of life was terrible. We were not eating, could barely pay for gas to get my wife to work, lost our phones (we now use VOIP for free with talkatone/google voice), it has been a nightmare.

For the last week I have been on SNAP assistance and my daughter is on Medicaid. I will never look at these services the same way after I have been in the situation I am in now. I lost my home, lost my business, lost everything. My family and I are living with my in-law's.

I am thankful for these assistance services, and I can imagine that there are others like myself who have been in this situation.

The point I am trying to make is that without the availability of a program like SNAP or Medicaid, there would be no limit to how far people could fall. I would fight hard to preserve the availability of SNAP and Medicaid because I have seen that anybody can fall...
/QUOTE

$25,000 a month... how much was taxes, levies, licensing costs and such?

Anyhow... Conservatives do not fight the idea of a safety blanket... quite the contrary..

In fact I have benefitted from food stamps for about eight years total and from a homeless to housing program (I figure their costs was about $2500 a month for 10 people). I have had safety nets.

I figure I have benefitted, as an adult, about $15,000 in safety blanket stuff. This will drive Chris into an apopolyptic fit but I am paying back into society my costs with taxes...I do however concede I exceed my own desires for a safety net.

In any event a safety net is important. But most safety nets get abused. This is why we Conservatives want time limits and certain metrics applied to them.

For instance for welfare we want people to show they are looking for work, we want them to find work, we want them to start working.

The Homeless to work program is an ideal version imho. You got shelter in 2 person rooms in a 6 room house (1 room to a volunteer staffer who got no pay but did get shelter and resume stuff while attending college). We all had chores to do around the house (rotational), had to make 4 contacts a day while looking for work, had to do random drug tests, attend a twice weekly house meeting and find work in our first three months and move out no later than six months.

If you got a job you paid $50 a month for rent (this helped cover costs for toilet paper, internet, fuel for weedeater, etc.). You also had to deposit half your income into a safe for when you were going to leave.

I got a job the first week in the program. I borrowed a bike to help get to work and back. Then suddenly I found I needed a car to do both work and attend the training my work required. So I was allowed to buy one with my paycheck and skip some of my money owed. That car turned into a nighmare and I had to buy a second. This required more money than I wanted so again I had to skip payment (they allowed me to) again. (The first car was returned).

I worked hard and I started saving. I paid what extra I could into the safe and did not complain with the harsh hours.

I left, I think, at 4 months and 22 days. I was allowed to stay for 6 months, and people questioned whyI left early from it. The truth is I did not need it anymore.

You learned a lesson like me... the lesson is.... always keep enough to survive one month on your own...assume everything drops, everything ends for a month... and be ready to ride it out.

I am working on saving cash come November. I have enough cash available to survive two months at any time right now.

What you need to do now is learn from this, get back out there working, and plan the dream again. This time be better prepared.