The other thing I always tell people is every year you don’t get a raise that’s at least equal to inflation you’re getting a pay cut. Finding a job that does cost of living increases every year is a huge benefit.
One of the most vivid arithmetic failings displayed by Americans occurred in the early 1980s, when the A&W restaurant chain released a new hamburger to rival the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder. With a third-pound of beef, the A&W burger had more meat than the Quarter Pounder; in taste tests, customers preferred A&W’s burger. And it was less expensive. A lavish A&W television and radio marketing campaign cited these benefits. Yet instead of leaping at the great value, customers snubbed it.
Only when the company held customer focus groups did it become clear why. The Third Pounder presented the American public with a test in fractions. And we failed. Misunderstanding the value of one-third, customers believed they were being overcharged. Why, they asked the researchers, should they pay the same amount for a third of a pound of meat as they did for a quarter-pound of meat at McDonald’s. The “4” in “¼,” larger than the “3” in “⅓,” led them astray.
On a similar note, paying 10% of my total income to health insurance is absolutely worth it, because they partially pay for 3 doctors visits per year and tell me to go fuck myself when I need antidepressants or Advil.
The typical high deductible health plans these days only seem to work well for people that need like no healthcare, or people who need a ton of it.
My secret trick is to have an incurable condition where the medications to hopefully stabilize you or slow progress of the disease are so hilariously expensive that the pharma company will pay all of my out of pocket costs. It’s like my employer pays me my salary, then my insurance company pays an entire separate yearly salary to the pharma company.
