Coronavirus Updates, Important Information, and Ancedotal Experience

A new study has begun recruiting at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, to determine how many adults in the United States without a confirmed history of infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), have antibodies to the virus. The presence of antibodies in the blood indicates a prior infection. In this “serosurvey,” researchers will collect and analyze blood samples from as many as 10,000 volunteers to provide critical data for epidemiological models. The results will help illuminate the extent to which the novel coronavirus has spread undetected in the United States and provide insights into which communities and populations are most affected.

Burren said:

I don't understand this. You're at once stating it's completely true and completely false at the same time?

Click to expand...

Not exactly. I know my language was perhaps a bit foggy here.

What I'm saying is that he's not exactly right, but he's also not exactly wrong.

He's not out-and-out lying to my face, but at the same time he is probably exaggerating to some degree.

Some friends of mine taught classes at gold's gym here and heard today that gold's gym is just closing every St Louis location for good. Guess they couldn't weather the storm.

Just to share my experience with the current Unemployment assistance programs, filing taxes, etc... as someone who makes about $30k or even a little less a year. I'm a Chef.

I filed for unemployment much earlier than most and was taking this seriously in early February. I stocked up on groceries, etc. to last me atleast a month until mid-end March because I knew that even if we didnt shut down, I didnt want to be out in public unecessarily. My wife & I just had a baby, so we have a 4 month old (at the time, 3-3 1/2 months old of filing). If you have not experienced how this system works, filing for my state is done through a horribly designed, seemingly intentionally confusing and BROKEN ass website that also demands you file WEEKLY, regardless of the current pandemic situation. If you miss a week, through fault of their shitty system or not, you do not get paid. There is no one to talk to on the phones available. I tried for hours. Hours per day, several times. No one has responded to a single email in over a month.

I just literally 2 hours ago received a direct deposit for ~$800 for the first time.I filed somewhere around March 8. Roughly 5 weeks of missed pay due to a forced shutdown is the equivalent of about $2500-$2700 in missed pay. Our landlords are not the cool type who waived rent for the month of April, not that I expected most American landlords to be able to do so, however we live in a higher quality of life apartment complex thats been around since the 80s that Im positive could've afforded it. I looked into the development group that owns it. Regardless of waiving rent, they extended late fees for the month of April from the 1-3 to the 10th and that was essentially the only slack they cut the tenants here. Late fees are $100 intially, with an additional $15 a day until paid in full. My rent is about $750 a month which includes pet fees, water, sewage, waste, etc. I pay my own utilities for electricity and internet. Since today is the 15th, I owe about $840 in rent if I want to keep that number there and will soak up every cent the government just gave me, essentially. Fortunately we had a small amount of savings to be able to cover the initial utility bills for April, including paying my ISP and utility for electricity, so that isnt a factor but it leaves me with nothing left over. I regret paying my utilites anyway because they are actually being awesome and extending service and not cancelling anyones utilites for up to 60-90 days without payment during the current COVID situation, however that wasnt made public until after I paid the bills as I did so at the very end of March to get a headstart on bills. I did that to make sure I wasnt fucked later on with even less money, assuming I would get paid any day then from Unemployment services. What seemed like a wise financial decision ended up basically taking food out of my own fucking mouth. Ive had to eek out of every bit of savings I have and sell some things to be able to afford basic life shit, diapers and wipes etc. for the baby, and food for the family. Fortunately I have a good support system in terms of family and they have been able to help with groceries, etc. however they arent rich by any means and have also gone through dealing with being laid off, etc. just like me. These are people with good, established careers. Medical field office workers, SENIOR Oilfield office types, etc. Even if they can 'afford' to help my wife & I, they really cant afford it. If that makes sense. Im now reading that our stimulus checks are going to be delayed. I have direct deposit set up through the IRS for filing taxes, however I did not last year. Im reading conflicting reports on wether or not I will actually receive the stimulus check in a timely manner because some people are saying its being deposited based on your tax information last year through direct deposit or not, some sources say as long as youre information is up to date currently with a direct deposit account it will go through regardless. Not sure, either way, waiting for a paper check would fucking suck. I filed taxes jointly with my wife a month ago and have direct deposit set up this year to help expedite the process, and although my returns were accepted for State & Federal, Im still waiting.

Long story short, I am just barely fucking scraping by and would likely be facing an eviction notice by the end of the month with a pile of debt if I didnt figure out a way to make this work. I didnt include my medical bills, phone bills, car, etc and other ridiculous amounts of things because I dont really want to get into it, but Ive tried to be as responsible and fiscally frugal and prepared as possible and still could be fucked. This system sucks, this country fucking sucks and I fucking hate the politics here. My wife & I both got extremely sick at the end of March as well, with the symptoms of COVID and likely were enduring that while taking care of our young child that we were terrified to get sick, but didnt have a choice. We couldnt even get medicine for ourselves outside of some shitty over the counter cough medicine and we were sick for days and days and days until we finally pushed through. We are fortunate we didnt have lung issues or our condition got serious, because we would have been incredibly fucked.

I don't know how some people are making it. I guess they aren't. I feel for everyone truly affected. Even though my situation is bullshit and I'm pissed about it, atleast I will be okay and am fortunate enough to be able to make things work somehow.

I live in Louisiana.

This doesnt even cover the fact that people I know are sick, have died, probably going to die...I don't know man. I'm by no means a fucking genius, but due to me constantly absorbing news and watch the stock market every day, I started taking this shit very seriously in February. I cannot believe the situation we are in as a whole right now. I never had much faith to lose in the government oversight of anything up until this point, but even still I am slackjawed at the response and the reality of people's lives that I know. People I know and can see losing most, if not everything, to this shit. I don't know how some are going to recover. I am somewhat comforted that atleast if I can continue to file properly and wait it out, the weekly benefits of Unemployment should be able to carry me through until I can go back to work, even if my tax returns or stimulus check doesnt come through. It honestly might not though considering how many bills and things I have stacked against me and how much needs to happen in a short amount of time to fully recover.

Im not sure why Im posting this, I generally highly discourage posting overly personal things on the internet. I just needed an outlet, I guess. I also want some people who arent dealing with a situation like this to maybe read a first hand account of how this is really affecting some people and that its not just whats on the news. So many people have it even worse than I do in a hundred different ways. This is absolutely a time to be good to your fellow bros, bros. Everyone stay safe out there and as much as some of you fuckers annoy me, I truly wish you all the best.

If anyone wants to ask me any questions, go for it. If anyone has any advice, please feel free.

I learned that lesson the hard way too. The company I worked for went under when the dot com bubble popped, and even in this Western European socialist paradise it took 5 weeks for unemployment to actually start making it to my account, and it was way less than I expected. Ended up living on my parents' dime again at 26. Didn't think I'd ever find work again for a while. Eventually I did a career switch to get back to work, definitely taught me the value of the stability public sector employment can provide, even if the private sector can pay more.

Maybe it's not helpful right now, but start reading Mr Money Mustache (think there's a thread about him on the board here too) and get into a permanent mindset of frugality and basically living like a monk until you pay off all loans and have 6 months of living expenses in savings. It will give you the resilience to weather a crisis without shit going from bad to worse so quickly. It seems impossible at first and there will be some sobering moments, but it will pay off both financially and mentally. If nothing else, there are good money saving tips on there.
Again, I know this might not be helpful right this instant so I apologize if it comes across as Captain Hindsight level advice, but I've lived by it myself for years and it really is the best financial advice I can give. This particular storm will pass, but others will come and they are always unexpected.

Really upsetting reading accounts of what people are going through. The impact of this virus in scope and volume is so enormous. If China were intentionally trying to screw over world governments, they couldn't have designed a better weapon.

Just keep your head above water. Congress and the FED are on full helicopter money mode, and some of that should trickle to the right people eventually.

Lambourne said:

Maybe it's not helpful right now, but start reading Mr Money Mustache (think there's a thread about him on the board here too) and get into a permanent mindset of frugality and basically living like a monk until you pay off all loans and have 6 months of living expenses in savings. It will give you the resilience to weather a crisis without shit going from bad to worse so quickly. It seems impossible at first and there will be some sobering moments, but it will pay off both financially and mentally. If nothing else, there are good money saving tips on there.
Again, I know this might not be helpful right this instant so I apologize if it comes across as Captain Hindsight level advice, but I've lived by it myself for years and it really is the best financial advice I can give. This particular storm will pass, but others will come and they are always unexpected.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I’ll check it out. My scenario is that I basically have already been living as austere of a life as possible in most extents, honest to God. I know people say that but still spend $100 a month eating out, $60 on new video games, etc. or whatever but that is not the case. I actually have been studying finance for a while and have essentially lived by the advice you’re giving for quite a while. I simply don’t have enough extra windfall to place into savings for it to be meaningful enough to carry me for that long. 6 months savings seems like common sense and a completely obtainable objective on paper, but in reality saving half of what I make in a year even while purchasing the bare minimum would take so much longer than it seems. I have tried, and did have some savings prepared and it saved my ass in more ways than one. I have other expenses I didn’t mention, medical bills due to a brain tumor I’m still dealing with, my car note (that is almost paid off, thankfully) that I cannot afford to slide on now when I’m so close to finishing it, my dog had IVDD and I took out the only loan I’ve ever taken in my life of $7,000 to pay for his surgery last year and it saved his life so I don’t regret it, and there’s about $1,800 still left to pay on that. If it’s paid in full by October it’s a 0% interest loan and I was so close to achieving that goal. I plan to hopefully still meet that goal. My wife & I have paid off our $8,000 child birthing costs (midwife natural birthing house). I lived in a rural area that was an hour commute to work for a while with jack shit so not having a car wasn’t an option. I fixed up and traded up my old used cars and flipped for value until I traded in a Ford Focus for $10,000 and put that on a down payment on a cheap, but new Mazda 3 so I wouldn’t keep siphoning money on maintenance for old cars. That was a smart move and was a couple years ago, but I still have a couple thousand to pay there before I’m completely out of the woods. I have even been wearing the same clothes for basically a decade, to the point where I don’t even fit into most of them anymore and had to toss half my wardrobe recently. Anyway, the list goes on and whatever, and of course I could’ve made a couple more small sacrifices here and there in the past year or two, but overall, I don’t waste money on shit I don’t need is basically all.

I hope this doesn’t come across as looking for pity or anything, I don’t by any means need anyone to pat my head and tell me everything’s okay. This situation is just such dogshit through and through and I feel like myself and a lot of other people deserved a better and an incredibly more serious and fast approach to serving and protecting the public.

That being said I do appreciate the insight and advice and am always looking to expand my financial savvy and help with savings etc so I will definitely check out your suggestion. If nothing else, I am better prepared for the future and have a more realistic timeframe and mindset on how to deal with black swan type events like this shit going forward.

eXarc said:

Thanks, I’ll check it out. My scenario is that I basically have already been living as austere of a life as possible in most extents, honest to God. I know people say that but still spend $100 a month eating out, $60 on new video games, etc. or whatever but that is not the case. I actually have been studying finance for a while and have essentially lived by the advice you’re giving for quite a while. I simply don’t have enough extra windfall to place into savings for it to be meaningful enough to carry me for that long. 6 months savings seems like common sense and a completely obtainable objective on paper, but in reality saving half of what I make in a year even while purchasing the bare minimum would take so much longer than it seems. I have tried, and did have some savings prepared and it saved my ass in more ways than one. I have other expenses I didn’t mention, medical bills due to a brain tumor I’m still dealing with, my car note (that is almost paid off, thankfully) that I cannot afford to slide on now when I’m so close to finishing it, my dog had IVDD and I took out the only loan I’ve ever taken in my life of $7,000 to pay for his surgery last year and it saved his life so I don’t regret it, and there’s about $1,800 still left to pay on that. If it’s paid in full by October it’s a 0% interest loan and I was so close to achieving that goal. I plan to hopefully still meet that goal. My wife & I have paid off our $8,000 child birthing costs (midwife natural birthing house). I lived in a rural area that was an hour commute to work for a while with jack shit so not having a car wasn’t an option. I fixed up and traded up my old used cars and flipped for value until I traded in a Ford Focus for $10,000 and put that on a down payment on a cheap, but new Mazda 3 so I wouldn’t keep siphoning money on maintenance for old cars. That was a smart move and was a couple years ago, but I still have a couple thousand to pay there before I’m completely out of the woods. I have even been wearing the same clothes for basically a decade, to the point where I don’t even fit into most of them anymore and had to toss half my wardrobe recently. Anyway, the list goes on and whatever, and of course I could’ve made a couple more small sacrifices here and there in the past year or two, but overall, I don’t waste money on shit I don’t need is basically all.

I hope this doesn’t come across as looking for pity or anything, I don’t by any means need anyone to pat my head and tell me everything’s okay. This situation is just such dogshit through and through and I feel like myself and a lot of other people deserved a better and an incredibly more serious and fast approach to serving and protecting the public.

That being said I do appreciate the insight and advice and am always looking to expand my financial savvy and help with savings etc so I will definitely check out your suggestion. If nothing else, I am better prepared for the future and have a more realistic timeframe and mindset on how to deal with black swan type events like this shit going forward.

Click to expand...

Are you going to pursue the same type of career when this is over with or continue as a chef? This isn't a criticism in any way and I know it's shitty, obvious advice but the best thing you can do for your family is make more money with a better paying job. It may not be as fulfilling or rewarding as what you want to do, but being a better provider is it's own reward. I personally had to give up on my "dream job" a few years ago and am doing way better through this crisis than I would be doing still pursuing my dream. I can tell you from first hand experience that there is a huge shortage of dependable young men that can and are willing to do blue collar work. Most of the ones that can are still bringing in full paychecks for their families.

TheBeagle said:

Are you going to pursue the same type of career when this is over with or continue as a chef? This isn't a criticism in any way and I know it's shitty, obvious advice but the best thing you can do for your family is make more money with a better paying job. It may not be as fulfilling or rewarding as what you want to do, but being a better provider is it's own reward. I personally had to give up on my "dream job" a few years ago and am doing way better through this crisis than I would be doing still pursuing my dream. I can tell you from first hand experience that there is a huge shortage of dependable young men that can and are willing to do blue collar work. Most of the ones that can are still bringing in full paychecks for their families.

Click to expand...

Great question and the answer is a big fuck no. I love food, I love cooking, but I don’t love it as a profession. I have only been in the industry for about 3 years and have passed on an Executive Chef and Sous Chef position in my own restaurant and in another as well. It’s a means to an end for the moment. I am working on education, and switching careers completely. This could go on to an entirely different and overly lofty tangent, so I’ll try to leave it around that. I am absolutely more concerned with making enough money to be able to do what I love rather than making the money doing what I love at this point. I am also a pretty solid musician and audio engineer and make decent money sometimes freelancing and doing studio work on the side, etc. It also might not seem like it here in this format but I am a pretty excellent writer when I want to be, as well. I utilize a bunch of different skills and portions of my time to maximize my income whenever possible. Long term though, I don’t want to be anywhere near a kitchen or some bullshit $30k/year salary (for the amount of work that goes into it).

To touch onto your point on blue collar work, I’m not above it and have actually done plenty in the past but a kitchen is about as physical as my job can get right now. I have some rather serious health issues that prevent me from the higher paying and stable blue collar type jobs, unfortunately. Not that I’d be jumping at the chance to do so anyway, but it would certainly provide more and in this case I would obviously be hopping on that train in a heartbeat to do what I have to do.

eXarc said:

Thanks, I’ll check it out. My scenario is that I basically have already been living as austere of a life as possible in most extents, honest to God. I know people say that but still spend $100 a month eating out, $60 on new video games, etc. or whatever but that is not the case. I actually have been studying finance for a while and have essentially lived by the advice you’re giving for quite a while. I simply don’t have enough extra windfall to place into savings for it to be meaningful enough to carry me for that long. 6 months savings seems like common sense and a completely obtainable objective on paper, but in reality saving half of what I make in a year even while purchasing the bare minimum would take so much longer than it seems. I have tried, and did have some savings prepared and it saved my ass in more ways than one. I have other expenses I didn’t mention, medical bills due to a brain tumor I’m still dealing with, my car note (that is almost paid off, thankfully) that I cannot afford to slide on now when I’m so close to finishing it, my dog had IVDD and I took out the only loan I’ve ever taken in my life of $7,000 to pay for his surgery last year and it saved his life so I don’t regret it, and there’s about $1,800 still left to pay on that. If it’s paid in full by October it’s a 0% interest loan and I was so close to achieving that goal. I plan to hopefully still meet that goal. My wife & I have paid off our $8,000 child birthing costs (midwife natural birthing house). I lived in a rural area that was an hour commute to work for a while with jack shit so not having a car wasn’t an option. I fixed up and traded up my old used cars and flipped for value until I traded in a Ford Focus for $10,000 and put that on a down payment on a cheap, but new Mazda 3 so I wouldn’t keep siphoning money on maintenance for old cars. That was a smart move and was a couple years ago, but I still have a couple thousand to pay there before I’m completely out of the woods. I have even been wearing the same clothes for basically a decade, to the point where I don’t even fit into most of them anymore and had to toss half my wardrobe recently. Anyway, the list goes on and whatever, and of course I could’ve made a couple more small sacrifices here and there in the past year or two, but overall, I don’t waste money on shit I don’t need is basically all.

I hope this doesn’t come across as looking for pity or anything, I don’t by any means need anyone to pat my head and tell me everything’s okay. This situation is just such dogshit through and through and I feel like myself and a lot of other people deserved a better and an incredibly more serious and fast approach to serving and protecting the public.

That being said I do appreciate the insight and advice and am always looking to expand my financial savvy and help with savings etc so I will definitely check out your suggestion. If nothing else, I am better prepared for the future and have a more realistic timeframe and mindset on how to deal with black swan type events like this shit going forward.

Click to expand...

I've seen a few train wrecks in my time...don't feel too bad. A couple I knew had a small house, lived in it for a while, sold it at a small profit. The wife got a small inheritance. Total was around $60k. Instead of using that on a down payment for a larger house, they BLEW it in 6 months and had nothing to show for it. Then they got an ARM subprime loan on a giant craphole of a house. They got tired of the payments going up, so they walked away from it. AND THEN he decided to run up all his credit cards because he thought they'd get discharged in bankruptcy. This was when I told him not to talk to me again.

Boy did they ever get fucked. They ended up being on the hook for all the credit cards and the fucked up mortgage they got. They made about $60k a year between them. IIRC, they were in the hole by $100k and absolutely getting fucked in the ass by the credit card companies with interest charges. They are the type to make minimum payments on things. Do you want to know how long it takes to pay off $50k in credit card debt making only the minimum payment? 120+ years.

This is where it gets good: the smallest apartment they could find with 3 bedrooms cost more per month then their house payment AND it was up 3 flights of stairs AND it was a lot smaller than their first house.

This was a long time ago, and I know they are absolutely fucked beyond reason now because jobs in their lines of work are the first to vanish when the shit hits the fan.

On the bright side, you are young and have time to learn from your mistakes. You don't want to be in your 40's and spending the rest of your life looking at past due notices.