Fishy fianances

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Since this past Friday was the last day of Lent, my buddy @a4xjeeper and I decided to go out for one last fish dinner. It's always interesting meeting up with him for meals like this as he always has some pretty great stories to tell about his business. Despite what I keep telling @tarazkp, if I'm actually comfortable with the other person I can carry on a conversation quite well. Given the fact that this particular friend and I have known each other for the better part of 35 years, we definitely have that connection.

Inevitably, we usually end up talking about money at some point. It's not that money is the most important thing to us, but I think it's foolish to overlook the fact that money is an inevitable means to an end. Having more doesn't solve all your problems, but it makes certain ones easier. Also, given our familiarity, we don't feel the need to adhere to the societal stigma of not discussing money.

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I've also mentioned this before, but he owns his own business which given the current state of the world has its ups and downs, but overall, I think it is doing quite well. We were talking this past weekend about how he recently had a meeting with another business owner in the area and based off of that meeting he decided to make a "radical" change to the way he pays his employees.

Instead of paying them on Friday like many people (at least in the US) are used to, he has shifted to paying them (including himself) on Monday now. The thinking is that many of the younger generation of employees simply don't know how to budget, and so paying them right before a weekend where they are more likely to blow through their paycheck given that lack of budgeting ability is not good.

As someone who budgets via copious spreadsheets, I don't think this would benefit me. However, knowing later generations, the idea of them spending all their money and then getting to Monday when the bills start coming in the mail isn't too far fetched. Instead, now they can cover those bills that come through the week and then do what they want with whatever is leftover by the weekend. Invest it, spend it, put it in savings, whatever.

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He's really excited about implementing this for his workers and I hope it goes well for him. It seems there has been very little pushback so far. Which makes sense honestly. They are still getting paid, just on a different day. It makes me wonder though, if basic budgeting skills are no longer being taught, how are people going to learn it? Trial and error? That can be quite dangerous given the current state of inflation. Should it or could it fall upon employers to offer basic budgeting skills? It could be one of those intrinsic benefits that aids in employee retention, but who knows.

Like most businesses he has seen quite a bit of turn over in the past five years.

However, this lack of budgeting isn't isolated to just the newer generation. I saw this post on a local community social media group the other day:

"My 84 year old mother is looking for a part time job to help with her bills. Preferably 20-30 hours per week in or near "some city". Does anyone know of any businesses that are willing to hire the elderly? She has applied to about a dozen places so far and hasn't heard back from any."

Heartbreaking right? Of course I don't know all the circumstances, bad things happen to good people all the time, and you can't always plan for every situation, but I really hope by the time I am 84 I have things on lock so I don't have to go back to work. Heck, I hope by 64 I am in that position, but who knows. I get it, some people work forever because they enjoy it. That's clearly not the case here.

It's possible this old lady did everything right with her financial planning, and then one twist of fate upended all of that. We may never know, but if she didn't, it's just more evidence that financial planning is a severely overlooked skill for the past century, and I fear is is only going to get worse as we move forward.

What do you think about the current state of financial skills across the globe? What about the whole paid on Monday thing? Would you be able to handle that or would it totally upend your way of life? Let's talk about it in the comments!

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