Jesus Christ, don't have 8 kids.
Also, don't take off two years to take care of your kids. I wouldn't take off two years to get a degree that would theoretically help me in my field. I certainly would think "Hmm, taking off two years to do nothing that will positively affect my career is probably going to hit it pretty negatively."
Rich, poor, or middle class, there are millions stacked on millions of people who live right up to their means. It's easy to look at his salary and call him out, but think about his frame of reference. He was on top of the world with a shitload of money and a stellar career with one of the hottest shows. It was not an unreasonable expectation that he could find another gig in his scene at half his current salary or even worse, and still be ok. He is solely responsible for the situation he found himself in, but in the way he handled it in the lead up to his downfall, it isn't clear to me whether he was the exception or the rule. Plenty to be learned here, but is he exceptional? The answer to that is what should scare us.
I live in one of the cheaper (livable) areas of Los Angeles and a $500k "nest egg" would last me, my wife and my daughter 7 years at our current burn rate. My daughter is not in school, there are not eight of her, and none of us are keeping up with the Joneses next to the Huntington Gardens. Lemme just throw a Street View on this sucka real quick. That's some Greene & Greene shit up in that place. The Joneses be light speed, yo. It was the decision to stay the fuck in LA that crippled him in the long run. I know a guy who wrote on Veronica Mars. He didn't get staffed one year when it got canceled, and he took a long look, knew that statistically he wasn't likely to get staffed for 3+ years after that (if at all) and went back to investment banking. A dispassionate eye on the problem would reveal that our friend was in LA because of Tom Arnold. That's bad mojo. With a clear eye, one would think "Well, I had my fun. Time to hie my family back to Paramus where our burn rate shall drop by seventy percent and remember my stories while they're still pleasant." That's why I'm still here - I keep getting hired. As soon as I have no financial ties to this place I'm a fuckin' fart in the wind.
That's about 3 years longer than I would have guessed given where you live and your penchant for the drink.
Ha! Was thinking about it in the hot tub (don't start - yesterday involved lots of stairs and lots of Simon Cowell) and I realized it isn't that bad. a half mil would last us ten years at our current burn rate, or twelve or so if we cut back to the bone. But, again, no Greene'n'Greene in my zip code. San Marino is where people in Beverly Hills wished they could afford to live.
Yeah, by the sounds of it, he was actually a little ahead of the game compared to most people with his savings-to-costs ratio, -again, I don't think most people in his position would have predicted not being able to even get hired at Trader Joe's. Still, the blame rests squarely on his shoulders in every way imaginable.
I have no sympathy for someone with 8 kids complaining about not being able to provide for his EIGHT kids. Sorry. You made certain choices and now have to deal with them. steve am I being too harsh? :)My wife, Marina, was cooking dinner for me and our eight children, and it was as happy a Christmas afternoon as I would ever have.
This dude's article is so full of straw men and blame that I don't have time at the moment to dissect it. I'm at work (at a job I don't like which stresses me out - to pay for the kids I chose to have) and will respond later. but no… you're not being too harsh. This dude is wack-a-doo in the head.
I'm not speaking from a small-hearted vantage point. I work with homeless people on a daily basis. He wasn't homeless because of choices beyond his control. He was homeless because of the consequences of the choices he had already made. His long story, short is this: Chose to get married. Chose to have lots of kids. Chose to work in jobs he didn't like. Got unbelievable opportunity to do the job of his dreams. Got paid super well. Had more kids. Saved some money. Neglected his wife. Neglected his family. QUIT WORKING to try to save family. Didn't save enough. Didn't control financial decisions well enough. Tried desperately to hang on to a lifestyle only affordable by those who work and get paid a lot of money. Lost it all. These are all choices he made or consequences of those choices. Now - does it suck that his career field took a drastic turn for the worse and didn't need him back when he needed it? Yah. Ask a traditional draftsman how they feel about CAD. Some learned the new tools and stayed abreast of technology. Some worked with their heads buried in the sand only to find themselves without a job at 50 and they don't have a pension "When I finally hit 65, my WGA pension combined with Social Security means I should have a comfortable retirement." I've got a few friends in this boat. I feel miserable for them. I help them out. I work to get them job training to change careers at 50. IT SUCKS. But in the end - they own the mistake of not keeping their eye on their career. I feel like the author is blaming too many things other than himself for his plight, when in fact, he is largely responsible for what happened to him and his family. Actually, it was stoppable. When you decided to make your work your life, and neglected your marriage, you put your marriage on course for rough waters. It's called foresight. He never thought beyond the galavanting in Europe long enough to realize that he might some day need a career and a way to support a wife whom he unstoppably loved? And let me get this straight - you chose to start a magazine in Minneapolis? No offense to Minneapolis folks - I love the place - but it doesn't exactly scream out "publishing capitol of the midwest" (it's listed as the 7th component of the economy) -He chose this career. It is high risk, high stress, hard on families, and happens to take place in one of the most expensive places around. -He took two years off to be with his family (which I think is kinda cool and noble) but he chose to do that in the same place (expensive, etc) -While I commend him for having a large nest egg and living below his means, he didn't do his math right. In the end - I have a lot of compassion for the guy. I would help him out if he came knocking on my door. But you can bet the farm that all of this could have been avoided with an ounce of forethought and wisdom.we latched on to each other with a ferocious and unstoppable kind of love.
Suddenly reality came crashing. I was married and needed a real job. I decided to launch a magazine in Minneapolis
Exactly. And I'm really disturbed by this: >By 2008, with the older children off at college or working and my job prospects bleak, Marina and I decided to separate. She moved to San Francisco with our two youngest daughters and settled in temporarily with two of our oldest daughters who worked there. I could no longer even afford to house myself. I found friends to take in my two remaining high schoolers. He ditched two of his kids on friends? Both him and his wife sound like selfish idiots. You know what, if you have eight kids and money woes, you MAKE IT WORK. Even if that's living separate lives under the same roof for a while.
Reddit is so much better than this dumphole.