The Covid economy...

[iamwhatiseem]

For years I have had a spreadsheet that tracks our bills/spending in 3 month periods.
At the same time, I also keep track of what bank account balance is on the last day of each month.
This year sucked.
My wife and I only managed to save $2,800 all friggin year. In contrast, 2019 - $8,754.
I am 55, she is 56. At this age it is imperative to save money and have a significant liquid cash balance upon retirement. (this does not count retirement/investment funds of course)
After PPP money ran out in our business, I cut everyone's hours by 20%. Including my own. In truth, purely business speaking... it should have been more like 30%.
And this is with 2019 being a fairly expensive year, we remodeled the beer house... bought a new washer/dryer, spent $3200 on landscaping stuff etc.
We haven't bought a thing since May this year.
Ugh....

 

[Gdjjr]

Yeah, but feckless politicians portfolios are increasing in value- so, it's all good.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Yeah, but feckless politicians portfolios are increasing in value- so, it's all good.

Oh absolutely. The wealthy have done fantastic this year. Wealth concentration almost reached the levels of the Obama era.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

It is all going according to plan. Jeff Bezos is worth 70 BILLION dollars more than he was last year. All that money had to come from somewhere, you know.

The Democrat attack on small business is quite deliberate. Honestly, who could be so utterly retarded as to think covid will strike you dead if you shop at a small business but knows not to touch you if you shop at walmart or Home Depot? Well, besides all the usmb Democrats, anyway. Who can't figure out that items are not actually "essential" or "non essential" based upon where they are purchased, and so denying small shops the ability to sell an item and encouraging them to order the same item from Amazon is quite clearly discriminatory? (same caveat).

Smart people operate according to principles. Stupid people simply parrot the party line. Unfortunately, this country has far too many stupid people who have been trained to parrot the party line of those who are controlling them.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

It is all going according to plan. Jeff Bezos is worth 70 BILLION dollars more than he was last year. All that money had to come from somewhere, you know.

When Amazon stock goes from $1600 to $3200, where does the money come from?

 

[Dogmaphobe]

When Amazon stock goes from $1600 to $3200, where does the money come from?

From the pockets of all those prevented from selling the same goods.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

When Amazon stock goes from $1600 to $3200, where does the money come from?

From the pockets of all those prevented from selling the same goods.

Amazon, at the moment, is down $29.50 from yesterday's close.
Did that put money back into those other pockets?

 

[Moonglow]

I had a rather prosperous year and am enjoying my winter vacation..

 

[iamwhatiseem]

It is all going according to plan. Jeff Bezos is worth 70 BILLION dollars more than he was last year. All that money had to come from somewhere, you know.

The Democrat attack on small business is quite deliberate. Honestly, who could be so utterly retarded as to think covid will strike you dead if you shop at a small business but knows not to touch you if you shop at walmart or Home Depot? Well, besides all the usmb Democrats, anyway. Who can't figure out that items are not actually "essential" or "non essential" based upon where they are purchased, and so denying small shops the ability to sell an item and encouraging them to order the same item from Amazon is quite clearly discriminatory? (same caveat).

Smart people operate according to principles. Stupid people simply parrot the party line. Unfortunately, this country has far too many stupid people who have been trained to parrot the party line of those who are controlling them.

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I have to agree, at least in part to your statement.
I also agree that there is a design behind the outright attack on small businesses via Covid closures. 2020 witnessed a good 5 years worth of small businesses closures with equally record low business openings.
The move from brick and mortar to online purchasing was of course already happening, but in a Forbes article - there estimation is 2020 online shopping increased at a rate of about 3 years worth of online trending. BIG BOOST

 

[iamwhatiseem]

When Amazon stock goes from $1600 to $3200, where does the money come from?

From the pockets of all those prevented from selling the same goods.

Amazon, at the moment, is down $29.50 from yesterday's close.
Did that put money back into those other pockets?

uh...yeah... this is Amazon's 2020... they basically had 4 years of growth in one year. SO yeah.... bullshit

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Also Amazon Mexico had approximately 10 years of growth in 2020.
I cannot believe someone just tried to say Amazon is down.
Unbelievable.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Also Amazon Mexico had approximately 10 years of growth in 2020.
I cannot believe someone just tried to say Amazon is down.
Unbelievable.

I cannot believe someone just tried to say Amazon is down.

Amazon, at the moment, is down $29.50 from yesterday's close.
Did that put money back into those other pockets?

Durr.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Meanwhile retailers who had ineffective online presence....

Also Amazon Mexico had approximately 10 years of growth in 2020.
I cannot believe someone just tried to say Amazon is down.
Unbelievable.

I cannot believe someone just tried to say Amazon is down.

Amazon, at the moment, is down $29.50 from yesterday's close.
Did that put money back into those other pockets?


View attachment 435469

Durr.

 

[night_son]

For years I have had a spreadsheet that tracks our bills/spending in 3 month periods.
At the same time, I also keep track of what bank account balance is on the last day of each month.
This year sucked.
My wife and I only managed to save $2,800 all friggin year. In contrast, 2019 - $8,754.
I am 55, she is 56. At this age it is imperative to save money and have a significant liquid cash balance upon retirement. (this does not count retirement/investment funds of course)
After PPP money ran out in our business, I cut everyone's hours by 20%. Including my own. In truth, purely business speaking... it should have been more like 30%.
And this is with 2019 being a fairly expensive year, we remodeled the beer house... bought a new washer/dryer, spent $3200 on landscaping stuff etc.
We haven't bought a thing since May this year.
Ugh....

Hopefully 2021 will be a much more lucrative year for you and your family. We know personally a number of people who have lost close to if not everything in 2020, financially speaking. Those stories are quite heartbreaking. Other than dealing with restrictions and lockdowns issued by our rogue state government our 2020 has been a good year—perhaps even one of our best years; again, financially speaking. My wife lucked out. She works for a pharmaceutical company—is a member of the accounting management team—so she's been able to work from home and her company has released its first product. Because of this her employer's stock value has quadrupled and leveled off and she's received thousands more shares and has shares maturing from other years. At one point a few months back her matured stock value had risen to something like $899,000 total value. Strangely enough she pretty much ignores it, views it as some kind of bonus asset she might one day think about liquidating.

Myself I had two boons during 2020 that really put me over into the positive numbers category. I also run a small business and it did flourish for the first months of 2020, but then began to tank and has steadily fallen off since about August. Where I lucked out was in the publishing of my first novel, its immediate and consistent sales, and also the publishing of one of my short horror stories in a well known magazine. I've also got a decent military retirement paycheck to fall back on each month should it ever come to that. We're in our late 40's and will hopefully maintain this kind of 2020 momentum for at least a few more years. My second novel is releasing in a few weeks and my wife's company actually plans to hire a few accountants to help her this coming year. I figure, if everything holds and/or improves then we'll retire in a decade or so, maybe less. Although, I'm not sure what retirement means for me as I will never stop writing fiction. Of course, all of that is based on the assumption America will still be a "free" country in a decade.

Best of luck to you in 2021.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

For years I have had a spreadsheet that tracks our bills/spending in 3 month periods.
At the same time, I also keep track of what bank account balance is on the last day of each month.
This year sucked.
My wife and I only managed to save $2,800 all friggin year. In contrast, 2019 - $8,754.
I am 55, she is 56. At this age it is imperative to save money and have a significant liquid cash balance upon retirement. (this does not count retirement/investment funds of course)
After PPP money ran out in our business, I cut everyone's hours by 20%. Including my own. In truth, purely business speaking... it should have been more like 30%.
And this is with 2019 being a fairly expensive year, we remodeled the beer house... bought a new washer/dryer, spent $3200 on landscaping stuff etc.
We haven't bought a thing since May this year.
Ugh....

Hopefully 2021 will be a much more lucrative year for you and your family. We know personally a number of people who have lost close to if not everything in 2020, financially speaking. Those stories are quite heartbreaking. Other than dealing with restrictions and lockdowns issued by our rogue state government our 2020 has been a good year—perhaps even one of our best years; again, financially speaking. My wife lucked out. She works for a pharmaceutical company—is a member of the accounting management team—so she's been able to work from home and her company has released its first product. Because of this her employer's stock value has quadrupled and leveled off and she's received thousands more shares and has shares maturing from other years. At one point a few months back her matured stock value had risen to something like $899,000 total value. Strangely enough she pretty much ignores it, views it as some kind of bonus asset she might one day think about liquidating.

Myself I had two boons during 2020 that really put me over into the positive numbers category. I also run a small business and it did flourish for the first months of 2020, but then began to tank and has steadily fallen off since about August. Where I lucked out was in the publishing of my first novel, its immediate and consistent sales, and also the publishing of one of my short horror stories in a well known magazine. I've also got a decent military retirement paycheck to fall back on each month should it ever come to that. We're in our late 40's and will hopefully maintain this kind of 2020 momentum for at least a few more years. My second novel is releasing in a few weeks and my wife's company actually plans to hire a few accountants to help her this coming year. I figure, if everything holds and/or improves then we'll retire in a decade or so, maybe less. Although, I'm not sure what retirement means for me as I will never stop writing fiction. Of course, all of that is based on the assumption America will still be a "free" country in a decade.

Best of luck to you in 2021.

It has slowly got better... for the business, December was a fantastic month. Primarily due to county governments needing to spend their budgets.
But not just our government business, manufacturing purchases went up to after being absolutely DEAD since March.
We were saved by PPP, a state Covid grant of $20k, and a SBA grant of $10k. This by no means made up for loss sales, but kept the lights on and paid employees. Medical sales are slowly increasing to, as they are just beginning to restart marketing. Banks too. (we are a printer)

 

[TroglocratsRdumb]

Nancy Pelosi is doing great.
Her bribe income has never been better.