I HATE Lularoe

[Spiky Bugger]

They are an MLM.

Like Amway, Mary Kay and things that are as bad or worse. They have trainings to teach you how to manipulate your friends and relatives.

I hate MLMs.

And I know a LOVELY woman...a DSer who has gone from MLM jewelry, to MLM home decor stuff to MLM wine, for crying out loud. The first two "went under." At that point, you'd think someone would come up with their OWN business idea, no? I don't get what the draw is.

Years ago, the late 1980s, I knew a dentist and his wife...Amway freaks. Their garage was repurposed to be an Amway warehouse. They were ALWAYS chasing one new deal or one new potential recruit. They had motivational posters on the ceiling over their bed. Really. It took a while but she finally fessed up. With the two of them investing every spare hour of their lives in "the business," they were netting about a $1,000 a month.

That's about $2100 in today's money. That's for two people, working about 200 combined hours a week. Maybe $10-11/hr each. And based on what I pay my dentist, I think he could have cleared the equivalent of $2100, after expenses, working a few hours a couple of Saturdays a month and she could have stayed home and made bread or canned tomatoes. (They were Mormon and knew all those things.)

I hate MLMs.

But I really like people who get thrown out of Tupperware "parties," and such.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

I think Luluroe's designer is on meth.

 

[k9ophile]

But I really like people who get thrown out of Tupperware "parties," and such.

Ah, gee. Thanks.

 

[bearmom]

They are an MLM.

Like Amway, Mary Kay and things that are as bad or worse. They have trainings to teach you how to manipulate your friends and relatives.

I hate MLMs.

And I know a LOVELY woman...a DSer who has gone from MLM jewelry, to MLM home decor stuff to MLM wine, for crying out loud. The first two "went under." At that point, you'd think someone would come up with their OWN business idea, no? I don't get what the draw is.

Years ago, the late 1980s, I knew a dentist and his wife...Amway freaks. Their garage was repurposed to be an Amway warehouse. They were ALWAYS chasing one new deal or one new potential recruit. They had motivational posters on the ceiling over their bed. Really. It took a while but she finally fessed up. With the two of them investing every spare hour of their lives in "the business," they were netting about a $1,000 a month.

That's about $2100 in today's money. That's for two people, working about 200 combined hours a week. Maybe $10-11/hr each. And based on what I pay my dentist, I think he could have cleared the equivalent of $2100, after expenses, working a few hours a couple of Saturdays a month and she could have stayed home and made bread or canned tomatoes. (They were Mormon and knew all those things.)

I hate MLMs.

But I really like people who get thrown out of Tupperware "parties," and such.

It's always been people that in my opinion, were doing pretty darned well in their real career that I didn't understand why they were wasting time on Amway, until I had it explained that they had to become "diamonds". Hmph. I'll do none of that and happily remain a lump of coal.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

It's always been people that in my opinion, were doing pretty darned well in their real career that I didn't understand why they were wasting time on Amway, until I had it explained that they had to become "diamonds". Hmph. I'll do none of that and happily remain a lump of coal.

So as not to give away their name...she's deceased and he's pretty old and wobbly now...but still a dentist...let's go out on a limb and say their surname was Plumber. The "motivational poster" over their bed was a sign they found and had framed and mounted on the ceiling over their bed. It was from an extinct retail shop...so it said (the equivalent of) DIAMOND PLUMBERS (except, they weren't "the Plumbers," but you get the picture.) Last thing they saw at night, first thing every morning.

 

[DSRIGGS]

I do like leggings, and wear them, although most of mine just look like dark jeans. I also think longer shirts work best with them, at least for my age. If I were 20 I might be more daring. It's the ones with patterns that while may be cute (like on a childs folder or something) they just do nothing whatsoever to flatter anyones figure. While their tops and dresses aren't as bad, they are clearly designed to be easy to manufacture, but do nothing to flatter any type of figure.

I did discover insulated leggings, with a fleecy lining, that are far warmer than pants. My ferritin has been going down, taking my body temperature along with it, so the insulated leggings have been getting a workout till I get all my infusions in.

These are a typical lularoe

I agree so much about wearing a long shirt over them and the age. I am not an old prude (in fact I am old perv ) , but no offense, is showing off a camel toe and tight ass really appropriate for the work place? A guy wearing those things which in essence are the equivalent of what we used to call the ole banana hammock, would be equally inappropriate if certain areas aren't covered.

Anyway, this is just a 51 year old dude's opinion so I will shut before I get myself in trouble.

You look very good in your doughnut leggings. I will stop before I make the very inappropriate doughnut joke.

 

[DSRIGGS]

Oh man I don't miss having Amway hawked at me, but knew several who were as obnoxious and inconsiderate as Rob about it 20+ years ago. It's funny you mention he was an optometrist, because the guy that used to have me most puzzled was a fellow real estate developer, and he was making over 6 figures, which was great money in the 80's. He'd end one work day, just to go recruit other Amway sellers (had zero interest in actually selling any of the products, and wouldn't, even if you asked). He had a wife and 2 youngs kids, and worked every waking hour, and I know he was thinking it was all for them, but he missed everything.

When I was younger I was pretty damn driven myself and when we lived in South Carolina (2000-2002.5) my wife would occasionally call me and say "so do you think you might come home to see the boys and me tonight". I was running a business unit that was a turnaround situation when I took over and 140 jobs were my responsibility so my response was, "honey I am sorry and I plan on being home soon, but 140 families are relying on me to make sure they have a job next year". I would leave 30 minutes later typically and I always spent a ton of time with my family because they are the reason I work. In any case, I never worked other jobs in addition to make extra money. My hard work and long hours had nothing to do with that, and was all about keeping a business alive and good people in good jobs. The irony is after all the sacrifices I made for that Mother ******* **** bag of a company, and VP who took over after the President who hired me at the $8BB company left after getting passed over and all his VP's were fired..so the guys who recruited me and were my champions (I was to be a VP GM in 3 years) were gone ....oh and the new VP, he had offered me a job about 4 years before I took this one and I turned him down...so yeah when it came down to the time to downsize (two plants on site with two full staffs...we needed only about 60% of those staffs and I had told my prick boss that) even though i had led our business to a compete turn around operationally, profit wise, culturally and I had them set up to be a cash cow for years (I gave them huge profits through our improvements) the Mother ******* Prick took me out. Yeah, i am still bitter about it at times because it ended up ruining my career because I made a coupe bad job choices after that where once I got in I realized it was no win. In 2000-2003 I was making roughly $150K, huge money back then, it only took me 10 years to get back to that dollar amount because of family choices I made (wouldn't relocate until boys through school so had to pass up great opportunities) and then in 15 I got kicked out for basically being on medical. Now I am 51 and other than a paltry $600-$700 pension at 67 that comes from an old job where they went belly up after I left, and whatever is left of SS after these evil fuckers try to wipe it out, I don't have jack **** in my 401-K(maybe a hundred grand) and don't have much time to make it up. I am really trying to figure out if I can get into a government job that pays decent and more importantly has a guaranteed pension.

My apologies for the rant but I have been chewed up and spit out too man ******* times by huge corporate america and because my wife doesn't make much money we have horrible financial security for a guy who did what he was supposed to do...got his MBA, kicked ass at work while taking care of people. It is all relative because I think of people in countries where they have war and or extreme poverty and really struggling for just basic necessities.....but for an American who did what I was supposed to do and made a couple bad job choices then had my 3 plus years of serious health issues, I am really a kind of broken guy who is so disappointed about our situation. For a proud man of 51 it is so hurtful to have to borrow money from my Father to keep us afloat.....sorry to be "Whiny McFucking Williams"

 

[bearmom]

It would be very hard to go through even a portion of that and not be salty about it. I have to hope there is something like karma in the world, because these ******** don't deserve the free rent they are getting in our heads for all these years later.

Perhaps a little unrelated, but I'd read a little lately on whether meditation can help with cognition or moderating pain, and ran across some info it may help with dealing with this other stuff. The "me too" movement has brought several old monsters out of my memory dungeons, and I've decided to try meditation to help get rid of anger and quit wasting thought and energy on hating a few people that I'll hopefully never even see again. Might be worth thinking about something like that if they are on your mind much. I hope you don't spend much time thinking about those ******** - it's not good for you.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

When I was younger I was pretty damn driven myself and when we lived in South Carolina (2000-2002.5) my wife would occasionally call me and say "so do you think you might come home to see the boys and me tonight". I was running a business unit that was a turnaround situation when I took over and 140 jobs were my responsibility so my response was, "honey I am sorry and I plan on being home soon, but 140 families are relying on me to make sure they have a job next year". I would leave 30 minutes later typically and I always spent a ton of time with my family because they are the reason I work. In any case, I never worked other jobs in addition to make extra money. My hard work and long hours had nothing to do with that, and was all about keeping a business alive and good people in good jobs. The irony is after all the sacrifices I made for that Mother ******* **** bag of a company, and VP who took over after the President who hired me at the $8BB company left after getting passed over and all his VP's were fired..so the guys who recruited me and were my champions (I was to be a VP GM in 3 years) were gone ....oh and the new VP, he had offered me a job about 4 years before I took this one and I turned him down...so yeah when it came down to the time to downsize (two plants on site with two full staffs...we needed only about 60% of those staffs and I had told my prick boss that) even though i had led our business to a compete turn around operationally, profit wise, culturally and I had them set up to be a cash cow for years (I gave them huge profits through our improvements) the Mother ******* Prick took me out. Yeah, i am still bitter about it at times because it ended up ruining my career because I made a coupe bad job choices after that where once I got in I realized it was no win. In 2000-2003 I was making roughly $150K, huge money back then, it only took me 10 years to get back to that dollar amount because of family choices I made (wouldn't relocate until boys through school so had to pass up great opportunities) and then in 15 I got kicked out for basically being on medical. Now I am 51 and other than a paltry $600-$700 pension at 67 that comes from an old job where they went belly up after I left, and whatever is left of SS after these evil fuckers try to wipe it out, I don't have jack **** in my 401-K(maybe a hundred grand) and don't have much time to make it up. I am really trying to figure out if I can get into a government job that pays decent and more importantly has a guaranteed pension.

My apologies for the rant but I have been chewed up and spit out too man ******* times by huge corporate america and because my wife doesn't make much money we have horrible financial security for a guy who did what he was supposed to do...got his MBA, kicked ass at work while taking care of people. It is all relative because I think of people in countries where they have war and or extreme poverty and really struggling for just basic necessities.....but for an American who did what I was supposed to do and made a couple bad job choices then had my 3 plus years of serious health issues, I am really a kind of broken guy who is so disappointed about our situation. For a proud man of 51 it is so hurtful to have to borrow money from my Father to keep us afloat.....sorry to be "Whiny McFucking Williams"

Look, Whiny, you are TWENTY years younger than I am, so kindly shut the **** up about how much time you have left.

Meanwhile, do your best to get a civil service job...but understand the Windfall Elimination Provision of SS before you do...just so you don't find yourself shocked later on.

MiniSue took a $10k+ pay cut to get into a civil service job almost three years ago. Now, she just keeps telling us, "I just got another pay increase and don't even know why..." Shortly, she will catch up with that $10k in terms of base salary...but she has had job security, those guaranteed pay raises, time-and-a-half for longer days/weeks (not even a consideration in her previous jobs), personal days off to take her boyfriend's daughter (on his custody days and they all live in one household) to urgent care, vacation time sufficient to visit her "other family" in Denmark, the opportunity to move to higher paying positions while retaining rights to this job while she "tries on" the new one, in addition to choices regarding medical, dental, 403b plans, etc.

So, yes...if you can, get ANY civil service job...but especially in a larger government entity because there are more opportunities there.

Windfall Elimination Provision...something else to screw the working class. My example:
Identical twin sisters, RNs, at age 22, go to work for a community hospital and stay there 20 years.
They made the same money and contributed exactly the same $ to FICA.
At age 42, one sister marries and stays home.
At the same time, the other sister goes to work for a state hospital or the county health department.

At age 65 (or whatever it is these days), the stay-at-home sister gets LOTS MORE SS$ than the two-jobs sister.

Windfall Elimination Provision.

 

[DSRIGGS]

Look, Whiny, you are TWENTY years younger than I am, so kindly shut the **** up about how much time you have left.

Meanwhile, do your best to get a civil service job...but understand the Windfall Elimination Provision of SS before you do...just so you don't find yourself shocked later on.

MiniSue took a $10k+ pay cut to get into a civil service job almost three years ago. Now, she just keeps telling us, "I just got another pay increase and don't even know why..." Shortly, she will catch up with that $10k in terms of base salary...but she has had job security, those guaranteed pay raises, time-and-a-half for longer days/weeks (not even a consideration in her previous jobs), personal days off to take her boyfriend's daughter (on his custody days and they all live in one household) to urgent care, vacation time sufficient to visit her "other family" in Denmark, the opportunity to move to higher paying positions while retaining rights to this job while she "tries on" the new one, in addition to choices regarding medical, dental, 403b plans, etc.

So, yes...if you can, get ANY civil service job...but especially in a larger government entity because there are more opportunities there.

Windfall Elimination Provision...something else to screw the working class. My example:
Identical twin sisters, RNs, at age 22, go to work for a community hospital and stay there 20 years.
They made the same money and contributed exactly the same $ to FICA.
At age 42, one sister marries and stays home.
At the same time, the other sister goes to work for a state hospital or the county health department.

At age 65 (or whatever it is these days), the stay-at-home sister gets LOTS MORE SS$ than the two-jobs sister.

Windfall Elimination Provision.

I kind of hate you.

Yeah I am definitely going to check all avenues. It is late and I am tired so I will reread in morning...but are you saying that windfall elimination basically reduces the social security amount one receives if they go into a government pension system.....so basically you don't get one, only the other? I know some union factory workers who didn't realize it but that basically happened to them ....so using made up numbers they had planned on $5,000 a month ...$2,500 from SS and $2,500 from pension only to retire and find their pension was reduced by SS amount so instead of $5K a month they only got $2,500/month.....I am surprised the union leaders who negotiated that lovely contract and were either clueless what would happen or knew and didn't tell their members, were not killed...because that is a Tru story I just don't know the numbers.

At this point I just have to find a ******* job to pay some bills...it will be dead until after holidays but hopefully early in January the contract recruiter will have something for me...they had a job for me but wouldn't wait 2 weeks for me after surgery so they filled it...it was good money. Well I know that job and the one person, even if they were close to as good as I was at that type work (not to be arrogant but I doubt they are) well that one Project Manager will not be able to meet needs so they will figure out they need another person. I already told my recruiter that will happen and when you guys come back wanting me to help you it is going to cost you a lot more.

Anyway I am trumping, so now that my pooping is done, I am done typing and going to bed. Did I mention I still have you?

Thsmks

 

[DSRIGGS]

It would be very hard to go through even a portion of that and not be salty about it. I have to hope there is something like karma in the world, because these ******** don't deserve the free rent they are getting in our heads for all these years later.

Perhaps a little unrelated, but I'd read a little lately on whether meditation can help with cognition or moderating pain, and ran across some info it may help with dealing with this other stuff. The "me too" movement has brought several old monsters out of my memory dungeons, and I've decided to try meditation to help get rid of anger and quit wasting thought and energy on hating a few people that I'll hopefully never even see again. Might be worth thinking about something like that if they are on your mind much. I hope you don't spend much time thinking about those ******** - it's not good for you.

Thank you my friend. I get in pity party mood about once every 45-60 days and after a day or two of moping I pick back up and say **** you dirtbags ..you aren't worth my time and I put them out of mind and trudge on.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

I kind of hate you.

Yeah I am definitely going to check all avenues. It is late and I am tired so I will reread in morning...but are you saying that windfall elimination basically reduces the social security amount one receives if they go into a government pension system.....so basically you don't get one, only the other? I know some union factory workers who didn't realize it but that basically happened to them ....so using made up numbers they had planned on $5,000 a month ...$2,500 from SS and $2,500 from pension only to retire and find their pension was reduced by SS amount so instead of $5K a month they only got $2,500/month.....I am surprised the union leaders who negotiated that lovely contract and were either clueless what would happen or knew and didn't tell their members, were not killed...because that is a Tru story I just don't know the numbers.

At this point I just have to find a ******* job to pay some bills...it will be dead until after holidays but hopefully early in January the contract recruiter will have something for me...they had a job for me but wouldn't wait 2 weeks for me after surgery so they filled it...it was good money. Well I know that job and the one person, even if they were close to as good as I was at that type work (not to be arrogant but I doubt they are) well that one Project Manager will not be able to meet needs so they will figure out they need another person. I already told my recruiter that will happen and when you guys come back wanting me to help you it is going to cost you a lot more.

Anyway I am trumping, so now that my pooping is done, I am done typing and going to bed. Did I mention I still have you?

Thsmks

Not totally eliminated...severely reduced...you can collect from 50-90% of what it shows on your annual statement. You MIGHT have enough years to squeeze into that "substantial earnings" demographic. Or you might need to work a few more quarters even WITH a govt job.

Read: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf#page=2


Makes my teeth itch to think about it.

If you look at the small print on your annual statement, it vaguely mentions it.

(A former friend--we REALLY grew apart, as they say, and this conversation took place well after we knew we were no longer going to be friends--one day said, "Well, I'm going to get $x from my pension and $y from SS." I said, "Did you factor in the Windfall Elimination deduction?" She said, "I don't NEED to factor in anything. All I need to do is read my statement...unless you think you have better information than SS does." I said, "No. I think I didn't stop reading as soon as I saw the numbers. You can reread it now, or wait for your big surprise." Once in a while, I wonder which way she went on that choice.)

 

[DSRIGGS]

Not totally eliminated...severely reduced...you can collect from 50-90% of what it shows on your annual statement. You MIGHT have enough years to squeeze into that "substantial earnings" demographic. Or you might need to work a few more quarters even WITH a govt job.

Read: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf#page=2


Makes my teeth itch to think about it.

If you look at the small print on your annual statement, it vaguely mentions it.

(A former friend--we REALLY grew apart, as they say, and this conversation took place well after we knew we were no longer going to be friends--one day said, "Well, I'm going to get $x from my pension and $y from SS." I said, "Did you factor in the Windfall Elimination deduction?" She said, "I don't NEED to factor in anything. All I need to do is read my statement...unless you think you have better information than SS does." I said, "No. I think I didn't stop reading as soon as I saw the numbers. You can reread it now, or wait for your big surprise." Once in a while, I wonder which way she went on that choice.)

Hmm..I definitely need to do some more research to see where I need to go. I think I do have years to be in the substantial earning demographic but I don't know how being off the last 2 years will mess with things. The last time I checked I think I was eligible for the max SS payout, or within like $100...but I am guessing that was projecting me continuing to work and at the income..so who knews.


Anyway, thank for you the heads up and ideas.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Hmm..I definitely need to do some more research to see where I need to go. I think I do have years to be in the substantial earning demographic but I don't know how being off the last 2 years will mess with things. The last time I checked I think I was eligible for the max SS payout, or within like $100...but I am guessing that was projecting me continuing to work and at the income..so who knews.


Anyway, thank for you the heads up and ideas.

I remember being QUITE ill and needing to retire medically. Unfortunately...I had been OUT of SS covered employment too long and therefore not eligible for SS Disability, and not IN my govt job long enough to qualify for medical retirement there. I had to hang in for longer than I should have.

Scary times.