Looking Forward, Looking Back

Hello 2018!
 
Boy…what a night. The bar I worked at was packed last night. Thankfully, there were no incidents…like fights or falling down or puking.
 
I got home at 3 AM. The drive home sucked – my driver’s side car door froze open and I had to hold it shut. Damn thing’s still frozen open!
 
Anyways…in this post we’ll look at a few things that might come up for 2018, and we’ll also run through some past odds-and-ends.
 

Crunching the Numbers
 
2017 wasn’t a bad year, but it wasn’t all that good, either.
 
I made $17,033 for the year…with my New Year’s Eve earnings pushing me over the top.
 
Here’s how my income broke down by month through the year:
 

 
As you can see, the early-part of the year wasn’t that lucrative. I saw that, and added a few part-time jobs to compensate for that.
 
Still, this wasn’t the best year.
 
In 2016 I made $18,000 and in 2015 I made $22,000.
 
My income has gone down because my book sales have gone down quite a bit. Also, back in 2015 I was doing a lot more freelance writing, and today I’m doing zip.
 
I sold over 2,000 books in 2017 and made $7,100 from those sales.
 
So I’m pretty low class. With my wife’s income thrown in, we make about $30,000 a year. That’s about $14,000 less than the state average.
 
Because of that, we pay no income taxes. We get a check from the feds in February or March, and one from the state a month or so later.
 
Lots of people living in Missoula can say the same.
 
Now, let’s dig into my spending a bit. Maybe this’ll give you an idea of how the working poor live.
 
In 2017 I spent…
 

• $3,700 buying food at the grocery store.

 

• $733 eating out.

 

• $765 on cigarettes.

 

• $235 on pet food.

 

• $1,680 on gas/car maintenance.

 

• $148 on laundry.

 

• $500 on medical costs/insurance.

 

• $288 on my phone bill.

 

• $60 on political odds-and-ends.

 

• $512 on office/computer supplies.

 

• $145 going to the movies/buying DVDs.

 
I’m not adding rent or the internet bill in there as I don’t track those as much, since my wife and I use a joint account for that stuff.
 
Still, we would have paid $9,360 in rent for the year and our internet cost us over $700.
 
Again, just a quick look into the lives of the working poor.
 

 
 
Pushing Buttons
 
I love giving our elected officials and their hanger’s-on as much shit as I can.
 
They make more than enough money to put up with it.
 
We call this accountability. I wish more would engage in it.
 
It’s quite simple…just speak your mind. If you’re able to inform yourself first, it makes it even more effective.
 
Here’s a bit of what I’m talking about:
 

 
What you’re seeing in those images is the truth.
 
Maybe you don’t like the tone of how it’s presented, but you can’t argue with the facts.
 
Politicians hate it when you put out facts like this…facts that ‘disparage’ them.
 
Disparage? Folks, you did that to yourself. Usually it came about when you took the money.
 
Trust me – we’ll continue to push buttons in 2018.
 
We call this accountability. Montana is lucky that it has citizens that keep track of this stuff. Future generations will be thankful that we kept tabs on our second Copper King era.
 
So until next time…thanks for staying informed.