{"id":621,"date":"2014-02-10T11:17:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T11:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html"},"modified":"2014-02-10T11:17:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-10T11:17:00","slug":"on-ice-dams-and-the-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html","title":{"rendered":"On Ice Dams and the Poor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Somewhat off-topic releative to anything anyone\u2019s been talking about lately, but: <\/p>\n

I just wrote a $590 check to the men who melted and removed the ice dam that was causing water to drip through the bathroom window into the house. We don\u2019t know whether there\u2019s further damage inside the house or not, nor do we really know what kind of further roofing repairs may be required. (What\u2019s more, we don\u2019t really know what\u2019s going on that we seem to be getting tons of icicles this year, which we aren\u2019t accustomed to.) <\/p>\n

On top of last week\u2019s ER bill<\/a>, that makes two unexpected expenses in fairly short order. And I still need to get the mini-van into the shop, since the power sliding door isn\u2019t working any longer. <\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019ve said on various occasions that we live well below our means and save quite a bit of our pay, though (as a result of growing up in a frugal family) it feels sometimes that we\u2019re more profligate than feels right (though I can hardly blame my husband for buying lunch in the cafeteria every day when he\u2019s the one who spends frequent nights logged on working). When our salaries were more modest, we dilligently tracked our spending, and meals out were a rare treat, and when I was a grad student, I tracked my spending obsessively and spent even less. In any event, it didn\u2019t really put a dent in our bank account to have these unexpected expenses \u2014 and one might say that they\u2019re not truly unexpected, as one knows that, in general, home repairs and car repairs and gash-in-the-head repairs will periodically happen, though with no predictable timing. <\/p>\n

But if you\u2019re living paycheck-to-paycheck, these sorts of expenses are far more disruptive \u2014 and far more costly, if an unexpected home repair leads to a payday lender, or an unpaid electric bill, or leads to simply not getting the repair done at risk of further damage, or leads to attempted DIY repairs that do more harm than good. <\/p>\n

Which means that, ideally, even paycheck-to-paycheck families should curtail their expenses even further, to the point that they\u2019re able to build up an emergency fund. <\/p>\n

But it also means that most families with low incomes, unless they have a good general handyman knowledge, probably should not be homeowners, even though generations of politicians have aimed at extending this \u201cAmerican dream\u201d to the poor. <\/p>\n

And it also calls into question the concept of high-deductible health insurance plans as a good option for low-income, low-savings families (as opposed to the frugal), at least, unless providers are willing to cut deals with long-term payments plans to make good on the dedutible. Yes, as an actuary I know well that they\u2019re a good deal in terms of the cost of the premium vs. the long-term average expected value of the plan \u2014 but only for someone who can manage the cost of the deductible.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Somewhat off-topic releative to anything anyone\u2019s been talking about lately, but: I just wrote a $590 check to the men who melted and removed the ice dam that was causing water to drip through the bathroom window into the house. We don\u2019t know whether there\u2019s further damage inside the house or not, nor do we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOn Ice Dams and the Poor<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Somewhat off-topic releative to anything anyone's been talking about lately, but: I just wrote a $590 check to the men who melted and removed the ice dam\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Ice Dams and the Poor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Somewhat off-topic releative to anything anyone's been talking about lately, but: I just wrote a $590 check to the men who melted and removed the ice dam\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-10T11:17:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html\",\"name\":\"On Ice Dams and the Poor\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-10T11:17:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-02-10T11:17:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"Somewhat off-topic releative to anything anyone's been talking about lately, but: I just wrote a $590 check to the men who melted and removed the ice dam\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"On Ice Dams and the Poor\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"On Ice Dams and the Poor","description":"Somewhat off-topic releative to anything anyone's been talking about lately, but: I just wrote a $590 check to the men who melted and removed the ice dam","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"On Ice Dams and the Poor","og_description":"Somewhat off-topic releative to anything anyone's been talking about lately, but: I just wrote a $590 check to the men who melted and removed the ice dam","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2014-02-10T11:17:00+00:00","author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html","name":"On Ice Dams and the Poor","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-02-10T11:17:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-02-10T11:17:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"Somewhat off-topic releative to anything anyone's been talking about lately, but: I just wrote a $590 check to the men who melted and removed the ice dam","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/02\/on-ice-dams-and-the-poor.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"On Ice Dams and the Poor"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}