Yesterday I had a nice surprise to see that my directly deposited paycheck was several hundred dollars higher than normal and expected, after taxes!

As I believe the saying goes, “a life well-funded is a life less stressful.” Actually, I don’t know if that’s a common saying… but I remember hearing it somewhere! Can’t remember the source. But I like it because “well-funded” isn’t simply glamorizing wealth in and of itself.

As it turns out, I’m getting back pay since July 1, 2025 for a retroactive cost of living adjustment, and wage changes, added to my current mid-March paycheck! I hadn’t been following developments closely like I should have, but union negotiations took place for a long time between AFSCME Local 88 and Multnomah County. Then it understandably took time for payroll to process. Information is publicly available here:

www.afscmelocal88.org/2026/02/l…

There is also a NW Labor Press article about it: nwlaborpress.org/2026/01/m… My wife and I both get print editions mailed to our house for free as members, but their content is online. I highly recommend reading it if you care about labor union activity in the PNW!

It was very welcome news during a time of unusual and unavoidable expenses such as immigration filing fees, my car’s registration DEQ and registration renewal, and my wife needing new construction boots and pants. My parents have also generously helped with reducing our housing payment this month, and fronting the cost of the post-fire expenses like the stove, and painting. While my wife and I have been low on day-to-day cash this year, we have proudly been making principal payments on credit card debt, and have exclusively used the debit card for everything.

I think the old saying about money not buying happiness is such a crock of shit for the bottom 90% of society. Here’s my metric: until you can comfortably make ends meet while also having 3-6 months of liquid short-term savings, and are totally debt-free (with the exception of fixed low-interest, secured debt that’s specifically leveraged towards a lucrative investment, like a house), money absolutely buys happiness. Maybe put another way, financial security buys happiness, and well over half of society does not meet that criteria. Beyond that, then it probably buys happiness, but not by big margins, if at all. I think the money-happiness graph follows a logarithmically-shaped line with quickly diminishing marginal returns for each additional dollar beyond a certain point.

I take a more controversial, leftist position than most of society, but I think there should be legal ceilings and floors on everyone’s poverty and wealth. I don’t think anyone should live below the federal poverty line, or personally have more than $999 million dollars. I don’t think billionaires should exist. Multi-millionaires, yes, but billionaires, no. Organizations, foundations, governments, etc. could have billions, sure, but not individuals. The figurative floor to ceiling height is still pretty fucking high. After all, if you’re living just above the poverty line, you’re simply having basic necessities of shelter and food met. Conversely, if you’re not happy with $999 million dollars, the problem is you, and only you. There are plenty of other people that would take $9 million, or $0.9 million and be stoked, myself included.