Cost of Goods Sold or Manufactured

What is involved in the cost of goods sold or manufactured?

• Direct Labor
• Indirect Labor
• Cost of Materials
• Cost of Storing Materials
• Overhead Costs like
• Electricity
• Gas
• Water
• Telephones
• Office Supplies
• Building Maintenance
• Maintenance Supplies
• Equipment Purchases
• Quality Control
• Training

Two areas of which you may not be aware are Quality Control and Training...

Training

1. Employees must be training on company policies and procedures including safety standards and sexual harassment.
2. Employees must also be trained in how to operate any machines they are using and how to maintain and repair those machines.
3. Employees must be trained in simple math in order to make the calculation that are part of machine operations.(Because these employees did not learn algebra I and II in high school, the industry must do what the school systems did not do)
4. Statistical Process Control classes need to be taught to employees so that quality products can be made with reliability.

Quality Control

According to government regulations, all companies are required to make sure that they produce a quality product that is ultimately sold to the general public.  Ralph Nader was originally responsible back in the 1960s for this happening.

Without quality control, the public has no guarantees that what they are buying is actually reliable and works the way it is supposed to work.

If a company is 99.9% accurate, it is still producing 1500 out of spec parts per million.

How many of those out of spec parts would you like to have in the automobile you are riding in or the washing machine you are using?

Those 1500 parts have to be found and pulled out of production so that they are not inadvertantly sold.

SO...  if the high schools do not do their jobs with teaching students, then that burden and cost falls on industries and companies...  which causes them to increase their prices...

AND...  if our federal government imposes rules and regulations on our industries and companies for whatever reason, then that costs money which is then passed on to the consumer.

DON'T FORGET...  when employees demand more money, those increased costs are passed along to the consumer as well...

If a company pays an employee $50,000 a year, it ultimately costs that company $150,000 in benefits which include insurance, retirement, holidays, vacation and sick leave.

AWARENESS IS KNOWLEDGE

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Plan Your Life

If I were to advise someone in high school what to do with their lives, I think this is what I would tell them...  

First, learn what you can in high school but have fun as well.

Second, join the Air Force after graduation and as soon as you can after you become designated with a skill, start taking college classes...

NOTE:  If you are in the Air Force, your likelihood of being sent to any war zone is next to nothing

Third, plan on remaining in the Air Force for 20-24 years...

Fourth, plan to have received a BA and MA degrees (perferrably in Education) by the time you leave the Air Force.

NOTE:  if you are 18 years of age when you graduate from high school, you will be only 38 years old after serving 20 years or 42 if you stay for 24 years.

Fifth, relocate in a Southern State and try to find employment at a Community College while you pursue a PhD in  Education.

NOTE:  Plan to work at this Community College for another 20 years or until you are 67 years old and can return with full Social Security Benefits.

So, you are now 67/70 years old and you are living in the South where is cos of living is lower than most other State and you are receiving 3 sources of retirement income:

• 20+ years from military
• 20+ years from Community College
• Full Benefits from Social Security (because you worked 40 quarters or 10 years that your paid FICA)

So...  let's just say that you are going to receive $1,500 each month from each one of those...  that will give you a retirement income of $4,500 each month for the rest of your life...  this does not include possible income from your spouse if you decide to get married.

HERE's another idea...

If you save $2.50/day and at the end of each month you put that money into a Mutual Fund...  and, if you do this for 40 years...  at the end of those 40 years you will have $500,000 that will give you a monthly income of $2,000/month for the rest of your life.

If you were to do the Air Force/Community College life plus the Mutual Fund savings, when you retired you would have an income of $6,500 each month.

The key is to plan out your life and then spend the rest of your life executing your plan...  Once you have developed a plan, you will have plenty of time to enjoy life along the way...

Social Security

This year’s Social Security cost-of-living adjustment was 1.3%, yet many of the costs seniors face are rising much more quickly.  In 2021, the estimated average monthly benefit increased by $20 per month.

Many expenses have dramatically risen in the past year, according to a new analysis of Consumer Price Index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics done by The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan senior group.

From March 2020 to March 2021, the fastest-rising cost was car and truck rentals, which went up by 31.2%. That was followed by laundry equipment, which climbed 24.2%; gasoline, 22.2%; and home heating oil, 20.2%.

Some prices, such as prescription drug and medical costs, stayed constant, although physician services climbed by 5.3%.  Admittedly, all consumers are grappling with those rising price tags, not just seniors. The Senior Citizens League selected the list based on which costs affect retirees most.

Because older Americans often live on a fixed budget, which typically includes Social Security benefits, having to absorb those higher costs can hit them harder.  “With inflation rising so fast, what’s going on right now is an erosion in buying power,” said Mary Johnson, Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at the league.

When measured by the index used to calculate Social Security’s annual cost-of-living adjustment — the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W — inflation has risen since last year.  The CPI-W was more than 3% higher as of the end of March than it was a year ago.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

Retirement and Beyond

When will you retire...  if ever?

My father retired at age 62 with a pension from the Federal Government (that now is no longer) and a pension from the US Military with the pay of Naval Caption just under an Admiral...  not bad for being in the Reserves for 26 years.  His retirement was more than I ever made annually...  

I retired at age 67 with about $500,000 in the bank...  no pension from any company...  only Social Security...  however, my wife and I combined our Social Security which helped a lot and we had eliminated our debt over a decade ago...  However, we had a small investment that paid us about $1,000 each month +/- so we never had to pull any money out of our savings...  plus I taught about 6 night classes for a local university...

The odds are that if you can retire at all, it will be at the age of 70...  and, no doubt 75 for your children and their children as retirement age creeps up to 80.

Social Security will be gradually reduced over the years but it will still be available possible in the neighborhood of 50-75% of what it is today.  The average social security check is about $1,500.

Advances in medical technology will enable people to live longer and longer so one will either need to keep working or make sure that they have enough in savings or income coming to them from other sources.

It would not surprise me at all that by the year 2050, our life span will increase from right around 80 to right around 100... and, by the year 3000, it will be 120 to 150...

However, by the year 3000, there is also a good possibility that we will not longer be living on this planet we call earth...  which is difficult for some of us who care to comprehend.

• How much money will you need in retirement?
• Will you be debt free?
• How much money will you have saved or invested?
• How many jobs will you have had?
• How many homes and vehicles?
• How is your health...  do you eat healthy and exercise?
• How do you manage stress outside of drinking alcohol?
• How will you compensate for inflation?
• How long will it take for prices to double?

Back in the 1960's, I paid $.18/gallon for gasoline and cigarettes were $.25/pack and a hamburger was $.15 and wages were $.75/hour...  that was over 50 years ago...  and, you know what the prices of things are today...  can you imagine what they will be like in 50 years from today?  I was 23 years of age 50 years ago...

Friday Morning in the Valley

Another day...  another dollar...  as my dad used to say...  and, when I heard that and obviously remembered it, I did not understand his sarcasm but I do now.  Pay raises are a necessary evil in that when one receives more money, one has to pay more taxes, and what I always experienced was that my insurance costs also went up, leaving me receiving not much of a gain.

The only way to BEAT THE SYSTEM is to receive SUBSTANTIAL pay increases of $10,000/year or more and the best way (I found) to achieve that growth in pay was/is to leave the State and move to another State.  Not necessarily UP NORTH (if you are in the South) because with that increase comes a higher COST OF LIVING situation...  which negates the increase.  But, move laterally...

I moved from NC to TN in order to receive my SALARY INCREASE and actually moved from a higher cost of living to a lower cost of living without realizing it until after the move...  plus TN has no STATE INCOME TAX effectively boosting one's salary by 7%...