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Oh I hit rock bottom. I was married with 3 children ages 7, 6, 4 worked management for big box retail companies and mortgage companies. Unfortunately my wife was very physical and I had to divorce her and get custody of the kids. That was the easy part. All 3 of my children were in different schools about a half hour from where I lived. Now I had to get them up, get them dressed, feed them breakfast take them from school, go home clean the house, wash the clothes, go back to school pick them up, do the homework, cook the dinner, give the showers and baths, clean the house and put them to bed. Wait I forgot I have to work too uh oh where do i fit that in I usually work 12-14 hour days 6 days a week. See the taking care of the kids was fairly easy the ex wife was more of a glorified babysitter, I usually cooked dinner, did homework and gave baths when I came home so that I was use to it was the during the day parts that did it. basically I could work from 9:30 am - 2:00pm. And lets face it that wasnt gonna happen not to mention that I did relatively well at making a living we were far from rich but the bills were paid and food wasnt a problem. I had such a hard time trying to get help from welfare, childcare rent assistance. I just had such a struggle no one wants to hear your problems all they want to know is what you can do for them I actually got turned down for public welfare are you ready for this because they said I was too well spoken to need be applying for it. Well I said along with being well spoken I am also bright I would like to speak with your supervisor right now of course that changed minds lol. Everything I tried to get was a uphill battle I went for rental assistance where they pay a months rent they denied me because I couldnt pay my rent???????????????? I said um isnt that the point I cant pay my rent I need help, they told me well you have to prove you can pay the following months rent in order for us to help you. I said well if you help me this month I can look for a job and be working next month lol what a joke. Anyways we literally hit the bottom I was evicted from my home, filed bankruptcy had nothing. I finally got myself together and didnt take know for an answer I found an agency to pay for daycare, programs within the welfare system that give you clothing and travel allowances. Found a job about a week later that I hated but it was a job and a start. That was 5 years ago. We are no longer broke and still struggling our way up, but I am now in a position with my oldest being a very mature 13 to work during the day and to be home by 5-6pm. I take my hat off to all those single parents out there doing it everyday. If you would have asked me 6 years ago if I would ever have been in this position I would have laughed and said no way. But there is light at the end of the tunnel I still fighting to get there but if others can do it so can I. Oh yeah I have decided to get my degree in sociology and hopefully become a social worker. There are millions of dollars out there and lots of programs to help people and they dont know how to access them or they make them inaccessible with silly requirements. Only in this country can you have programs to help poor people with requirements being that they cant be poor to access.
40% of your income into a retirement program is very excessive.
My wife and I only have today, tomorrow isn't promised. More than likely, you are trusting in your material possessions. Make your life a lot easier. Reduce your investment percentage to less than 10%.
All it takes is a crisis in the market and your money is history. Money may not be worth the paper it is printed on, if things keep going the way that they have been these past few years.
40% of your income into a retirement program is very excessive.
My wife and I only have today, tomorrow isn't promised. More than likely, you are trusting in your material possessions. Make your life a lot easier. Reduce your investment percentage to less than 10%.
All it takes is a crisis in the market and your money is history. Money may not be worth the paper it is printed on, if things keep going the way that they have been these past few years.
I beg to differ.
The worst isn't dying before you can spend your money. The worst is outliving your money and being totally broke when you're old and have no income potential.
Even with a crisis in the market, over the long term, it makes more sense to save than not to save.
When I first moved to NYC (I was immediately transferred after receiving my CPA) I still felt "fresh out of college" so to speak.
I was so broke it was ridiculous, I could barely afford rent and with my student debt and such, it was a nightmare. Food was outrageously expensive and I lived off ramen, like an unresourceful rat. I got to know some people at my local bodega and only then did I start getting things like fresh fruit (for free, since they liked me).
Thankfully I had very good parents who used to buy my clothing, otherwise I honestly don't know what I would have done. $60,000 salary with a bonus and it meant squat. Just being alive there meant I had expenses over $80,000. With two roomates and myself in a one bedroom apartment, we were still barely scraping by.
The worst isn't dying before you can spend your money. The worst is outliving your money and being totally broke when you're old and have no income potential.
Even with a crisis in the market, over the long term, it makes more sense to save than not to save.
+1
Saving less than 10% of your annual income is foolish at best.
Ok, here we go,
I arrived to USA in 2001 with my now ex-wife and 6 mos daughter, $0.00 dollars on my pocket and a bunch of dreams; at the beginning my father-in-law would give me housing, so I wasn’t paying rent, then after getting some fake documents at the flea market I got a job at the family dollar as a stocker making $150.00 a week, it was not easy since I used to work as a network administrator at a bank in Mexico, but things got a little tough, so me and my wife decided to give it shot in USA. Then after working for family dollar for a few months, I found a job as construction helper at a pool plastering company, they don’t give a nut about the fake documents, as long as you work hard and are honest they’ll hire you. So I work doing back breaking construction work, like carrying fresh concrete wheel barrows, concrete sacks, taking wood forms off, pouring nitric acid for finishing; one day when I came back from home, my wife started crying because she saw that I was extremely tired, all dirty and blisters on my feet, but a was making $350.00 a week, twice than Family Dollar, after a while I quit there to take a job as a cashier at Mexican restaurant, making about the same money, but inside the AC and not working as many hours, it was fun, but my dreams were tingling in my head, all the sudden my in-laws decided to move to another city because they were buying a home, so we move with them, and the tension inside the new home grew bigger everyday because the fact that 2 families where living in the same house is not easy, especially when you have little kids and also found me a job as waiter in this city, it was a lot better than being a cashier, and I was making close to $500.00 a week, and now, me and my wife were able to support a home, she also got a job in the same restaurant as a cashier too, I convinced her . So we got a little stagnated in that restaurant we both were making close to $700 week as illegal aliens, and don’t take me wrong, we’re being paying our income tax and property tax like forever, and never receive income credit, assistance or anything like that, we depend solely on our bear hands to bring income. No shortcuts! Because we know that all of that would be decisive factors if one day we have the opportunity to become legals; so, we last about 3 ½ years in the restaurant, but once a again my dreams were shouting in my head, so I decided to start learning electricity, I bought me a series of books from amazon.com called NCCER – Industrial Electrician Series for certification, I remember I paid like 20 bucks for the used books and self assessments, so every night or chance I got, I was for reading and understanding, by the way I forgot to mention that the years in the restaurants, helped me a lot in learning English, boy! English is hard to learn. So my knowledge grew bigger in respect to electricity and I was getting ready. One day something triggered my exit from the restaurant; the manager impose a rule that if you ever arrived late for even 2 minutes you will be sent home, so one day I was late and he sent me home, I respected the rule, but, on a Friday the restaurant was very busy, and 4 waiters were late, and he did not send back home, so he made a meeting pertaining this to explain that nobody was over his authority and he asked me – “Am I right or not” – in front of everybody I got a little upset because he was being unfair with me and I told him that he would create all kind of rules but the rules were not applied evenly in all the employees, so I stand up in front of everybody and left saying “You always fade away with your rules, I’m done here” so I left and started looking for a job as electrician helper on the industries, this is after 9-11, and still was fairly easy to get a job as illegal on the industry, I get the feeling that only Mexicans are allowed to work as illegals, I don’t really know; So, worked for the first company as electrician helper, I started making $650.00 a week, working less hours, and weekends off, after a couple of years I was able to get licensed and certified Industrial Electrician, I was doing good, my employer liked me for my dedication and quality of work, many of us were contributing to the growth of the company, it was a win-win situation, they were making 4 or 3 times more profit hiring illegals, because we were not getting any type of benefit, just shear payroll, obviously, all the tax, Medicaid, fica, and SSN were deducted from our checks. But going against the stereotypes many of this companies are very noble, because the company I was working with they were paying my school, so as I continue on the industry I was making $850.00 a week working 40 hours, weekends off, all other free time I used for school and family enjoyment. Then another extraordinary opportunity, one company I was working with offer me to take a Drafting Design Course for Electrical Systems and I became a electrical drafter, with this new skill I was able to apply for another company as Electrical Drafter, by that time, I was certified instrument technician, Certified Instrument Fitter, Certified Industrial Electrician. I’m not showing off, the more money the companies were able to make in my shoulders the more support I would get from them. Then I got me a job as electrical drafter, making $850.00 a week, same hours, Fridays and weekends off, seating on my ass all day, also got obese! Oh snap! Now that I was working for this engineering firm, they also liked me, they continue supporting my education on Electrical Substation Design, I loved it, then they promoted me to Electrical Designer, and started making $1,200.00 a week, 4 tens, weekends off, 1 hour lunch, social meetings every month, I thought that all of that was insane, it was way too much indulgence in myself, I develop diabetes! My wife fall into consumerism, she was a shopaholic and started cheating on me, oh ****!, then one day everything collapse around me in October 2010, Rick Perry order to stop renewing driving licenses for immigrants, E-Very was implemented, TWIC card was implemented, hate and bigotry against Mexicans, grew exponentially, the economic crisis started to set in, and they laid me off, lost my home, and I have a $60,000 debt that I was paying fine but now I can’t, I got divorced, and my wife kept everything, I just have my underwear and 1 car, no place to live and wondering, living from friends charity, I have $20 dollars in my pocket to be able to travel and see my daughter, I don’t know how I going to recover from this, divorce was devastating. I feel like crap, and can’t even buy medicine for my diabetes. I hope I’ll be able to find another job somewhere or start making tamales or something, I hate menial work now. And at the end of all this I found GOD.
Last edited by tonymynd; 03-23-2010 at 12:58 AM..
Reason: weird characters
Whew! Tony that is quite an epic. And I was going to tell about being so broke as married college students that one week we bought 10 lbs of potatoes and dined all meals for the week on those potatos in every possible form: fries, potato pancakes, baked, mashed, etc.
Rock bottom for me was about 5 months after I graduated from college. The only job I could get, even with my college degree, was as a shuttle driver for a BMW dealership. I did the 40-mile commute for a little while, then fledged the nest. I rented a single bedroom for $700 a month. I was making $8 an hour, 30 hours a week, with a side job which paid $175 a week, and I had a $450 car payment in addition to my rent. Then I lost the shuttle job because of an accident. Shortly afterwards, collections started calling because the company vehicle I was driving wasn't insured and the insurance company turned it over to them after a letter to me got lost in the mail.. so it looked like I was going to be on the hook for $6,000, when I was already quickly running out of cash with which to pay my bills. The clock was ticking faster than I have ever experienced in my life.
I came out of it all smelling like a rose, thank the gods.. it turned out all I had to do about collections was furnish proof that I was personally insured at the time, and my insurance refused to pay them because it was a company vehicle under someone else's name. I got a job about a month later through a temp agency, and I still have that job almost 4 years later. Even though it all turned out for the best, though, it could just as easily have gone to pieces if I hadn't kept my head on straight, and I keep that experience in mind every day.
Forty years ago I was a very poor single mother living in Denver and making minimum wage. My house had no working heat and my car had only one working gear. I was always close to running out of gas on payday. One time I ran out of gas in my driveway the day before payday and had no way to get to work (or get my babies to the sitter) until my employer could mail my paycheck to me. (And, of course, I didnt get paid for the days I missed work.) Then, when the check arrived, I had to walk four miles (each way), with babies and a gas can in tow, to cash it and buy gas. Fortunately, I was so young and naive that I didnt know enough to be depressed about my situation.
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I must be behind the times.
sierraAZ, I completely agree
