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like anything else in life , without the desire to succeed nothing will change .
heck i loved my goodies and was big on junk food . but 2 years ago when i became diabetic it scared me so much i lost 40lbs , run 4 miles every other day , weight lift and are not on a single medication .
it takes triggers in life to make someone respond .
you can't save your way out as well as you can think your way out if you are truly committed
i realize that minimum wage jobs aren't really meant for people to make a permanent living, buy a house, buy a car, raise a family, etc.
if it was, we'd have massive inflation and we'd end up in roughly the same place anyway.
but i will say that within reason it doesn't matter how much you make as long as you work in a free market and live within your means.
i've seen illegal immigrants in southern california come in from other countries live in 2 bedroom apartments in the inner city alongside 20 people all with bed mattresses, blankets, and sleeping bags all over the house each chipping in to pay $50/month for rent and saving the rest of it to take home to their families. after 3 months, they have $3k in cash to take home. meanwhile, most americans have never saved up $3k.
One of the biggest myths in our society is that the reason poor people are poor is because they spend their money on drugs, Clothes, technology. That if they just pocketed that 120 dollars on an Xbox they wouldn't be living in trailer parks/project lol.
News flash, you are never saving anything of significance on 9 dollars an hour, I don't care how "conservative" you are with money. For the record when I say significant I mean that will change your economic reality in a big way long term.
For the record, I don't want to turn this into a MW raising debate because it's not about that.
I'm not sure that most people believe that the reason poor people remain poor is because they spend money foolishly.
Sure $120 won't get you out of poverty, but chunks of $120 over time ..can grow to a significant amount of money.
Since I was younger, I always enjoyed reading biographies or stories of how people that started poor or with little got rich.
They pretty much all started with small businesses and then leveraged them into bigger businesses making big money.
People mentioned the importance of seeing opportunity. That is key really. Where some see problems , others see opportunity to make money.
$120 could buy you $120 electronic device or some new trendy sneakers...but $120 could also buy some products at a wholesale price that you could sell for more.
Today the internet has opened up a lot of opportunities for people.
I've heard stories of people started quite small , even using a credit card to buy products and now selling millions.
Of course it's easier said than done.
There are more free online tutorials and courses now than ever before.
People really have no excuse not to learn new skills with free libraries,etc .
People don't realize that time is their most valuable asset. We all have 24 hours in a day....millionaires or billionaires have the same amount of time in the day as the poor. The question is what is done with that time.
Trading time for money , especially at a low wage and then having all that money go to expenses keeps people poor.
Welfare is not a good long term solution either. The whole give a man a fish vs teach a man to fish.
Of course there are some that have an interest in keeping people poor. Huge numbers of people would probably lose their jobs if there weren't poor people. Payday lenders are just one example of many.
I'm for helping people that need help or are hungry...but we really need to do something to teach people how to fish.
A huge issue I think is that kids are basically trained to be employees from the time they are young.
"Do good in school, so you can go to college and then get that good job" .
Unfortunately the average American ,even with a good job seems "Just Over Broke"...although again the middle class also can fall victim to consumerism just like the poor and trading time for money.
It's just much much easier to spend money rather than save/invest it.
I recently listened to an interview with Jim Cramer on a podcast . He said that he tries to cut his expenses every month. Which sounds crazy because he likely makes millions a year.
He also is still involved in different businesses , even though he must make a lot of money with his dayjob.
One thing that really struck me was that he mentioned there was a period where he was actually living in his car.
I have to believe that mindset and seeing opportunity , combined with taking action played a huge role in getting him out of living in his car to where he is today.
I wasn't really a big Cramer fan, but I thought it was a good interview.
Most of the poor in the U.S have computers and smartphones and can listen to these things too or if they dont they can listen at a library...but I wonder how many are.
cramer might have been living in his car when he moved to LA for a newspaper job but you could not say he was poor or remain at that stage of his life for long. he was a graduate of Harvard and I believe he just took the long route to become successful. with a degree in Harvard, he could have landed a wall street job after graduation if he really wanted to..which he did after realizing that you could not become rich by becoming a reporter
You know, with just a small buffer (couple hundred bucks) one can avoid overdraft fees, payday lenders, pawn shops, etc. Is that a solution to poverty in and of itself? No. Does it help one avoid financial traps? Absolutely.
i realize that minimum wage jobs aren't really meant for people to make a permanent living, buy a house, buy a car, raise a family, etc.
if it was, we'd have massive inflation and we'd end up in roughly the same place anyway.
but i will say that within reason it doesn't matter how much you make as long as you work in a free market and live within your means.
i've seen illegal immigrants in southern california come in from other countries live in 2 bedroom apartments in the inner city alongside 20 people all with bed mattresses, blankets, and sleeping bags all over the house each chipping in to pay $50/month for rent and saving the rest of it to take home to their families. after 3 months, they have $3k in cash to take home. meanwhile, most americans have never saved up $3k.
Why not buy a house? A childless adult doesn't need more than 400 sq ft of living space and many could afford that house with 2,500 sq ft of land.
My daughter's husband works full time for about $10 per hour, and she works from home part time for about $9 an hour. They have a couple of toddlers. Together they make about $2400 per month. He used to make in the mid to high $40's until he lost that job.
They have $43,000 in debt. When her hubby was making in the mid to high $40's, the terrible financial decisions they were making were hidden, because he could meet the monthlies. Once he lost his job, and took a lower employment level, the debt became crushing, and the bad decisions to charge everything they wanted on a CC, finance the car they couldn't afford over 72 months, etc. became not only obvious, but a huge impediment to being able to afford the most basic of housing, food and clothing.
They can't make it on $2400 per month because of previous bad decisions about debt and misuse of finance. Without the debt, my daughter would be doing fine - they live in an area where $700 rents a nice two bedroom apartment, and you can find decent ones for around $600. They can get by on $400-$500 a month for food. Per her budget, she could be saving $100 a month at their current income level without the debt - not going to make you rich, but living within your means, means you can live.
I also have a son who is an engineer and married to a doctor. They are making worse decision with regards to debt and finances than my daughter, but the income level is so high, and the likely hood of loosing the income stream so remote, that the bad decisions may or may not catch up with them, and not catch up with them is the most likely scenario.
In both cases there is a decision making process problem that needs to be addressed more than there is an income problem, but when incomes are low, or drop significantly (like my daughter's situation), then the bad financial decisions can have devastating consequences that would otherwise be reflected in a frustratingly tight budget for the level of income one generates.
cramer might have been living in his car when he moved to LA for a newspaper job but you could not say he was poor or remain at that stage of his life for long. he was a graduate of Harvard and I believe he just took the long route to become successful. with a degree in Harvard, he could have landed a wall street job after graduation if he really wanted to..which he did after realizing that you could not become rich by becoming a reporter
Elon Musk and his brother said he could survive on $30 a month eating ramen noodle, he slept a his office and took a shower at YMCA. Some people could do it, then know it's not a long term.
Why not a 1 br condo? There are places where the mortgage on a 1 br condo is less than the rent on a 1 br apartment, including HOA fees.
There are financing rules which make condos unfinancable in developments which are majority renter-occupied, This means that many low-end condos require all cash to either buy or sell, which keeps financially marginal people like me from buying and puts condo owners at risk of losing all their equity in a distress sale.
Apparently Fannie Mae is rolling out some 'improvement' in the condo financing rules which will make condos more liquid, but I have not yet seen any specifics.
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