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You learn to ignore it, push it towards the back of your mind. The worst thing is how it makes you feel helpless, like you have no control over your life. That makes you depressed and when you're depressed, you just don't care anymore and quit trying. For most people living hand to mouth, tomorrow is not even thought of. Survival is day to day and the focus is on surviving the current day. Tomorrow is "Meh, maybe the bomb will fall. Who cares? I'm too tired and too depressed to worry about tomorrow. If I've survived today, I consider that enough. Tomorrow will take care of itself."
Realistically, getting a plan together for tomorrow usually involves money. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, there is no money. So why get your hopes up hoping for a change you can't afford anyway?
Seriously, within a few weeks, you can go from living in a rat infested dilapidated apartment with 3 roommates to living under a bridge if you are fired and don't get unemployment. If you have no savings and live paycheck to paycheck, that is what will happen. I'd be a nervous wreck with that in the back of my mind.
When I lived in that state, I WAS a nervous wreck. I wasn't there exactly by choice. It is a place that can be next to impossible to get out of once you are stuck there. Sometimes you don't know what you can endure until you have no choice.
Seriously, within a few weeks, you can go from living in a rat infested dilapidated apartment with 3 roommates to living under a bridge if you are fired and don't get unemployment. If you have no savings and live paycheck to paycheck, that is what will happen. I'd be a nervous wreck with that in the back of my mind.
If they don't have a support system, they don't sleep well. It's hilarious that whenever someone talks about increasing minimum wage, you won't have to look very far to find some right wing Republican saying, "You shouldn't pay them so much!" But when there's an apartment on the market that's going for $15,000.00 a month, that same right winger will be screaming out, "God bless America and 'her' free economy!" America was bred on inequality and taking advantage of others in the most perverse of ways, so this shouldn't surprise anyone.
I thought I was the only one who felt this way. Often times the unemployed hear things like "Well, a 7$/hour job is better than starving." And at the end of the day there's so much more that goes into it. Like one's mental health, the fact that they'll still be looking and interviewing which drains energy, the fact that now they may not even be able to afford more food/gas for their busier lifestyle, etc.
Again, this is why having one's mental health is essential and something to keep striving towards and to wake up for - and get a good night's rest for!
You thought you were the only one because that attitude is so incredibly pervasive in our society these days it is just pathetic. People are afraid of being politically incorrect if they say this. It's trendy to be a slave to a job, any job. Also pathetic.
Seriously, within a few weeks, you can go from living in a rat infested dilapidated apartment with 3 roommates to living under a bridge if you are fired and don't get unemployment. If you have no savings and live paycheck to paycheck, that is what will happen. I'd be a nervous wreck with that in the back of my mind.
It is very hard to sleep when you are in that situation. Eventually you get a good night's sleep because you have been awake too many nights in a row.
I used to live paycheck to paycheck and while it wasn't good, it wasn't as bad as people make it seem. I wasn't minimum wage, but I wasn't that much over it either. The worst times for me personally was the 1 time when something delayed my check from getting here when it was supposed to and then 1 time when the company shorted me on a check. Obviously, if living that lifestyle, you need every dollar that's owed to you when you expect it.
Now, my bank accounts still don't look great, but they are a great deal better than they used to be.
Living paycheck to paycheck definitely taught me some things that I probably wouldn't know if I hadn't been in that situation. It taught me things like:
1) Buying just what I need instead of what I want-Sure I can still be myself something nice once in awhile, but that should be a once in awhile occasion. When it does come up for me to buy something nice for myself, I don't automatically buy the best one I can afford, but look at it as a long term investment instead. If I'm buying a new TV for instance, it does me no good to buy a $300 TV if it's going to go out in a year and I have to buy another one. At the same time, it does no good to buy a $800 TV with a whole bunch of features if you don't plan to use those features. For instance, if you're one of the few people that don't have the internet in your home, it probably wouldn't be a good idea for you to buy a smart TV unless you're going to get the internet also.
2) Developing a budget and sticking to it-Lots of people budget, but it's a lot easier to do so when you have that emergency money in the bank. Somebody that doesn't have that can be really hurt financially if they have to miss a day of work because of car trouble. Now, they may be short a day on their next check, but they also have to spend money that they don't have to get their car repaired.
3)Budgeting my bank of PTO at work-I've never been the type to burn through my time real quick, but I would at times take a day off when I didn't have any real reason to do so other than not wanting to be there. Now, I think twice about taking a day off to play a round of golf for example because what if I need that day later on to cover an illness or car trouble.
When I was young and dumb and more conservative than I am now. I wholeheartedly believed that and tried to live it.
Then after slaving away at below minimum wage with not assurance I was even going to get paid at all I realized why they invented unemployment. I would make more now on unemployment a week than most minimum wage jobs, plus I'm not spending the time and gas. Lets me focus on getting a good paying job than a poor paying job.
If it's there, use it. If it doesn't make dollars it doesn't make cents. The numbers don't lie.
When I was young and dumb and more conservative than I am now. I wholeheartedly believed that and tried to live it.
Then after slaving away at below minimum wage with not assurance I was even going to get paid at all I realized why they invented unemployment. I would make more now on unemployment a week than most minimum wage jobs, plus I'm not spending the time and gas. Lets me focus on getting a good paying job than a poor paying job.
If it's there, use it. If it doesn't make dollars it doesn't make cents. The numbers don't lie.
There is a problem with this philosophy, but it also depends on where you live on if it's a problem or not.
Here in Indiana, when you sign up for unemployment, you have 4 weeks to sign up for the state job board also. It's called work connection or something like that I believe. If you fail to sign up, you lose unemployment. If you do sign up and they send you for an interview and you don't show up or just turn down the job, you lose your unemployment. It doesn't matter if you used to make $30 an hour and they send you to an interview for a $10 an hour job. That's the way it is here in Indiana. Obviously the law can be different where you live.
Seriously, within a few weeks, you can go from living in a rat infested dilapidated apartment with 3 roommates to living under a bridge if you are fired and don't get unemployment. If you have no savings and live paycheck to paycheck, that is what will happen. I'd be a nervous wreck with that in the back of my mind.
When I was young and starting out after HS, and for most of adult life, I ALWAYS worked more than one job, even when above minimum wage, so I'd sleep well at night knowing I had at least one job, and some money in the bank to do the things I'd LIKE to do, and to prepare for my future.
For various reasons I won't go into here, I have had to completely start over 3 times in my life. Each time the same,...more than one job to get my feet on the ground, and to have the comfort of the "extras" and "security". I was always a "go-getter". In fact there was never a time I was without more than one job. I even worked two full time jobs while attending college.
I DO find it a bit disturbing that some minimum wage people think the world "owes them a living", that they should "only be working one job" and it "should pay them to live well" on minimum wage. I DO think minimum wage is set relatively low compared to some college or state/fed jobs, but It IS a starting place or a place to stay if need be for some, but then findthe extra job to have those extras!
They need to learn how to budget, how to do the dreaded "live within their means' {and not their wants}, How to work to get what they want, and how to upgrade themselves through education or hard work to get that promotion and actually move up.
I have travelled, I have money in the bank, though starting over means "not a huge amount" but it is there. I have "picked and chosen" "things I'd like to have/do" and worked hard to have the money to do them/do so!
I have no regrets and have hope for the future. Perhaps if others did the same, they'd be in that position too.
I Don't know how they do it , or exaclty what they expect, but if they were go-getters, they would certainly NOT be in the position described in the OP's post above!
MY two cents worth.
Last edited by galaxyhi; 03-04-2015 at 09:25 PM..
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