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If you budget, you can live on a low income and find clever ways to cut costs. I have done it in the past and held low paying jobs for years. I lived with roommates and drove old cars. It can be done and it is hard. As you make more money, you tend to adjust your spending levels and it is quite easy to spend more as you make more.
I am living on 13,900 dollars a year disability and tax return. I don't know how it can be considered poverty. Everything I want and need is available in quality and I never think of poverty or hard financial times and live worry free all the time. Other people that are on/off work and have other issues face bigger financial problems and have life situation headaches that I never have to face. I eat out at quality all you can eat buffets when I want, I enjoy unlimited theme park admittance, bus passes, name brand grocery products and have traveled a lot too the tropics. It is so easy in Toronto to live on 13, 900 bucks a year.
You are still poor buddy. Sure it is easy in some cities to live on a low income, but yours is definitely a low income, especially if you dont own a home or car.
i used to buy college textbooks, take pics of each page (digital camera) and then return the books in a day or two for a full refund. for food, i ate at my job or went for free food tastings or the cheap stores. i didn't have kids, i just used porn to satisfy myself. i bought veggies and fruits when they were near rotten. never owned a car. walked to most places. only drank tap water (it's very clean here where i live) and maybe one special drink like a gatorade bottle per month. never bought new clothes. most stuff i got was from donations. of course i never ate out.
i didn't pay college tuition. i went for free using grants for poor people.
i now also remember taking KFC hot sauce packets and buying cheap unhealthy white rice i would cook and then mix in the hot sauce and enjoy a good meal. yes i lived with a schizophrenic man so rent was cheap.
You are still poor buddy. Sure it is easy in some cities to live on a low income, but yours is definitely a low income, especially if you dont own a home or car.
what does own a home or car mean? you can't take it with you so how do you own it? sure you can't get kicked out of what you own but you still have monthly bills like maintenance, home owner association fees, and other gimmicks to deal with. no one owns anything in life. it's all a short time we are here for. use what we have and smile while we have our breath. one day we leave it all behind and someone else will "own" it.
what does own a home or car mean? you can't take it with you so how do you own it? sure you can't get kicked out of what you own but you still have monthly bills like maintenance, home owner association fees, and other gimmicks to deal with. no one owns anything in life. it's all a short time we are here for. use what we have and smile while we have our breath. one day we leave it all behind and someone else will "own" it.
True. And besides, it really is a matter of what you value. Just because I don't have my own house and car does not mean I still want it. I actually enjoy the worry free stuff because I pay my monthly metropass and rent and live free of worries and stress. I don't want a car and for everyone to have a car is not exactly a good thing. These days in Toronto if you have your own place you likely will be stuck in a tall building like a condo or apartment and frankly I hate living in buildings! Not to mention all the stresses that come with maintaining ownership of things like vehicles and houses an seemingly endless bills/expenses. so simple renting in a house is doing well for me and I really like it in this setting. Condo life would make me feel like being a termite living in a giant termites nest.
remember that when you own property, there are taxes as well as maintenance costs like stuff breaking down. if a hurricane comes your way, NOT YOUR PROBLEM if you are renting. just take a few belongings and bolt and laugh at the landlord. if your neighborhood becomes detroit, like a ghetto with gangbangers and drug deals going down, your home just lost value. you cannot sell when you like. timing the market to sell at the right time can take a decade of a cycle.
best way to spend time is doing a hobby you enjoy or with people you like (if you like people unlike the unabomber who lived in a mountain). don't get too attached to stuff. it will all go sooner or later.
oh, and you also have no guarantee you will live to age 65 or whatever golden age nonsense media sells you. no one is guaranteed tomorrow. don't plan or worry too far ahead. life can change in a few seconds for anyone from getting cancer to winning the lotto like pedro from new jersey and his $285 million windfall to getting hit by a car or getting HIV from your husband who sleeps with men on the down low. anything can go wrong or right. smile and laugh at the hilarity of it all : )
and yes, this is how low income people survive. they don't worry too much. they live in the moment. consciousness is a curse beyond a point.
Likewise. My partner and I both earn fairly low wages, but with the combined incomes we are more than comfortable. Live in a small town, rent a house for $450, walk to work, make most of my food from scratch, buy almost everything used (thrift stores, yard sales, craigslist - you can find some MAJOR bargains if you get lucky), no car payment (bought a beater for $1,000 that keeps going and going with little repairs here and there). Transportation is the killer for many people - remember a car is nothing more than a tool to get you from here to there, it's not an ego trip. Previously (in a big city) I used public transportation, but I don't need it where I live now (smaller town).
Have a vegetable garden that supplies a fair amount of fresh produce - costs practically nothing except water. Otherwise I buy at farmer's markets and swap meets, and I buy dry goods like rice & beans in bulk. They last for months.
You can call me "low income", but I'm not poor. My bills are always paid early and I always have a kitchen full of food. My non-essentials include having cable internet and drinking craft beer several times a week.
It depends what type of lifestyle you want to live and where. I gave up big city life with a big paycheck because I was miserable. Now I'm "low income", but my quality of life is ideal. For me.
Are you able to grow anything substantial though? What do you grow?
Being unemployed and getting rid of the Internet would be like getting rid of your car. Pretty much makes your situation go from bad to impossible. No way in hell you're finding a job these days without Internet.
Good luck using your rotary phone and the yellow pages SMH.
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