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I ask this because I came across a post on a different forum and the comments got heated. Some of the people were so stuck up and not understanding or sympathetic at all. It made me wonder if they used to be poor too and now they aren't so they kind of have a disdain towards those who haven't gotten ahead like they have.
I grew up poor. I was homeless for the majority of my childhood and then when I was teenager was placed into foster care, which didn't really help. Now I'm in college but for a year, I worked two jobs and had nowhere to live so I slept on the all nighter bus (the route took a few hours), took showers at my gym, went to school then job #1 and then job #2. Eventually I saved up enough to get my own place and I'm still struggling kind of. I eat mostly salads and pb&j and occasionally ramen. I clip coupons, take public transportation and my apartment is furnished by secondhand furniture that the local st. vincent de paul donated to me. I am no longer homeless but I still consider myself poor so it saddens me to think people look down on people like me (and those who are worse off) because of my income and lack of assets.
So I ask: Have you ever been poor? How poor and if you aren't anymore, how did you move up?
It's really hard to define poor. Even if we feel that we are "really" poor, there are still people "poorer" than we are...
After reading your story, you seem to be pretty poor when you were child and adolescent, living in a highly developed country.
However looks like you are on the road to a better life, and I wish you the very best
It is very sad that there are people that look down on poor people. They tend to forget that they too, in a blink of the eye could become poor, homeless or jobless...
Yeah. I grew up poor. Then, as an unwanted stepchild, I was dumped when I was 17. I never went home again after that.
Now I'm 67. I'm fairly wealthy. We own 3 homes, cash, stocks, and we're retired. I can buy pretty much whatever I want, but I don't want much. We just spent a week in Bermuda.
How did I get from A to B? I stumbled across a book called "Psycho-cybernetics". I read that book until I wore the cover off! Then I found "Think and Grow Rich" and I read that, too. I've still got my original copy out in my office; I looked at it a few weeks ago to see when I had signed it and dated it. It was 1970.
I had trouble speaking to people - especially stranger - so I stayed up and watched Johnny Carson (remember him?) to learn how to keep a conversation going. I read everything I could find about salesmanship and personal motivation and sales psychology.
By 1987 I was the top salesman at a major company. There are articles in newspapers of that time about me. The rest is just a matter of correcting mistakes as I made them, and trying to learn from the mistakes of others.
Read. Learn about goal setting and study those people who lecture on such things. Form a hero (Mine was Ross Perot, back in 1970 before most people ever heard of him) and learn all you can about him. Then copy him. Ask yourself, "What would _____ do in this situation?"
My parents certainly where as was my wife's. The funny thing tho is they said they did not know it because everyone else around them was poor in the depression. My father quit school in 8th grade to go to work to support his mother and eight younger children. Never been poor but I think that going thru Vietnam I came to the conclusion that the rest of life was going to be a piece of cake. That always come to mind when I think something is tough in life. Not knowing you; I can't tell you how to move on with your life or even what you would think success is. Good luck
I ask this because I came across a post on a different forum and the comments got heated. Some of the people were so stuck up and not understanding or sympathetic at all. It made me wonder if they used to be poor too and now they aren't so they kind of have a disdain towards those who haven't gotten ahead like they have.
I grew up poor. I was homeless for the majority of my childhood and then when I was teenager was placed into foster care, which didn't really help. Now I'm in college but for a year, I worked two jobs and had nowhere to live so I slept on the all nighter bus (the route took a few hours), took showers at my gym, went to school then job #1 and then job #2. Eventually I saved up enough to get my own place and I'm still struggling kind of. I eat mostly salads and pb&j and occasionally ramen. I clip coupons, take public transportation and my apartment is furnished by secondhand furniture that the local st. vincent de paul donated to me. I am no longer homeless but I still consider myself poor so it saddens me to think people look down on people like me (and those who are worse off) because of my income and lack of assets.
So I ask: Have you ever been poor? How poor and if you aren't anymore, how did you move up?
Grew up that way but didn't know it at the time. Unless one lives it they cannot comprehend it.
It's really hard to define poor. Even if we feel that we are "really" poor, there are still people "poorer" than we are...
After reading your story, you seem to be pretty poor when you were child and adolescent, living in a highly developed country.
However looks like you are on the road to a better life, and I wish you the very best
It is very sad that there are people that look down on poor people. They tend to forget that they too, in a blink of the eye could become poor, homeless or jobless...
Thank you I currently work as a bank teller and customers are always making jokes/remarks about their money and saying things that make me cringe. One guy got upset that I couldn't cash a $4k check because it was stale dated and he asked me how much money I make and said he felt sorry for me and he hopes I'm in school because my job sucks, I must be new...blah blah blah. I also see a lot of people come in to withdraw money from these cards that their unemployment money comes on and they are so embarrassed sometimes. It's upsetting.
Yeah. I grew up poor. Then, as an unwanted stepchild, I was dumped when I was 17. I never went home again after that.
Now I'm 67. I'm fairly wealthy. We own 3 homes, cash, stocks, and we're retired. I can buy pretty much whatever I want, but I don't want much. We just spent a week in Bermuda.
How did I get from A to B? I stumbled across a book called "Psycho-cybernetics". I read that book until I wore the cover off! Then I found "Think and Grow Rich" and I read that, too. I've still got my original copy out in my office; I looked at it a few weeks ago to see when I had signed it and dated it. It was 1970.
I had trouble speaking to people - especially stranger - so I stayed up and watched Johnny Carson (remember him?) to learn how to keep a conversation going. I read everything I could find about salesmanship and personal motivation and sales psychology.
By 1987 I was the top salesman at a major company. There are articles in newspapers of that time about me. The rest is just a matter of correcting mistakes as I made them, and trying to learn from the mistakes of others.
Read. Learn about goal setting and study those people who lecture on such things. Form a hero (Mine was Ross Perot, back in 1970 before most people ever heard of him) and learn all you can about him. Then copy him. Ask yourself, "What would _____ do in this situation?"
And never give up.
Thank you for the advice, I will look up those books this week
My parents certainly where as was my wife's. The funny thing tho is they said they did not know it because everyone else around them was poor in the depression. My father quit school in 8th grade to go to work to support his mother and eight younger children. Never been poor but I think that going thru Vietnam I came to the conclusion that the rest of life was going to be a piece of cake. That always come to mind when I think something is tough in life. Not knowing you; I can't tell you how to move on with your life or even what you would think success is. Good luck
I can see this. When I was young I thought it was normal because I knew so many other people who were in similar situations.
When we were kids my father died. There was enough money to sustain us for a little over a year then we ran out. On a cold moon lit winter night my brother and I would drag a toboggan down the road to the wood pile..>We had to heat a 9 bedroom house with a huge roaring fire place..we could not afford to run the furnace..I remember us living off a 50 pound sack of potatoes for a month..My mother would melt down beef fat and make these very tasty French fries..
We got very poor for a couple of years..but we did not know we were poor..we had a lot of fun and it was normal...all it took was a little more effort to get buy. It would bother me years later when my wife would complain about not having enough spending money..and she would tell my children that they were poor...We were RICH...in comparison to what I had endured...
Funny..there were times when my sister and mother would go out in the Mercedes to buy mink coats...and there were times when there was no food...I have seen both ends..rich and poor.
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I currently work as a bank teller and customers are always making jokes/remarks about their money and saying things that make me cringe. One guy got upset that I couldn't cash a $4k check because it was stale dated and he asked me how much money I make and said he felt sorry for me and he hopes I'm in school because my job sucks, I must be new...blah blah blah. I also see a lot of people come in to withdraw money from these cards that their unemployment money comes on and they are so embarrassed sometimes. It's upsetting.
