This year has been an interesting year for me. I had to pick between living in my car and having a nice positive cash flow, or living in my home alone and barely making ends meet. And then you have the prospect of knowing that any single thing that comes up to cause a financial impact of any size, and your thin margin is gone.
I sometimes think the chicken coop option is the best choice, if you can tap the local YMCA or something, to keep yourself clean and presentable.
Some folks get locked into a bare subsistence, and have a very hard time making something extra to apply toward a better life. If they could see their way clear to downsize for a period of time, it would probably be better.
I don't think folks who haven't had to ponder these issues fully understand the plight of the person who lives in a bad area. And as for moving out of that bad area, with housing rates what they are there, they can't move to a better area if they are barely making it as it is.
This isn't a trashing of our system here in the U. S. I do think it's a plight some people face, and the dynamics they face are foreign to those who haven't had to face it.
DoughtyOne said:
"I do think it's a plight some people face, and the dynamics they face are foreign to those who haven't had to face it." I grew up in challenging circumstances. To this day I don't feel comfortable without having cash on me and the farther I go from home, the more cash I need on me to feel secure.
Progressives have effectively outlawed true poverty. Our nation went through a half-century or so in which wages and standards of living were almost universally increasing.
The new "poor" includes cell phones, ipads, cars, and air conditioners. The government subsidizes poverty and makes it costly to make the sacrifices that would enable one to better themselves.
One motivator of doing the right things is the fear of the chicken coop. Who has that fear today?
The other barrier to self-improvement are those who perpetuate the idea that "acting white" is somehow a sacrifice of self, rather than a recognition that education and hard work are the keys to personal progress.
From David Copperfield: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.”
Living within your means is not just a good idea, it's the law (of personal economics).