It's been said that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. I know it isn't the literal definition... It's just a saying.
I have enough money to get by, but by definition I am working poor. Saving is difficult for me, not because I have trouble with saving, but because the money isn't there to save,
I am working poor too. Saving is difficult for me too. But if you don't do it, you won't do it. You can, and you just proved to me that you can by writing the following
so instead I buy small luxuries because I can afford hem and they take the place of a large luxury.
So you DO have trouble with saving because you don't force yourself to do it. You rack disciprine. Stop buying small luxuries. Because, no, you can NOT afford them.
The money is obviously there to save, even though it might be small in stature. Look, I save $5 per week into a Christmas savings account. When I first started doing it I would sometimes dip into it when the need arose throughout the year (be it a birthday or a bill or whatnot) and when Christmas would come I was not much better off than not having the account at all. I forced myself to stop doing that and now I have $250 for Christmas every October (when the credit union cashes them out and starts anew). About ten years ago a former friend of mine told me to start saving whatever I could, even if it was only $5 a week. I did and it was a piece of advice I will never forget because, after disciplining myself, I finally realize that $5 weekly has powerful buying power once built up over the course of a year. Ever go to Starbucks? Stop. Smoke cigarettes? Stop. Go out drinking with friends or ever just randomly buy a six pack? Stop. Buy fast food for lunch? Stop. Pay for cable or Netflix? Stop the cable, but keep the Netflix. That shit is the bomb. But for real, save that money instead. Even if you cut out one of those unnecessary things, it can add up over a year's time.
Not everyone just qualifies for food stamps the way people who have never had to think about it as an option seem to believe.
Trust me, I am well aware of what actually needing help but being labeled too well off to receive it feels like. You feel confused and dejected because you don't really know how much money you actually have because you would rather buy small luxuries than be thrifty and save your money or budget it to put needs in front of wants.
Life isn't as easy for poor people as other people seem to think.
And it isn't as hard for poor people in the US to get out of that impoverished state as so many poor people tend to think. I know, because I just did it.
Yes, most poor people don't qualify for for welfare that they should need.
I don't know that they should. I used to think I should, but not much has changed for me since those days of thinking that way, well, other than my thinking and my discipline and educating myself on personal finance.
I honestly think the federal government would better serve this country if instead of handing out food stamps willy nilly it'd develop programs to help educate the poor about poverty and how to deal with getting out of it. As it is, the system is designed to keep poor people impoverished by, as Benjamin Franklin so wisely argued in opposition to, keeping them comfortable in their impoverished state.
Have you ever fed a family of five on a loaf of bread for a week?
No, but I was a child that often didn't have the luxury of daily meals and had no reason or ability to feed my family of 8.
Or gone without heat through the winter because the furnace was broken and you couldn't afford to fix it?
Yes, but I was a child and literally had no way of changing the situation or I would have.
Worn shoes with holes in them for months on end?
Of course I have. I was raised in abject poverty the likes of which most Americans can not possibly fathom.
These are all things I've lived with in my life. These aren't even bad situations.
Yes, they are bad. Especially for children. They're not as bad as having your mother put a gun in your 13 year old face. They're not as bad as 13 year old you biting that gun and trying to pull the trigger with your thumb only to fail because you weren't aware that there was something called a safety. And they're not as bad as being raised by a mostly deaf mother that only has half a working brain and the emotional capacity of a teenaged girl because a drunk driver almost killed you both when he sideswiped her when she was pregnant with you... But enough about me. I know how hard life can be. If you think it's hard, name it. I've probably lived it. I grew up in the ghetto, in the trailerhood, in the system, and on the streets. I raised myself up out of that to be the man I am today with very little help from anyone. And that's why I am so willing to help anybody that is willing to accept it. There were only about 5 people in my life that had a positive impact which kept me from ending up dead from either suicide, drug overdose, or prison.
Fuck man, I really didn't want to be thinking about my past right now, especially around this time of year. I've got way too much to look forward to in the future for the self loathing I feel coming on. I'm out.