re: What''s the poorest you've been?

Not much when we first wedded 39 years ago. 3 children and 9 grandchildren later, one car note. A lot of debt over the years - life can be expensive - like our position, now.

Just think what the long version is like?

Probably sophomore year of college. I had a job, it was in a town 20 minutes away. My parents didn’t have any money to lend me, i barely had enough to pay rent & some days even eat. I remember sometimes not even going to class because i didn’t have any money to put gas in my car. I would go t McDonalds with a few bucks & buy the $1 burgers. I would eat them throughout the day & those were my meals.

One time i needed money to put gas in my car to go to work. I had about $5 in my account. I overdrafted on purpose & took out $60-$80 to put gas in my car & be able to get food. Definitely had an mpact on my life. That was 7 years ago. Proud to have a great job after I graduated & live in some cool cities now.

Coming out of college I managed to overdraft my account on top of all the debt I had. I was a huge idiot

quote:

---

Homeless a few years ago.

Cops picked me up for walking the streets with a fifth of vodka.

---

I've been close, but somehow found a place to crash for a while. I always found a way to buy my booze though

As an adult? Pretty well off and never poor. "Poorest" was in college and med school, but I had shite loads of scholarships and went to a state college. Started working at age 12, saved, and invested so we lived OK.

My parents were poor. Welfare and food stamps poor. They had me when they were 16. My mom's family was dirt poor. Single mom with 7 kids. My dad's parents were lower middle class that rose from upper lower class (did retire well off, but my grandparents were only 36 when I was born).

Hand me down clothes and Wal Mart garb but my grandparents were making enough by junior high I could get Levi's. I was a free lunch kid. Got made fun of because we had a separate line. Hated it and hated my parents, but in hindsight it made me tough, gave me a chip on my shoulder. Figured out money didn't make you smart, witty or athletic. Developed an almost pathological competitive nature that has served me well in life and business. Not so much in my ability to enjoy my gains. That comes from being poor and realizing that the shite I enjoy the most isn't very expensive. I no longer have a fear of losing my money or status because, although I enjoy the shite out of having money, I know the other end of the spectrum isn't so bad. I won't be the one to off himself if I lost all my shite. My family and friends? Maybe. Money and bullshite material items? No way.


I think everyone needs to be poor for awhile.

For 3 months, I had to go to a check cashing place. That felt bad. Now zero debt with enough in my checking account to not work for 2 years.

Living on a reservation in Oklahoma as a small child. I remember picking poke salad on the side of the road (we walked there). I remember lots of snakes amongst the grass ready to strike so my grandfather kept them away with his walking stick as we picked it. Dinner was greens with a boiled egg (the chickens were too valuable to kill). I got worms from being barefoot near chicken shite and the remedy was crushed egg shells coated on butter and brown sugar. The worms ate the shells which killed them and I shite them out. My "treat" for the week was cinnamon toast on Sunday morning. In short...pretty fricking poor.

As a teen, my dad fell on hard times and had to start driving an old grain truck with no a/c. He worked like a dog to keep us in our home and in private school. We had to cut everything else. Barely got our bills paid and had a lot of nights eating the cheapest hot dogs on the cheapest light bread. He worked out of it, times got better, he was able to start back farming and put us through college without us having to take out loans. Pretty remarkable how he did it and I never appreciated it at the time.

As an adult, I’ve never been poor because if it gets bad enough, I’ll start selling guns and stuff to provide, but I have had a couple oh shite we’re broke moments. The biggest was when my fiancé and I bought our first house and pretty much wiped out savings to get it bought and furnished.

During this, she was in the process of changing jobs so I was having to help her out. It all got to a point where we were paycheck to paycheck. Then, I had a major wreck, broken leg, bunch of staples in my head, surgery, etc. I was out of work for 2 months. Luckily it was a workers comp claim and that was enough money to get us by, but there’s paperwork involved in all of that so it drug out a few days. Basically, I was like 2 days away from missing my mortgage and a couple bills when the workers comp checks finally got there.

quote:

---

during college. I was working at JCPenny and paying for my own school at Auburn. I knew how long places took for a check to my bank so i could write a check to subway to eat and knew it wouldn't hit my bank until after I got paid.

---

I worked this this girl who drove a BMW, wore top brand clothes, rarely wore the same thing twice. One day told us that she had a $400 pair of jeans on. Talked about how she bought this and that for her townhouse.

One day it was just her and I talking and she was telling me how she could only make a payment on one of her credit cards and that she had to write a check the evening before because she had no money in her checking account and was hoping her check got deposited in enough time so she wouldn't have an NSF.

Oh and her dad leased the BMW for her so she didn't even have a car note.