You have to be rich to be poor

[Inkstain82]

Example: Until I had gotten out of college and into financial trouble, necessitating my searching for sites like this, I had never heard of the concept of an "emergency fund."

[wincrasher]

People make lots of crazy choices. Go $100k in debt for private college knowing you'll only make $30k a year (when a state college would get you the same job for much less). Not move out of state for a job because leaving all your friends and family behind is unthinkable. Smoking cigarettes even thought the package says it will kill you. Most of us make our own bed and have to lie in it. Others don't even get a bed to start with.

[rob62521]

I work in an inner city school and see children living in poverty. Many of the parents were in special education as children and their children are also in special education. In my city, there are few jobs available for people with limited skills. Most of our factories have shuttered or moved out. So, in some ways there are few choices for many of these folks.

I also can say I know "educated" people who should know better make poor financial decisions and then mew about not having any money although they have had the salaries many dream about.

[irmanator]

Most of the time, people are poor because they don't know how to make good choices. Being good with money is an acquired skill, and if your parents are poor, their parents are poor, your friends are poor and your neighbors are poor, who is going to teach you?[/QUOTE]


This is so very true, took me a long time to realize until i found some books and ppl and this website to teach me otherwise. My mom was poor all her life, still is. No one told her how to do anything about it, finance wise. She had no one in her poor farming family and neither did I. I found out things thru curiosity and am still learning.

[wnlbutterfly]

I came from a poor family, dirt poor. Never felt poor (at least not growing up). Was poor for quite a few years in my young adult life (married going through college with kids....not a good idea, but we made it).

Why do they get trapped? I would say you live what you know. It can be hard to break out of the cycle.

In the article they discussed working poor at the end, a woman making $15 an hour, but having problems because rent is so high, saying a 2-bedroom apt would be $1,400. She needs to MOVE to a lower-cost of living. She is a nurse and she could literally move anywhere in the states and get a good job, and be buying a house for less than that rent payment. But I assume if you mentioned that, she would say she had friends and family there and moving that far away wouldn't cross her mind.

I have family that live in So. CA, the cost of living is extremely high, they all live together (many different family units together) to pool their money to make the rent. All they see when they think about moving here is how low the wages are, but forgetting that the cost of living is also low.