‘Poor people don’t plan long-term. We’ll just get our hearts broken’

The Manchester Guardian ^ | September 20, 2014 | Linda Tirado

[Paul R.]

I could teach her to make a six-figure income within 1-3 years. Many others here could too.

Eh, how about you start a thread here on that subject?

Don't get me wrong, I've always understood that not having a crummy life depends very much on attitude and making good choices. I've done the best of my siblings, and I think one can look at our choices and attitudes to explain much of that.

And yet...

I had a good upbringing, very good education, have a good work ethic (the hardest working "m-f'er" I've ever met, someone once said about me), ambition (started my own company), pretty good financial sense (good about saving, consider risks carefully, not prone to large "impulse" purchases, etc.) And etc. :-) My biggest vices are a few hours of fishing every week or 2 (not in the winter!), or coming here (FR). I truly love my work. Everyone says I'm an unusually energetic, upbeat person. Yet, sometimes things can go awry (the US presence of the industry I am expert in, evaporated, and I do not wish to move to China.) Dedication to helping take care of my elderly parents both ties me down and wears me down. For now we (my immediate family) are "ok", with a very average income, and a very modest retirement account, but I haven't a clue how we can afford college for our daughter, unless she qualifies for financial aid. Agghh.

I can honestly say that in almost 60 years of life I have not had a boring day since maybe my teens. But all the work, dedication, energy, loyalty, etc., seems to have brought me to a rather average place, in terms of taking care of my family, and I finally begin to feel weary and inadequate. Seeing where my country is going and what likely lies in the future does not help. I wish I had the energy to do more / do better, but something like a 40 year old quarterback who realizes his own limitations, I don't know that it's there...

[2ndDivisionVet]

I was in a similar situation making $900 to $30,000 a day (you read that correctly) selling pay telephones. See any of those lately? LOL

[Paul R.]

Heh, well, I never did anywhere close to that well. The work I love just does not pay like that. So, when I got laid off and couldn’t find much in the way of a decent job (2008-2009), our very modest resources were divided between my refiring my old company and frugal living expenses for the family, all in a lousy economy. A lot of hard work later, we are “ok for now”, but definitely “leveled off” — actually sliding back a bit recently because of taxes and health care costs.

I guess I just worry because this last round seems to have taken something out of me that I can’t “bounce back from” the way I used to... :-(

[Mears]

So you were a COCOT guy?

.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Yeah, I placed Elcotels and others.

[Mears]

Seems like yesterday but I’ve been retired for 20 years this month.

Even then we could see the beginning of the end because of the cellphone surge getting underway.

I got my 1st cell just after I retired.

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[kearnyirish2]

Thanks; frankly, it is depressing to witness. What fast food chain today doesn’t have several Mexican-type items on the menu? I don’t blame them; that is the customer base now because we didn’t produce a next generation...

[wastoute]

When my Mother’s father lost the Kansas farm in the depression they homesteader in eastern Colorado where she was born, #8 of nine children that lived. They lived in a sod hut. My uncle had a photo a neighbor must have taken of the family standing in front of it. Until I saw that photo I never understood what my father meant when he said they were so poor they “didn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of”. She was the first in the family to go beyond eight grade and graduate High School, one of three females in a class of thirty-eight. Decades of hard work and Bible reading. The whole family was pretty serious about faith. My mother told me just because a person is poor doesn’t NECESSARILY mean they have no dignity. Treat folks according to the Golden Rule, at least until they have demonstrated that they, indeed, actually do have no integrity.