there are three things that if you do them all nearly guarantee that you will live in poverty.
1. have kids young
2. drop out of school
3. dont get married
if you do all three your chance of being poor is something like 90%+
Bill Cosby said the the same thing, but in reverse, at a graduation speech he gave. He said that to avoid poverty, kids should finish H.S., not have kids until they were married, and stay married. He was savaged by the MSN and folks who have a vested interest in keeping people dependent.