Just because Christmas and winter and first world problems

[calmloki]

There are times one gets to feeling a bit too fat. You know - lovely home, beautiful wife, new highs weekly in the portfolio, no debt, the epitome of fat FIRE. So you write big checks to the tax man to pay the quarterlies and start to feeling put upon because you have to find competent help and they intrude with questions...

So I came across a Reddit site called Poverty Finance. Whew. Good for the sense of gratitude to get a hint of life at different levels.
https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/

 

[Dash man]

There are times one gets to feeling a bit too fat. You know - lovely home, beautiful wife, new highs weekly in the portfolio, no debt, the epitome of fat FIRE. So you write big checks to the tax man to pay the quarterlies and start to feeling put upon because you have to find competent help and they intrude with questions...



So I came across a Reddit site called Poverty Finance. Whew. Good for the sense of gratitude to get a hint of life at different levels.

https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/

Wow....a different world.

 

[marko]

"The poor you will always have with you" Jesus

 

[Dash man]

"The poor you will always have with you" Jesus

Yes, that is correct. We do help where we can. A lot of the threads I read I could see coming from my stepson and his wife if we weren’t around to help. Helps keep things in perspective.

 

[Souschef]

I was grousing to DW a little about my coming tax bill. She, always the voice of reason, said, "That is the rent you pay for living in the USA"
AMEN

 

[HFWR]

Since we’re quoting Jesus...

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

 

[Dash man]

Since we’re quoting Jesus...

And I think of that every day.

 

[dixonge]

I was grousing to DW a little about my coming tax bill. She, always the voice of reason, said, "That is the rent you pay for living in the USA"
AMEN

We've lived *outside* the USA for six of the last eight years. Still paying taxes. My grousing feels slightly more justified...?

 

[audreyh1]

Needed this as I’m working on rebalancing and trying to pick the best lots to sell that will minimize the tax bill. But it’s still going to be large. I guess I should be happy to take these profits and rebalance.

 

[RobbieB]

I have never minded sending in the taxes. The more tax I pay the more dough I made. Easy.

 

[ckelly78z]

Yea, I remember those Ramen/hotdog days when we couldn't grocery shop for lack of funds, and I had to check with the DW to see if I could put gas in the tank. Lots of medical bills, and repair bills kept us down for a long time....SO, So grateful for everything we have accomplished over the last 10 years.

 

[Amethyst]

Some of the posts reminded me of starting my career in early 20's. I was all alone in a new location, far from anyone who cared about me, had spent almost every cent on first-last-month's security, and then learned I would be paid in arrears and would only get half a check in two weeks. This was just about 40 years ago, and I still remember the loneliness, calling my mother for five minutes because long-distance cost so much. Plus, I was already thin and then I lost weight.
But I was able to get a handle on it and, over time, get ahead. For these poor souls, the money worry stretches on and on. I wonder if they are using public library computers.

 

[DrRoy]

I have a friend that would fit right in. I met him a few years ago right after I FIRE'd. He led a photography workshop that I went on, and later I went on a few as an assistant to him. Last year his live in GF (who was sharing the bills and had a car) left him because he didn't treat her very well, and his workshop income dried up a lot. For a while he was having to sell camera equipment to pay the rent and food, and then got evicted. He had an opportunity to make some pay with a used camera dealer, but he didn't like putting in the hours. He managed to finance a car with a GoFundMe. He is now down to couch surfing. All along he could have made better choices, and it is just really sad.

 

[pb4uski]

Yea, I remember those Ramen/hotdog days when we couldn't grocery shop for lack of funds, and I had to check with the DW to see if I could put gas in the tank. Lots of medical bills, and repair bills kept us down for a long time....SO, So grateful for everything we have accomplished over the last 10 years.

Just before we got married in 1982, DW and I looked at a $40k condo. We were very interested but would have had to come up with 5%/$2k for a down payment... and we didn't have $2k so we passed on it. We could have asked my Dad for a $2k loan but I wanted to do it on our own.

Fast forward to today... if the monthly credit card bill comes in at $2k, I'm

 

[Teacher Terry]

I was divorced at 21 with a 2 year old. We shared a apartment with my sister to save on rent. Although I was working full time with benefits I couldn’t afford daycare. Luckily I qualified for free daycare. My son was never hungry but there were times I was. If my car broke down I depended on my parents to pay to have it fixed. When I remarried I owed my parents 2k and we paid it off. Not fun being poor.

 

[jollystomper]

That reddit thread and people I know in real life are one reason I do not agonize over things like whether or not to do Roth conversions, the SECURE act new 10 year rule for inherited IRAs, moving to a no or low income tax state, etc. Yes, it is important to understand these things and the tradeoffs, but making the "wrong" choice is not going to suddenly send me into poverty. Besides, I already received a benefit by lowering taxes while I worked, so nothing is really being taken from me.

In general the less taxes I pay the better, since in my natural heart the more for me the merrier .But in reality I cannot complain, compared to what others are going through.

 

[momoftwo]

Exactly

Well said

 

[MRG]

Oh boy a real blast from the past. I remember when we moved to KC, I made 6 bucks an hour and DW whatever minimum wage plus 20 cents was. We ate a lot of liverwhurst, not because we liked it, cheapest meat we could find. Emergency expenses were an emergency because we had nothing.

When I started going to night school while working full time it was bad, broke, exhausted, and hungry for the entire year. Eventually learned that was the key. I spent many all nighters working for free to build a career. It paid off with interest.

The post that really hit home was a young couple who were grateful a parent gifted them a rice cooker, 10 pounds of rice, and canned vegetables. DW reminded me how we existed on rice with a can of cream of chicken soup on it. Yummy dinner.

 

[Teacher Terry]

It’s one thing to be young and poor but much worse to be old and poor.

 

[Amethyst]

Yes! That post stood out with its gratitude. And while it's only happened a few times (thankfully) and was quickly remedied, I could totally relate to being so hungry I could not stop eating food which, nowadays, I wouldn't even eat.

My parents could not afford to help me, and I did not ask. I remember - and this is even weirder now that I think about it - my Mother spending postage money to send me a "care package" containing cheese crackers, ramen soups, old dish towels and such - and oddest of all, a collection of soap chips (i.e. bars of soap that had been worn down too small to use in the bath), which she advised me to boil into "soap jelly" to wash my underthings. It should be noted that my Mother was an immigrant who had been orphaned in her early teens. She knew poor. I was never anything close to as poor as she had been for a while.

The post that really hit home was a young couple who were grateful a parent gifted them a rice cooker, 10 pounds of rice, and canned vegetables. DW reminded me how we existed on rice with a can of cream of chicken soup on it. Yummy dinner.

 

[Red Badger]

As a young man, my very reckless decisions earned me a winter of being homeless in Minnesota. When it was minus twenty, windy, and snowing, an unlocked car (with those huge bench seats) was priceless. I earned a graduate degree in survival that year.

15 years later, the recession of the early 90's made us a family surviving on minimum wage. Worked FT, PT, cut lawns, and sold plasma to avoid my family having to endure any form of dependency or homelessness.

 

[friar1610]

That reddit thread and people I know in real life are one reason I do not agonize over things like whether or not to do Roth conversions, the SECURE act new 10 year rule for inherited IRAs, moving to a no or low income tax state, etc. Yes, it is important to understand these things and the tradeoffs, but making the "wrong" choice is not going to suddenly send me into poverty. Besides, I already received a benefit by lowering taxes while I worked, so nothing is really being taken from me.

In general the less taxes I pay the better, since in my natural heart the more for me the merrier .But in reality I cannot complain, compared to what others are going through.

Thanks for a post that really keeps things in perspective.

 

[Walt34]

Thanks for a post that really keeps things in perspective.

Indeed. Whenever I start to think of how "poor" we are, I think of stuff like that and some other things. Like some folks I see at the gym and physical therapy, who would love to be able to walk as well as I can.

Or go to Global Rich List and do a short questionnaire - they do ask for a charitable donation at the end but do not ask for any personal info - it is an eye-opener on the relative level of wealth most on this forum enjoy. In all my life I've never wondered where my next meal was coming from. It may not have been what I wanted, but I didn't go hungry. Ever.

Or I remind myself that my standard of living and availability of medical care is far beyond kings of less than a century ago. And that without that medical care I'd have been dead several times over by now.

And the list could go on for pages of course. So yeah, I got nothin' worth complaining about.

 

[MarieIG]

It’s one thing to be young and poor but much worse to be old and poor.

I agree. I didn't think of us as "poor" when we first got married, as we always had a warm place to live and no body was hungry. (DH DID have some hungry times when he first came to this country.)

I do recall really stretching the pennies for the food for the week: chicken legs for 29 cents a pound and eggs for protein; pots of lentil soup (from scratch); always brought big bags of brown rice; potatoes were cheap; breakfast for dinner at least twice a week, etc. I would get my parent's newspaper when they finished with it to check the circulars/ sales for the week before making out my list. I was grateful when my friends gave me hand-me-downs for my kids when they were small. Up to three kids in a bed.

We had the cheapest oldest cars on the planet that broke down everywhere until may fifteen years ago. DH got pretty good at cobbling them back together. The kids (and we) were healthy and there was a lot of love and happiness.