What money habits keep you poor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was telling me the other day that the poor kids in school have all got $100 or $200 trainers, while many of the rich kids are wearing $45 sneakers.

Not of course a main reason that poor people stay poor, but poor choices on conspicuous consumption is not always irrelevant either.

When you can never attain the big thing (house, neighborhood, full college tuition) you splurge on the small thing (sneakers, phone, clothes, maybe ever a more expensive car).

Often it’s easier for them not to attain them: low income apartments in good neighborhoods and Pell grants or scholarships for college (or not going to one).

Yeah so much easier (eyeroll).

I am one of the poor people I am talking about.
It’s easier for me to qualify for Pell grants for my kid than earn say $60k per year and not qualify

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read this list somewhere. Add yours.

What money habits keep you poor?

1. Lack of spending discipline.
2. Lack of earning power
3. Lack of work discipline.
4. Lack of financial literacy.
5. You are not paying yourself first.
6. Impulsive buying.
7. Broke people are influencing you.
8. Selling your time for money is your only income.

1 and 6 are the same. Yes, unable to control your spending would be no. 1. it's not how much you make, it's how you spend your money.

No, sometimes it’s about what you make. There’s a limit to how much you can reduce fixed costs. If you are a single parent in the dc area making less than 50k you are going to stay poor no matter how financially disciplined you are.

+1 for how much you make being more important than monitoring spending. Sure, there are some people that have no self control and don't save anything, but those are outliers. For most families making more money will move the dial in terms of lifestyle vs pinching pennies.

poor people like to think that. it's your spending and poor life choices

Lol. Poor people like to think that bc it’s true. Hard to save 50k a year on a 45k salary.

You have to start somewhere, and most of us started off with a low salary. My first salary was $41k. My DH was in law school. We made it a goal to only borrow his tuition and not a penny more and I paid all of our living expenses on my $41k. Our other friends in law school lived large and they have the student loan debt to prove it. Then again after he graduated, we lived small to aggressively pay off the loans rather than buy a fancy place and new cars. They are still living larger than we are 20 years later, but will work til they die (according to them) and my DH can walk away whenenever he likes.

Omg people who are poor and making $41K aren’t married to young lawyers FFS. Clueless twat.

Plenty of entry level teachers (at public or private schools), nonprofit workers & doctoral students make $41K. The starting salary for teachers in the school district I grew up in is only $37k.

The point is that two married professionals who are earning low salaries at the start of one or both lucrative careers are not poor. They are young. Poor is when you don’t have the education, background and capacity to make more than a future rich person’s low starting job salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read this list somewhere. Add yours.

What money habits keep you poor?

1. Lack of spending discipline.
2. Lack of earning power
3. Lack of work discipline.
4. Lack of financial literacy.
5. You are not paying yourself first.
6. Impulsive buying.
7. Broke people are influencing you.
8. Selling your time for money is your only income.

1 and 6 are the same. Yes, unable to control your spending would be no. 1. it's not how much you make, it's how you spend your money.

No, sometimes it’s about what you make. There’s a limit to how much you can reduce fixed costs. If you are a single parent in the dc area making less than 50k you are going to stay poor no matter how financially disciplined you are.

+1 for how much you make being more important than monitoring spending. Sure, there are some people that have no self control and don't save anything, but those are outliers. For most families making more money will move the dial in terms of lifestyle vs pinching pennies.

poor people like to think that. it's your spending and poor life choices

Lol. Poor people like to think that bc it’s true. Hard to save 50k a year on a 45k salary.

You have to start somewhere, and most of us started off with a low salary. My first salary was $41k. My DH was in law school. We made it a goal to only borrow his tuition and not a penny more and I paid all of our living expenses on my $41k. Our other friends in law school lived large and they have the student loan debt to prove it. Then again after he graduated, we lived small to aggressively pay off the loans rather than buy a fancy place and new cars. They are still living larger than we are 20 years later, but will work til they die (according to them) and my DH can walk away whenenever he likes.

Omg people who are poor and making $41K aren’t married to young lawyers FFS. Clueless twat.

Really?!?! At that point they were only bringing in $41K. She is smartly pointing out that they lived on what they made, sans the loans for Law school tuition, unlike most of those in law school. Then they continued to live frugally until they paid off the law school loans. So yes, their income increased and they knew it would. But they did exactly what any person making $X K should do---live within their means. And if you have loans, work to pay them off first before "living large"

So unlike their friends who knew their incomes would increase in 3-4 years and choose to live it up and take extra loans and live above their means, they chose to do it in a financially smart way. They didn't Pre-advance their lifestyle while still in law school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was telling me the other day that the poor kids in school have all got $100 or $200 trainers, while many of the rich kids are wearing $45 sneakers.

Not of course a main reason that poor people stay poor, but poor choices on conspicuous consumption is not always irrelevant either.

When you can never attain the big thing (house, neighborhood, full college tuition) you splurge on the small thing (sneakers, phone, clothes, maybe ever a more expensive car).

Often it’s easier for them not to attain them: low income apartments in good neighborhoods and Pell grants or scholarships for college (or not going to one).

Yeah so much easier (eyeroll).

I am one of the poor people I am talking about.
It’s easier for me to qualify for Pell grants for my kid than earn say $60k per year and not qualify

If you were earning low enough to qualify for Pell Grants, your child would be growing up in a neighborhood where they would hear gunshots on a nightly basis, would lack basic necessities & wouldn’t be considering applying to college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was telling me the other day that the poor kids in school have all got $100 or $200 trainers, while many of the rich kids are wearing $45 sneakers.

Not of course a main reason that poor people stay poor, but poor choices on conspicuous consumption is not always irrelevant either.

When you can never attain the big thing (house, neighborhood, full college tuition) you splurge on the small thing (sneakers, phone, clothes, maybe ever a more expensive car).

This is so true. Tired of rich people cosplaying regular people by saying things like "I wear hand me down clothes" but also flying private for vacation. Your splurges are not regular people splurges and you can't wear enough hand me down clothes to negate the cost of private jet trips.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was telling me the other day that the poor kids in school have all got $100 or $200 trainers, while many of the rich kids are wearing $45 sneakers.

Not of course a main reason that poor people stay poor, but poor choices on conspicuous consumption is not always irrelevant either.

When you can never attain the big thing (house, neighborhood, full college tuition) you splurge on the small thing (sneakers, phone, clothes, maybe ever a more expensive car).

Often it’s easier for them not to attain them: low income apartments in good neighborhoods and Pell grants or scholarships for college (or not going to one).

Yeah so much easier (eyeroll).

I am one of the poor people I am talking about.
It’s easier for me to qualify for Pell grants for my kid than earn say $60k per year and not qualify

If you were earning low enough to qualify for Pell Grants, your child would be growing up in a neighborhood where they would hear gunshots on a nightly basis, would lack basic necessities & wouldn’t be considering applying to college.

Dp here. This isn't true. I qualifed for Pell Grants. I grew up in an 1800 sf brick rancher in the suburbs and went to good public schools. Neither of my parents went to college - my dad worked in construction and my mom was a bookeeper/payroll/accounts payable person for small businesses. Sadly this was before colleges started pledging that kids would graduate debt free if their HHI was below a certain number. So I still had full Stafford loans going in-state in VA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was telling me the other day that the poor kids in school have all got $100 or $200 trainers, while many of the rich kids are wearing $45 sneakers.

Not of course a main reason that poor people stay poor, but poor choices on conspicuous consumption is not always irrelevant either.

When you can never attain the big thing (house, neighborhood, full college tuition) you splurge on the small thing (sneakers, phone, clothes, maybe ever a more expensive car).

Often it’s easier for them not to attain them: low income apartments in good neighborhoods and Pell grants or scholarships for college (or not going to one).

Yeah so much easier (eyeroll).

I am one of the poor people I am talking about.
It’s easier for me to qualify for Pell grants for my kid than earn say $60k per year and not qualify

If you were earning low enough to qualify for Pell Grants, your child would be growing up in a neighborhood where they would hear gunshots on a nightly basis, would lack basic necessities & wouldn’t be considering applying to college.

Dp here. This isn't true. I qualifed for Pell Grants. I grew up in an 1800 sf brick rancher in the suburbs and went to good public schools. Neither of my parents went to college - my dad worked in construction and my mom was a bookeeper/payroll/accounts payable person for small businesses. Sadly this was before colleges started pledging that kids would graduate debt free if their HHI was below a certain number. So I still had full Stafford loans going in-state in VA.

I don’t think you know what Pell grants are.

Regardless, today, you need an HHI under about $50k/year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was telling me the other day that the poor kids in school have all got $100 or $200 trainers, while many of the rich kids are wearing $45 sneakers.

Not of course a main reason that poor people stay poor, but poor choices on conspicuous consumption is not always irrelevant either.

When you can never attain the big thing (house, neighborhood, full college tuition) you splurge on the small thing (sneakers, phone, clothes, maybe ever a more expensive car).

Often it’s easier for them not to attain them: low income apartments in good neighborhoods and Pell grants or scholarships for college (or not going to one).

Yeah so much easier (eyeroll).

I am one of the poor people I am talking about.
It’s easier for me to qualify for Pell grants for my kid than earn say $60k per year and not qualify

If you were earning low enough to qualify for Pell Grants, your child would be growing up in a neighborhood where they would hear gunshots on a nightly basis, would lack basic necessities & wouldn’t be considering applying to college.

It is a common misconception.
We live in affordable housing in a good school district.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was telling me the other day that the poor kids in school have all got $100 or $200 trainers, while many of the rich kids are wearing $45 sneakers.

Not of course a main reason that poor people stay poor, but poor choices on conspicuous consumption is not always irrelevant either.

When you can never attain the big thing (house, neighborhood, full college tuition) you splurge on the small thing (sneakers, phone, clothes, maybe ever a more expensive car).

Often it’s easier for them not to attain them: low income apartments in good neighborhoods and Pell grants or scholarships for college (or not going to one).

Yeah so much easier (eyeroll).

I am one of the poor people I am talking about.
It’s easier for me to qualify for Pell grants for my kid than earn say $60k per year and not qualify

If you were earning low enough to qualify for Pell Grants, your child would be growing up in a neighborhood where they would hear gunshots on a nightly basis, would lack basic necessities & wouldn’t be considering applying to college.

Dp here. This isn't true. I qualifed for Pell Grants. I grew up in an 1800 sf brick rancher in the suburbs and went to good public schools. Neither of my parents went to college - my dad worked in construction and my mom was a bookeeper/payroll/accounts payable person for small businesses. Sadly this was before colleges started pledging that kids would graduate debt free if their HHI was below a certain number. So I still had full Stafford loans going in-state in VA.

I don’t think you know what Pell grants are.

Regardless, today, you need an HHI under about $50k/year.

Yes I do qualify (I am the original PP)

[Anonymous]

What a weird post
How does your kid know who is poor?


What a weird post.

How do you think my kid knows who is poor?

This is BCC. The rich kids live in $1.5 million dollar houses in Chevy Chase and Bethesda. The poor ones live in apartments towards Silver Spring.

Now granted, we haven’t seen their tax records, and maybe the parents in the apartments are all millionaires cosplaying as poors, but I doubt it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was telling me the other day that the poor kids in school have all got $100 or $200 trainers, while many of the rich kids are wearing $45 sneakers.

Not of course a main reason that poor people stay poor, but poor choices on conspicuous consumption is not always irrelevant either.

When you can never attain the big thing (house, neighborhood, full college tuition) you splurge on the small thing (sneakers, phone, clothes, maybe ever a more expensive car).

Often it’s easier for them not to attain them: low income apartments in good neighborhoods and Pell grants or scholarships for college (or not going to one).

Yeah so much easier (eyeroll).

I am one of the poor people I am talking about.
It’s easier for me to qualify for Pell grants for my kid than earn say $60k per year and not qualify

If you were earning low enough to qualify for Pell Grants, your child would be growing up in a neighborhood where they would hear gunshots on a nightly basis, would lack basic necessities & wouldn’t be considering applying to college.

Not quite. This may be an outlier, but my DH went to college on a Pell Grant. His parents were immigrants. His dad was an engineer and they lived in a safe middle class neighborhood. (Maybe the neighborhood is no longer safe due to the rise in crime since the 1980's and 1990's, but it was safe at the time.) DH's father became unable to work due to a disability, and then DH's mom decided to get divorced. DH and his sister and father lived in a safe middle class neighborhood prior to the disability, and continued to live there (albeit barely) after the disability. My DH went to a top college and top law school, and now is successful. DH's family legitimately did not have any money, despite living super frugally. But they were not trashy at all -- they read books, took pride in their home, were pleasant neighbors, and supervised the kids closely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Children

I see many people make the mistake of overspending on their children. I understand they want their kids to have a certain type of childhood, but what looks like a middle class lifestyle costs so much more than it used to.

True, with all of what that entails: a larger house with a larger mortgage because every kid has to have their own room/American Dream, a good school district because!, so many activities all over the place that two cars are necessary, and then evenings are so chaotic that take-out is so convenient, and then the kids want cars at 16 to drive to school but they need to be new because safety, and it's an arms race for college so tutors and test prep, and then it's shameful to go to community college so paying 60K a year for a loser college instead, if the kid isn't good enough to get into the state flagship or a higher-tier college.

It's EASY to fall into that trap. We did buy in a great school district and paid a premium for it, although we sacrificed space so we don't have that large a mortgage. We did pay thousands in tutors and test prep. And our oldest DC, who has special needs, is going to a private university with a 50% acceptance rate - so not loser college, but we did turn down UMD honors because we knew disability services weren't going to be that good. And come what may, we try to cook from scratch because it's cheaper. And no new cars!

But I can feel the temptation of just paying more and more for all kid-centric things...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Lack of spending discipline. - not a problem
2. Lack of earning power - yes
3. Lack of work discipline. not a problem
4. Lack of financial literacy. yes
5. You are not paying yourself first. eh?
6. Impulsive buying. not a problem
7. Broke people are influencing you. not a problem
8. Selling your time for money is your only income. eh?

Can you please elaborate on your inputs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was telling me the other day that the poor kids in school have all got $100 or $200 trainers, while many of the rich kids are wearing $45 sneakers.

Not of course a main reason that poor people stay poor, but poor choices on conspicuous consumption is not always irrelevant either.

When you can never attain the big thing (house, neighborhood, full college tuition) you splurge on the small thing (sneakers, phone, clothes, maybe ever a more expensive car).

Often it’s easier for them not to attain them: low income apartments in good neighborhoods and Pell grants or scholarships for college (or not going to one).

Yeah so much easier (eyeroll).

I am one of the poor people I am talking about.
It’s easier for me to qualify for Pell grants for my kid than earn say $60k per year and not qualify

If you were earning low enough to qualify for Pell Grants, your child would be growing up in a neighborhood where they would hear gunshots on a nightly basis, would lack basic necessities & wouldn’t be considering applying to college.

Dp here. This isn't true. I qualifed for Pell Grants. I grew up in an 1800 sf brick rancher in the suburbs and went to good public schools. Neither of my parents went to college - my dad worked in construction and my mom was a bookeeper/payroll/accounts payable person for small businesses. Sadly this was before colleges started pledging that kids would graduate debt free if their HHI was below a certain number. So I still had full Stafford loans going in-state in VA.

I don’t think you know what Pell grants are.

Regardless, today, you need an HHI under about $50k/year.

I absolutely do and I got them. It was $5k per year, split across the two semesters. Then I also took Stafford loans and my parents and I still had to come up with the difference to not have to take parent loans. Sounds like YOU don't know what they are.

[Anonymous]

(1) Poor marital decisions —- Marrying a spender when you are a saver.
(2) Not having a a water tight pre-nup.
(3) Marrying a gold digger and not realizing it until it’s too late.
(4) Using the wrong “brain” when making a marital decision.