Fear of being poor

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I have an absolute fear of being poor. In the late 90's and early 2000's we had everything. I mean one year we got to go on this super expensive cruise, bought 2 cars and spent money like it was nothing. Then the stock market crashed and our stock went from a huge amount to absolutely nothing total worthlessness. Our financial status decreases with each passing year and when dad retires we will have no money left and I would be from nearly rich to desperately poor. This fear gets bigger each year. Nothing but bad has been happening in our lives all potentials lost that was going to save us.

I had a fairly simular life experience but, a totally oposite reaction. Because I was force to tithe, even as a young child when my allowance was 25 cents, I've turned into a big spender. I feel like I have to spend my money before Jesus comes and takes it. It's totally unhealth that I have expensive taistes. A couple years ago someone broke into my house stole my $4k TV, $6k Laptop and, a few monitors. My mother who owns the house refused to make a claim on the insurance because she was affraid of getting dropped. It also doesn't help that I got laid off December 19 when I thought I would be working to be able to pay off some expensive gifts. I'm in debt up to my eyeballs and, I'm about to tap into my life savings to try and pay it off. Hopefully the economy will improve so I can get back to work soon. Otherwise I'm going to lose my car.

if i were afraid of poverty then i'd be in a sorry state. most of my life i have lived the underclass lifestyle, of living paycheck to paycheck with only the basics, in a tiny efficiency apartment in a scary part of town. i was one step up from rock bottom in that i did have a little rental place and a jalopy to drive me to a series of mcjobs. then ronnie raygun and his recession happened and dumped me out on the street. ever since then i was literally scared into redoubling my efforts to hold it together sufficient to keep a roof over my head which meant i had to suck up being in the army for much of the 80s. since then i held onto a job i hated for the most part, because i was lucky to get it in the first place, as i am very lousy at getting hired to do anything. anyways, i saved my modest salary without having any real fun, because i figured another bastard pol would pursue policies that would result in me getting laid off again some time in the near-future, and sure enough shrub laid off a bunch of us civil servants, but this time i had savings to fall back on. not having any savings is a scary thing that i'd rather avoid if at all possible, even if it means living a poor-person's meager lifestyle rather than even something so exalted as working-class.

No, not at all. Well, the gambling part maybe, but the bets will be hedged. I don't see how you came to the other conclusions.

Wich reminds me of the old question of weither or not it would be worth Bill Gate's time to pick up a buck off the sidewalk? Of course it's worth his time that's how people like him got rich. By not waisting any opportunities.

Very true. When opportunity comes, you have to throw yourself at it to get rich.

Bill Gates' business practices were never exactly ethical, but who cares? He sure dosen't, they worked fine at getting him extremely rich.

there are none so blind as those who refuse to open their eyes and see. beyond a point, you just can't get filthy rich without cutting corners someplace. behind every great fortune, chances are that there is an ethical lapse or a whopper of a crime hiding somewhere. to deny this part of human nature exists is just like whistling past the graveyard. does enron ring a bell? ken lay? weren't you watching the news when the white-collar scoundrels were doing their perp walks? being apologists for these types won't win you any karmic brownie points.

So far, you're the only one generalizing. Sure, many got rich through questionable means but a lot of people got rich by working hard and being honest.

I'm poor and I'm fine with it. After the basic needs have been met, the main impact of poverty isn't the actual deprivation but the way you can't have things that you see that other people have. If, on the other hand, you don't care that other people have things that you don't have, then you can go on quite happily well below the poverty line. For example, I don't care that I don't own designer clothes; I don't care if my books are used or new when I buy them; I don't own or want a TV; and my apartment doesn't have bugs or a leaky roof, so I don't care that it's small. Once you have what you need, and some of your most important wants, you're fine (mine are Internet access and a few shelves of books; and I could most likely get along without one or both, making do with the library's resources). Not having a lot of things is a great deal more comfortable and less crowded than having a lot.

the problem with being poor is that it takes up all your time. i can't remember which novelist said that. anyways, poverty becomes a severe problem when one is no longer financially able to take care of oneself or meet one's own most basic needs. being homeless is something i never want to experience again, and is my #1 fear that i will fall back into it. if i were to become homeless again, i would just take a long walk off a short pier and end it. life is so damned hard.

I could have more stuff, but I shy away from being a big spender. I'll also take every chance I get to make money when I don't have to work for it. For example I had a 2003 Civic and between two accidents that weren't my fault, it received about 3k in damages. The damages was only cosmetic, so I just pocketed the money. A year later, I wound up totaling the car and got 7.6k for it. What did I do? I got a car that was only 3k and pocketed the rest.

My fear isn't really of being poor, but of losing my shelter from the world around me. If I wound up losing my house, it would be a very stressful transition if I had to move in with anyone in my family. Even getting an apartment would be difficult because I make a good amount of my income renting out the other unit in my house, and that would be gone. I probably sound like a hypochondriac at this point, but I don't feel like I'm getting any better, and the possibility that I'll decide to drop it all is possible scenario.

Do not worry takemitsu when the revolution comes and they are putting rich people against the walls for execution you can be one of the cheering masses like me.

Poverty was never considered a triumph, but at the same time it was never considered a detriment in terms of your background.

Of course this stuff happens, no one can deny that, but saying that all rich people do such things is like saying that all poor people steal from shops... It's a generalisation, a stereotype, and a grossly untrue one.

Funny. my parents pulled off the same thing on me. My mother used to blame me for needing glasses, telling me it was from spending too much time on the computer.

I grew up in a middle-upper class family tho. We lived in a comfortable apartment and I never had to go hungry as a child.

That all changed after my mother passed away and I was left on my own. First hunger, then depression. I didn't have the mind or patience to go to college so I ended up taking whatever work I could: janitorial, construction, etc.. every boss I've had has taken massive advantage of me and I put up with it because I don't know how to nor do I want to argue. I honestly can't look at all these minimal-wage earners out there and believe that I deserve better. Why would I? Because my family used to earn more? I've been homeless a couple of times and now I live in an apartment in an inner-city area where I have to do dangerous unsanitary work, I've been robbed at gunpoint more than once, and people are incredibly hateful and racist towards me (because I'm one of 5 caucasian people in the entire zip code.) Every day I think about checking out. It's not going to get any better, i'm only going to get older and slowly keep worsening my health from all the chemicals used in cleaning/construction. My new maintenance job includes a free apartment with a tiny wage. When I lose this job (and I'm sure I eventually will) I will lose my home as well and since I don't make enough income to rent an actual apartment (anywhere) I will end up in a shelter or in the outdoors. Women stopped wanting to date me or show any interest in me because I can't afford nice clothes or going out. That's besides people around here looking at me like an extraterrestrial alien. I miss my old life... the family.. the food... the security.. the dating... I realize it was a bit of a fluke and I will never get that back. I spend every day pondering wether I should keep living as a slave or free myself from this life. Why live in such misery and humiliation? Once you've known how sweet life can be for NT's why would you want to stick around and make myself into a servant? Why is life made to be so miserable and unworthy for aspies?

That is truly awful. Parents are supposed to do what they can to help their child, and even if they are dirt poor -- the need for glasses is so well understood that somebody would have helped your family get them. Ok I didn't notice my child needed them until 2nd grade so it's not like I am perfect, but never noticing is like hey wake up and smell the coffee...wake up ...waaaake uuupp!! !! !