Is anyone here s**t poor?

Originally Posted by HomerJ

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You mention your poverty often. Just curious but do you see things getting better for you at all?
This is an interesting question. Yes and no. Within the next few months, I will have paid off everyone I owe any money to, and will be back to even. It's been about a 12 year climb out of this hole and it will be nice to finally be out of it. But I'm still only going to be making around $25-27k a year for an indefinite and foreseeable future. It's kind of hard for me to get jobs still. I haven't had a raise at my current job in three years, and they told me I wasn't likely to get one this year either. Next year I might be able to have my criminal record sealed, which will make it easier to go look for other work - which is a problem I have been dealing with for nine years (at the moment) as well. After that, I might go back to school, and who knows - maybe I'll be able to find something decent. Everything in my life takes a long time because ******** up pretty badly. I know it's my own damn fault, but it's too late to do anything about it now. Just gotta wait it out and keep plugging away.

Slim, your drive is really impressive. Good luck.

Good for you. Getting to even will actually put you ahead of a lot of people.

Good luck man.

Originally Posted by Connemara

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Slim, your drive is really impressive. Good luck.
I wouldn't really call it "drive". It's less of a motivated concerted effort to get somewhere and attain a goal than it is a refusal to die and a willingness to stubbornly outwait every obstacle in my path. I have to do everything the hardest way possible, so that I fully appreciate it. It's just my thing.

Originally Posted by HomerJ

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Good for you. Getting to even will actually put you ahead of a lot of people. Good luck man.
I know. I can't wait. The beautiful thing is, my ultimate goal is to own a home. So when I'm done, I'm going to start saving up to go back into debt again for a long ass time. Isn't America great? I'll probably give it a break for a couple of years, get my credit back up and save up a downpayment. But that will be a couple of glorious years of freedom...

After rent, utilities (80-90euro six times a year), food, mobile, travel, occassional meal out, little entertainment, there's nothing left. Private pensio/savings? forget it.

slim, why wouldn't you try to find another job? just curious.

Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim

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I ate two out of four frozen beef ribs that I found in the freezer today. Unfortunately that's pretty much all there was in there. I have some four year old frozen french onion soup. Prob. not good anymore.

The good news is, those beef ribs turned out nice. And according to the price tag, they only cost me $3 for the package. I think that's pretty good.

Slim, you need to try Mowmow soup. Very economical.

Glad to see you're going to out wait your problems. I have made no secret, I got a late start on university, and an eventual very small level of success. I still occasionally have dreams where I just stopped going to undergrad classes and failed out, and was very pissed at myself and wondering what I was going to do the rest of my life. These types of early life mistakes stick with you.

Originally Posted by thekunk07

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slim, why wouldn't you try to find another job? just curious.

Because unless I want to work fast food, or I can find someone I already know willing to hire me, I'm evidently fairly unemployable. It takes forever to find a job, and it pisses me off when I apply to places, and they interview me, and then they never call me back because of the criminal history. Its a waste of time and energy. I tried for six months to get a SECOND job last year. Dude was all excited to hire me... we talked about how much experience I had, blah blah blah, then one day he stopped returning my calls. I mean, I understand it - but it sucks.

Originally Posted by DarkNWorn

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I'm not **** poor right now because my cash flow is positive. But, net net, I'm very much in the hole due to my six-figure student loans. If my cash inflow were to stop right now for some reason, I'd be **** poor in a lickity split.

What does that make me (other than a douchebag for bragging about my cash flow in front of these other **** poors)?

I am sort of in this boat. Before my recent job change, I was scrounging paycheck to paycheck because even though I made more than the national mean, I had outrageous student loan payments. Now I can afford to go out, buy clothes, etc. Still living paycheck to paycheck, of course, but that's mostly out of choice.

When I was in school, I was genuinely broke But that's part of being in school. If you had money when you were in school I hate you.

Someone send Slim a pink cashmere tie for his efforts.

we had it OK when my dad was alive, he came from a very working class background (his dad was a welder with 11 kids...), but he was in sales. When he died, and my mother had me and my brother to feed while working one day a week as a receptionist, ya...it was pretty tight.

Still, looking back, it kinda made me appreciate what I have earned myself, and the hustle my mother had to show to raise her boys.

My most recent gf grew up filthy rich, and she is way more fucked up than I am, talking to her, and listening to her pathetic rants ("it was so boring on the yacht, I'd just stay in my bedroom all day while my uncles fished...such a bore&quot, I just wanted to thump her a lot of the time.

Originally Posted by Dakota rube

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50 months ago I was homeless and penniless.

Truth.

I think the lesson to learn in this thread is that Dakota Rube's life turned around when he joined styleforum.

no, i think the forum was here for Rube when he needed it actually. Globetrotter too.

Originally Posted by ssnyc

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Yes all over Manhattan. I just looked at a $2495/mo 1Br APT. next to the PJs...They're probably paying $800/mo

That's what I hate most about this place-- busting ****** for 80 hours a week and living right next door to poor people in my market rate apartment. After you take all the taxes and student loan payments out, I'm barely living any better than the public housing tenants.