Living Poor and Enjoying It
I've been thinking about living poor lately.
Two years ago I had a good paying engineering job with Delphi. We were upper middle class and lived well below our station in life because I'm cheap and I've been through hard times in my youth. We were paying down mortgage debt with extra payments and stuffing cash into my 401k and savings for rainy days.
The rainy days came and I went for 9 months before getting a job. The work is great but I drive an hour one way and only make about 2/3 of what I was making before. So we have fallen to lower middle class pay and a lower middle class lifestyle. I'm still cheap, so we live like the lower class folk.
Everything we purchase is cash. I don't use credit cards unless I can pay it off in a month. I don't purchase cars on credit, instead I buy good used cars for cash. Roof, water heater, washer; all bought with cash. What is my credit score? I don't know or care. I don't need a loan from a bankster.
We make the mortgage payment, buy food, repair things as they break and replace socks with holes in them. Hole in the my pants? I don't care. The grandboys have decent clothes and get a few new toys from time to time. They live as well as I did as a child. But we sure don't live like most of the McMansion set in the US.
I have grown accustomed to living poor and like it. We don't have to keep up with anyone. It's nice to not have a "want" constantly gnawing inside. I can walk past any sale advertisement or end cap sale sign without desire. It don't mean nothin'. I don't envy the guy in the new SUV or the couple with the new 4000 sqaure foot home. I know that things aren't worth what they paid for it today and I cringe when I imagine the upkeep costs.
The best part of living poor is that I don't have far to fall when it all collapses. I am not my possessions, nor my 'station in society', nor my job. I don't judge myself that way nor do I care what those who judge by those standards care. If I wind up living in a box some where, I am still me.
Materially speaking, I have nothing to prove. The things in this life that I hold dear are my loved ones and some ideas that I will fight and die for. You can hold those at face value, unlike government and bankster's promises, the value of your McMansion or your equity position in the NYSE.
Thanks to God's grace I'm richer than most by living poor and enjoying it.
Two years ago I had a good paying engineering job with Delphi. We were upper middle class and lived well below our station in life because I'm cheap and I've been through hard times in my youth. We were paying down mortgage debt with extra payments and stuffing cash into my 401k and savings for rainy days.
The rainy days came and I went for 9 months before getting a job. The work is great but I drive an hour one way and only make about 2/3 of what I was making before. So we have fallen to lower middle class pay and a lower middle class lifestyle. I'm still cheap, so we live like the lower class folk.
Everything we purchase is cash. I don't use credit cards unless I can pay it off in a month. I don't purchase cars on credit, instead I buy good used cars for cash. Roof, water heater, washer; all bought with cash. What is my credit score? I don't know or care. I don't need a loan from a bankster.
We make the mortgage payment, buy food, repair things as they break and replace socks with holes in them. Hole in the my pants? I don't care. The grandboys have decent clothes and get a few new toys from time to time. They live as well as I did as a child. But we sure don't live like most of the McMansion set in the US.
I have grown accustomed to living poor and like it. We don't have to keep up with anyone. It's nice to not have a "want" constantly gnawing inside. I can walk past any sale advertisement or end cap sale sign without desire. It don't mean nothin'. I don't envy the guy in the new SUV or the couple with the new 4000 sqaure foot home. I know that things aren't worth what they paid for it today and I cringe when I imagine the upkeep costs.
The best part of living poor is that I don't have far to fall when it all collapses. I am not my possessions, nor my 'station in society', nor my job. I don't judge myself that way nor do I care what those who judge by those standards care. If I wind up living in a box some where, I am still me.
Materially speaking, I have nothing to prove. The things in this life that I hold dear are my loved ones and some ideas that I will fight and die for. You can hold those at face value, unlike government and bankster's promises, the value of your McMansion or your equity position in the NYSE.
Thanks to God's grace I'm richer than most by living poor and enjoying it.
Labels: living poor
posted by lugh lampfhota at 12:18 PM
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