Poverty isn’t something that you can understand just intellectually—to truly understand someone’s financial struggles, you have to have been where they are. And, frankly, not everyone gets what the grind to survive is like. But getting a glimpse into the everyday hustle can be eye-opening… even if it is but a glimpse.
Redditor 192335 created a viral thread on r/AskReddit and urged internet users to share the things that most people don’t understand about being poor. Have a read, upvote the answers that you agree with, and if you’re feeling up to it, share your own experiences with financial struggles (and how you overcame them) in the comment section.
Financial expert Sam Dogen, the founder of the Financial Samurai blog, spoke to Bored Panda about financial freedom, the importance of consistency in our investments, as well as the things that you need in order to build wealth. You’ll find our interview with him below.
#1
Just how little money it would take to drastically help reduce the average person’s stress by well over 50%. I see stories like Post Malone putting 1.5 mil in his mouth, or how much the Kardashians spend on a birthday party & it makes me puke with the sheer pointless extravagance. It’s time we stop treating flaunting wealth & excess like anything other than sociopath behavior in light of the world right now.
Image source: Booji-Boy, terimakasih0
#2
As a child in poverty, how little opportunity you have, so many extra curricular activities cost money that just isn’t available, I grew up in a trailer park with a crack addict mum & an alcoholic dad. If I wanted to do something it had to be free & I usually had to forge my mums signature on permission forms. We never had food, I learned to shoplift by 2nd grade. Winters were cold. I still excelled at school, because it was my escape from a shitty home life. I got taken into the foster care system, but I never got adopted, I was in a sh*tty group home, the only way out was to get a job & prove that I could live independently, so I left school at the end of 8th grade & got 2 jobs, cause the wage for a 14y.o.is sh*t, I got signed out of the system, I loved & valued education, so I signed up to do my school certificate & higher school certificate through technical college via distance education. I worked hard & did well, I applied to medical school & smashed the UMAT test. When I got to the interviews, everyone else had all these stories about the community work they did, or learning trips overseas, they’d all had tutoring. It dawned on me that while I was working 60+ hours a week to make a living, these people had been doing things to get a leg up, cause they could, cause they had resources I never had. Being born into poverty is like starting the race 10m behind the block with a broken leg.
Image source: physiokat, Chinh Le Duc
#3
Money is practically all you think about. Money does not buy happiness, but not having money certainly buys constant anxiety
Image source: pajamakitten, Sharon McCutcheon
#4
People who aren’t poor don’t understand how the expenses stack on top of one another all the time.
Your car breaks down, the cat needs to go to the vet, you find out that your financial aid DOESN’T fully cover your tuition now that you’re at university and not community college… All of this, in a never ending barrage one after another, on top of regular bills.
That’s why the people who go “jUsT sAvE mOnEy” piss me off. When you’re at a certain level of poverty, you can’t because you’re always on the knife’s edge between survival and not being able to pay bills. You need every dime you have and then some.
Image source: EgyptianDevil78, Artem Beliaikin
#5
“Poverty is not just bad decisions — poverty is an ENVIRONMENT. It’s bad roads. It’s poor city and county governance. It’s a lack of generational wealth. It’s a lack of access to a grocery store, a doctor, a bank lender, a dentist, plumbers or electricians, a lawyer, a school, a car lot, both financially and geophysically. It’s despair in your landscape through forgotten and abandoned buildings that once housed businesses and families, now left to rot, while you’re too poor to leave. It’s watching others struggle while you yourself are unable to help, because you can’t keep your head above water either.
Image source: Ribonacci, Chronomarchie
#6
I can’t just ‘quit my job’ to ‘find something better.’ Interviews take time that I don’t have. I can’t just skip work to go for interviews
Image source: Juan_Tutri, SnapwireSnaps
#7
Being poor is exhausting. It’s draining, mentally and physically, and everyone needs a win sometimes. Sometimes that win is finding a way to just afford a meal out or a movie. Yeah, you do have bills to pay, but everyone needs a breath of fresh air sometimes. A struggle needs a break every so often
Image source: BogeyBogeyBogey, Ben Hershey
#8
Good, healthy food is expensive after bills, and cheap food makes you feel like sh*t
Image source: TheSexySovereignSeal, ComputeFarm
#9
We can’t be fad minimalists. We don’t let go of most of our stuff because, yes, we might need them in the future, and we’d rather not buy them again
Image source: thejynerso, Sbringser
#10
The fear. Fear of something unexpected you haven’t budgeted for. Fear of a knock at the door from a debt collector. Fear of having to choose which of your children can eat more than once today. Fear of having to choose which days you go hungry so your children can eat at all
Image source: flossgoat2, geralt
#11
It takes two to three times longer to get anywhere on the bus than in your own car. That means leaving for work earlier and coming home later. In many places, the buses don’t run as often on the weekends. Grocery shopping on the bus means just getting what you can carry, which means going more often, which means more time wasted waiting
Image source: old-father, Clay Banks
#12
You can have a job and still be poor. You can have a job where you earn $1,000 each month, but if your rent is $600–$700 each month, you spend $100+ on food (assuming you don’t have to take medicine or something similar), your bills, car insurance (if you have a car), and gas for your car, what do you do with what’s left after that? You can’t do anything.
Image source: glez_fdezdavila_, Peggy_Marco
#13
Having money isn’t everything. NOT having money is
Image source: Snoo74401, Goumbik
#14
When your parents are lying to you saying they’re full when they’re not so you can have the last bite.
Image source: swattrip786, DimStock
#15
Just because you’re poor, that doesn’t mean you automatically get welfare. You can make just slightly over the line and still be poor. My mom only made $1,000 a month, but it was still too much to get welfare
Image source: Kakebaker95, 1388843
#16
That poor people can’t take advantage of sales or bulk purchases. They literally spend whatever they earn on basic necessities. Being poor is a vicious cycle, and it takes many sacrifices to get out, if ever
Image source: kotran1989, Leroy_Skalstad
#17
That being physically safe is a luxury, not a given. It can be dangerous to not be conscious for a couple of hours. When you’re homeless and sleeping somewhere, you’re not thinking about tomorrow; you’re thinking, ‘What if I get woken up, and there’s a knife to my face?’
Image source: xisnotx, ArtTower
#18
Having sleep for dinner.
Image source: Seannj222 , Olichel
#19
If you have a bank account, you probably have to pay a monthly fee because your balance is too low. If you overdraft, they charge you another $35 even though they can see you’ve got nothing in there.
Image source: old-father, Toa Heftiba
#20
The embarrassment and ridicule of letting your teacher and class know that you cannot go to an expensive field trip because your parents do not have the money.
Image source: Rangeless
#21
When we save up money, something happens that forces us to use that money we had saved, which starts a hard-to-break cycle
Image source: Chicago1202, jarmoluk
#22
What it’s like to actually start to starve and be desperate enough to steal food, the longest I ever went without eating was 5 days and it was absolutely miserable
Image source: I_want_a_HSP ·, Myriams-Fotos
#23
When you are a kid, the boredom. All of my friends had interests. BMX, hunting, ninja stuff, action figures, and video games. And their parents fostered their interests and provided funds to grow in their hobbies/sports. I had some stuff, too, but never had the sort of continual investment to pursue something like a hobby or interest. Everything was secondhand, bootlegged, pirated, half-working, etc
Image source: mechtonia, DayronV
#24
A lot of things that wealthy people have access too isn’t as accessible or often as good. Its gotta be pretty friggin annoying for people who can barely afford food to be told that they should see a therapist. Like yeah, mental health is important but so is eating, and mental health is also going to take a hit when the money you used to talk to a therapist for an hour is going to eat into your food budget or bill money
Image source: radpandaparty , selenee51
#25
Growing up poor leaves scars that never heal.
Image source: drlavkian, Kyle Broad
#26
That you never sleep well at night, NEVER! Your mind is constantly in overdrive wondering which bill(s) will or not get paid this month. That the smallest unexpected expense can completely put you over the edge.
Image source: saywhat1206
#27
When you’re really poor, everything you see is something you can’t have
Image source: RWD235 , Andriyko Podilnyk
#28
Ninety percent of the time, you cannot fail or make a bad/wrong decision. If you do, it will take years and years to recover from that.
Image source: aspluiz, Leroy_Skalstad
#29
Most of the time it’s out of their control, there’s usually a backstory. Also it’s harder to pull your self out of poverty than most expect.
Image source: Weird-Difference-917, Nick Fewings
#30
It takes up all of your time. I remember not being able to stock up on necessities. So I would have to run to the store a lot more frequently. I couldn’t afford a car so I would either have to bus or walk. All of these little things eat up so much time
Image source: SparkyValentine, Nathan Dumlao
#31
Everything you buy has interest attached to it, because you’re NOT using that money to pay off debts that you definitely have.
Image source: Kanedi4s, stevepb
#32
The lengths you’ll go to so you can avoid falling back into poverty after you got out of it.
Image source: effigyoma
#33
Constantly having to move because your job demands it, or because rent got too high. One to two years is how long I’d stay in one house as a child. I never bothered with friends, because I knew I wasn’t going be around them for more than a year or so.
Image source: ClericGaming1, Sammy-Williams
#34
What is the true meaning of the term “priority”
Image source: xXBruhBoiXx
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