Difference between Rich and Poor

[robsmom]

You can plan three generations ahead on $7 an hour.

Generation 1: Self

Live within your means
Try to make a better tomorrow for yourself

Generation 2: Kids

Raise your kids to go to college or tradeschool (plumbers are well paid - nothing to scoff at).
Instill in them, if possible, an enterprenurial spirit
Encourage them to delay marriage and children until their late twenties
Teach them about money and debt

Generation 3: Grandkids

Repeat (with as much influence as you can as a grandparent) what you did with your kids.
If you have been living WITHIN your means, you won't die without assets - they may be small, but they will be assets. Earmark them for school for your grandkids.

Now you are "thinking rich." You will probably never be rich, but chances are pretty good some of your children or grandchildren will do well.

On the other hand, if you say you can't plan making $7 an hour and things won't be any better for your kids than you, you are setting them up.

I love this. Not sure that i am "rich" financial (am very rich emotionally/family wise) but i am doing ok. I can see my family in this. I have 2 sets of grandparents with no college education, one off the boat immigrant, one 1st generation american. They lived very modest lives and were able to support their own retirements. They sent my parents and aunts/uncles to college but didnt' have alot to help them get started. My parents stuggled at first but gradually built their financial life and have a nice house and retirement savings. They were able to send us all to school and have enough to lend us a little towards our first houses etc. They are helping to contribute to college savings for the 4th generation.

 

[punkin]

I just love the rich giving advice to the poor about how to live on that $7 per hour.

 

[momof3littlelilos]

the difference between rich and poor?
a trust fund
or a winning lotto ticket
or dumb luck

Seriously, people I know who've worked hard have gone from poor to comfortable middle class. But none of the "rich" people I know have earned it, they've all been born into it.

 

[disneyjunkie]

I just love the rich giving advice to the poor about how to live on that $7 per hour.

Let's not forget implying that they and their children aren't happy and/healthy.

 

[arminnie]

the difference between rich and poor?
a trust fund
or a winning lotto ticket
or dumb luck

Seriously, people I know who've worked hard have gone from poor to comfortable middle class. But none of the "rich" people I know have earned it, they've all been born into it.

How about being very, very smart and working hard. I know a lot of people who have come from total poverty who are very, very rich right now. These are not entertainers but most of them do have really, really good educations from super duper schools.

 

[momof3littlelilos]

Yes. I've known people who have gotten academic scholarships to ivy league schools. (and taken out loans that could have bought a car and a down payment on a home) People who have joined the military to pay for education. I've known brilliant people who couldn't go Ivy league because of their schools ratings- schools they were stuck in because they were poor - so they go to public universitys and despite their intellectual capacity they work hard to be middle class - not rich. (and more power to them, moving up is fabulous!)
Yes, I've known many academically gifted people who have worked hard but still not made it to "rich".
I also know many intellectually mediocre individuals who never worked for or earned a thing - but have never had to because daddy, or granddaddy, or whatever unnamed ancestor left them a hefty sum. (It's also been my humble and limited life experience that theseare the people who make judgements about how the poor would be just like them if only they made better life choices. Which, I shouldn't have to point out is infuriating when it's not hilariously comical.)
I'm not sure why people find it so necessary to defend the myth that any kid in the ghetto can be Oprah or Bill Gates. They just can't.
Anybody can choose to better their situation. But there are limits. Maybe there are just lots of people who don't really understand what "rich" is and they're confusing comfortable with wealthy? Because I really do know quite a few people from lots of socio-economc classes, and I can't say that I've known anyone to make the leap from poverty to, say, the status of the Bush's or the Gates'.
Poverty is a serious impediment to financial success, and it's ridiculous to gloss over it as if it can be overcome like acne. If only there was a proactive solution for poverty.
Anyway, I'm gonna back away now - I really tried to stay away but this thread just rubbed me wrong. I only came here to have fun and share Disney-info, not to debate American economic policy, or to point out that there really is Grand Canyon of a gap between the rich and poor.

 

[punkin]

there really is Grand Canyon of a gap between the rich and poor.

 

[Cass]

I don't know if anyone identifies with this but when Iwas starting out in the working world I was basically living paycheck to paycheck. I made a lot of foolish choices with my money (ie) eating out for lunch instead of bringing it to work, feeling sorry for myself and buying things to make me feel better (ie) things I could not afford: jewelry, designer stuff instead of generic brand stuff - it was like I had a chip on my shoulder. Got into dbt with my first credit cards, kept getting more credit, deeper and deeper.

Now, 20 years later - I spend way less on myself, I brown bag it, I buy generic brands, I don't have a need to have the 'best' of things and I save more and pay more attention to what I buy and how far a dollar goes.

I wonder if well off/high income people are cheap (and I don't mean this in a bad way) because like myself, and others I knew with very little income we were very careless and generous in our spending habits.

kudos to families making it on low incomes - especially with the commercials and messages out there that you have to have X brand to be successful. I say no to my DD - you are not having the 100.00 running shoes, you can have 2 pairs of the 19.99 running shoes - pick 2 colours you like

 

[MrsPete]

Yeah, if I weren't making $7 bucks an hour I too could plan 3 generations ahead.

Hmmm. When I was young and poor I was planning ahead. I wasn't able to save money at that point -- I was pretty much living hand to mouth -- but I was working very hard at putting myself through school and avoiding debt. I knew that these things would help me all my life, they'd enable my children to have a good life /college education, and that in turn would enable my grandchildren to do the same.

 

[MrsPete]

I just love the rich giving advice to the poor about how to live on that $7 per hour.

I don't know that I'm rich. I am very comfortable, but I do have to keep going to work every day.

However, I have lived successfully on less than $7 per hour, so I'd say I'm qualified to give advice on how to do it. No one gave me a pile of money; in fact, no one even gave me my college education. Don't assume that people who are financially comfortable have always been "rich".

 

[MrsPete]

Seriously, people I know who've worked hard have gone from poor to comfortable middle class. But none of the "rich" people I know have earned it, they've all been born into it.

I know people who were born poor and moved up to middle class.
I know people who were born poor and moved up to wealthy.
I know people who were born rich and wasted their way down to middle class.

For those who've moved up, I think there are two keys:
1. Education in a productive field
2. Starting out frugally; avoiding what so many people consider necessary: the so-called "starter-debt"

 

[runwad]

I think people need to work harder. I look all over in America and everyone wants something for nothing, noone wants to work for anything they want it handed to them. Where I work if you're a hard worker you are worth your weight in gold it's not easy to replace workers when noone wants to work. And this goes for all income levels for the person making 7 bucks an hour to the one making 50..what has happened to our work ethic??? I'm not saying this applies to everyone there are some hard workers (me for one )I'm just saying where you work how many do you know, and how many slaggers? Think about it. The immigrants come here and work for a better life, do we??

 

[lenzs4]

I had to take a class that discussed the differences within the classes. It was interesting - although I can not remember most of the interesting tidbits. I do remember this one:
FOOD:
the poor ask - Did you get enough? QUANTITY
Middle Class - how was that - did it taste good/alright? TASTE
Upper class - Was it aesthetically (sp?) pleasing? LOOK

The concerns over food were totally different. Many funny little things were discussed in this class. The book, full of fun facts, was by Ruby Payne . I read it and actullay learned a lot. It was very neat to read about (seeing as how I will never experience the upper end on a teacher salary LOL).
Shirley

 

[arminnie]

Anybody can choose to better their situation. But there are limits. Maybe there are just lots of people who don't really understand what "rich" is and they're confusing comfortable with wealthy? Because I really do know quite a few people from lots of socio-economc classes, and I can't say that I've known anyone to make the leap from poverty to, say, the status of the Bush's or the Gates'.

Bush and Gates are NOT any where near to being in the same league. Bush's wealth (which is more than I will ever have is in the millions), Gates' wealth is in the BILLIONS.

What your cut-off between comfortable and wealthy? Five million or 500 million? Big difference. I know lots of people in CA worth 5 million because of their homes.

Of course not everyone can be Oprah or Bill Gates. And frankly - who needs that kind of money? What's wrong with just being comfortable?

Not everyone can be a multi-millionaire - I don't think anyone is saying that. But there are SO MANY people who are in poverty for generations that shouldn't be.

One of my grandfather's was a sharecropper and one was a coal miner. My father has less than a 10th grade education and never made ANY money (our family income was below the poverty line), but all three of his children finished college and are self-supporting. Only one of us is really rich (and he doesn't share with us nor does he need to), but we are productive members of society.

One of my siblings who went to a very mediocre at best small public college (which had just been upgraded from a junior college) is worth over $200,000,000. No one gave him anything - including scholarships. He made it ALL on his own.

Many of you are from the Northeast and may be familiar with Break and Circus stores which have now become Whole Food stores. Did you know that the original founder was in immigrant with NO education who started with a pushcart in the streets of Boston? This was not 100 years ago either. The man is probably still in his 50s and is VERY rich. I could probably come up with a dozen other examples of people who went from poverty to wealth - the over $100 million kind of wealth.

As long as you can feed, clothe, house and educate your family, I don't think it matters whether or not you have an extra ten mill sitting around. The only reason that I wish I had more money would be so I could donate more than I do now. I know that I could have made a LOT more money than I did (although it was enough) because my over-riding career objective was not to hate to go to work in the morning.

 

[Newfie2000]

Right after I got finished reading through this thread I received this email. I agree with many of the points you all have brought up... on both sides of this issue and have remained silent on this one. But I could not pass up the opportunity to share this email with you all... take it for what its worth!





The Difference Between Rich/Poor People?

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

"It was great, Dad."

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

"Oh yeah," said the son.

"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered:

"I saw that we have one dog and they had four.

We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.

We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.

We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.

We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."

The boy's father was speechless.

 

[pearlieq]

I just love the rich giving advice to the poor about how to live on that $7 per hour.

Why is this a problem? Do you assume "the rich" (whatever that refers to) never had to make it on $7 an hour? Plus, wouldn't you want advice from someone who has been successful at accumulating and maintaining wealth?

While there are exceptions to every rule, most people can at least do SOMETHING to better their situation. My family went from government cheese to "comfortable" in one generation. It was hard work, and I'm not about to have someone dump on me or dismiss me as out of touch or irrelevant just because I've done well.

Glorifying poverty is not the answer. Claiming you're too poor to better your situation is just a cop-out. Playing "woe is me" isn't productive.

 

[mommiepoppins]

I guess I am both. I plan for the next geeration and sat night

 

[dustysky]

I just love the rich giving advice to the poor about how to live on that $7 per hour.

No kidding!! So easy for people to talk the talk.

Everyone of you can talk all you want about how being rich is a mind set but let me tell you, my power company, phone company, grocery store, and gas station could all care less about how MINDFULLY wealthy I am.
So please stop acting like we should all be singing Kumbaya, the fact is some of us struggle and we struggle hard. If you are already behind from living on a lower income then pulling ahead is almost definitely out of the question.
Until you have had to worry how dinner was going to be placed on your family table then please don't tell anyone how EASY it is to live on $7.00 an hour.

 

[crisi]

No kidding!! So easy for people to talk the talk.

Everyone of you can talk all you want about how being rich is a mind set but let me tell you, my power company, phone company, grocery store, and gas station could all care less about how MINDFULLY wealthy I am.
So please stop acting like we should all be singing Kumbaya, the fact is some of us struggle and we struggle hard. If you are already behind from living on a lower income then pulling ahead is almost definitely out of the question.
Until you have had to worry how dinner was going to be placed on your family table then please don't tell anyone how EASY it is to live on $7.00 an hour.

Had to worry about putting food on the table. Made less than $7 an hour. Set my thermostat in a Minnesota winter at 58 degrees - slept with a pillowcase over my head for warmth. Did not own a winter coat. Did not own a car. Owned a fifty pound bag of rice and a fifty pound bag of black beans, supplimented with vegetables and dairy from the salvage market (One of Mrs. Pete's favorite place to shop - I hope I never go back to that place again).

Once rented a room in a house for $75 a month that had been a closet and lived with a herion addict who was a complete stranger because that was what I could afford in college.

Was 'forced' into a sexual relationship with my boss because I could not afford to lose my eight dollar an hour job (that was later - I'd gotten raises by them).

Would you like to tell me again how EASY I had it?

 

[dustysky]

crisi, you are the first person who has made it clear how difficult it can be. Most of the posts are eluding that you should just be able to save a few bucks and viola life is all better again. When you live on a low income even to save $5.00 might mean you would not have enough to pay a bill.
Also, the things you speak of are things a single person COULD do if they had to in order to get by (and yes I have) not a family with children. Would you take your children to a crack house to save some money, I hope not.

Everyone of us on here have a different background, some people might have family who has let them stay in there homes WHILE living on that $7.00 an hour.... some don't have that luxury. We also all live in different parts of the country. I am in FL and right in the middle of where Hurricane Charley hit, our rents went from $700.00 a month to WELL over $1200. a month, however, the pay has all stayed the same. How do you pull up from that?


My husband works fulltime, he makes more then $10. and under $20., I have just finished going back to school so that I can work to help our household. Even with what he makes, we are a family of 4 and we again, struggle very hard to make sure nothing is shut off at our house on a monthly basis. I hope that in the end we will have more money but it is not EASY or a FAST process.

My point is just that it is not an easy road and people who have not been there shouldn't even consider giving advise.