Five Things Nobody Tells You About Being Poor

[jeffrey]

...I'm not blaming anybody but myself for getting into this situation (I was drunk for two straight decades) and I'm not asking for anybody's sympathy. What I am saying is that people are quick to tell you to pick yourself up by your bootstraps and just stop being poor. What they don't understand is the series of intricate financial traps that makes that incredibly difficult.

Warning: Language 5 Things Nobody Tells You About Being Poor | Cracked.com

[KiwiJo09]

Very funny and sadly true.

[SteveBlissLaw]

Wow, that was an interesting article

[miclason]

sooo sad, and sooo true... my niece had the bright idea to take my car to the airport. It[s been overheating lately, and the road back from the airport is 45 minutes uphill... SO... today I had to send it to the workshop... I just got a bonus at the office, $500, which I was going to put towards debt... guess where it'll be going instead! (and yes, I will make her pay for at least part of it, but she definetely doesn't have the money to pay it in cash... and small payments just don't make the same impact! those $500 would have saved me a TON of interest) Lucky for her, she went to a friends wedding last night and didn't sleep at home, or I'd probably would have chocked her by now!)

[disneysteve]

Despite the source (a humor magazine), the article makes some very good points. Most of us don't think about some of those things because we've never had to deal with them.

[aukxsona]

Depressing....

[creditcardfree]

Makes me sad that it is so difficult to get ahead for some.

[Frugal]

This is sad, but true...

[GREENBACK]

I missed this one. I have experienced many of those frustrations and can relate to that author. It really takes fortitude when it seems like everything you do goes wrong. You really do have to "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" cause nobody seems to help and it seems like you owe everyone.

[krantcents]

When you are poor, you have no choices! The way out of poverty is education or a skill. The other necessity is a savings account. This gives you choices!

[Steel]

What people need is financial education. Learn how to invest your money then learn how your money works for you.

[nitemarecooper]

As others have already said, funny article but sadly true and very accurate points.

[i.prosperplan]

Some financial experts claim that they have been there before.... unfortunately on most cases being there may mean decades ago, the situation now differs. You may have been able to pick up yourselves up during those time but now its a totally different era and the challenges for the poor now is not equal to the challenges of the poor then.

[scotland]

The best thing to do is to work hard and be smart enough to avoid the financial traps.
There are greedy people about who want to take advantage of those who have fallen on hard times, these people do not have a conscience..
It was Shakesphere who said the immortal words "Neither a borrower nor a lender be".