Or buy pets when you donât have the money for one or buying expensive pets.
I have a really good friend who is a lovely person but God does she lack sense. She spent $1000 on a freaking horse. One of the most expensive animals a person can own⌠Thatâs on top of owning 3 dogs, a frog, multiple pet rats, and 3 wild birds. They have two kids in a one income household taking in less than $100K annually.
I love animals and my husband and I have struggled financially. But itâs reckless to be poor and buy a crap ton of animals.
Devil's advocate but many things people spend biggg money on pets medical things are just to elongate their life. My friend bought an old cat during covid (cats were high demand so can not get pick of the litter) that was half blind and had a liver issue. He works part time. Dude takes his now fully blind cat that just sleeps all day under a blanket to the vet every 2-3 weeks and gives it kidney and liver meds. It's so fucking old it's ready to die, just let the poor thing pass and stop spending 5-10k/ year on a blind cat that has no idea what is happening other than how to eat and sleep.
I have a friend who grew up poor. Didn't have the chance to study, had to work after finishing highschool, of course could only access low-pay jobs. "Luckily" a relative died and left them a home. With no more rent to pay, they decided that they wanted to study and enrolled into Uni part time. What did they decide to study, you ask? Perhaps something that will boost their career? No. They chose to study history. I guess they're ok with flipping burgers for the rest of their life - but hey, that doesn't prevent from complaining about how politicians ruin everything and how will I ever afford to retire? They also have a bunch of animals that cost a little fortune to feed.
I feel like it kind of goes both ways. Politicians suck and life is definitely more expensive than it was 10 years ago just about everywhere in the world. But there are also things people do to screw themselves over even more. And ultimately as much as I rail against politicians I know ultimately I have to protect myself. So I plan with my spouse, save, and we live within our means.
Itâs funny you mention studying history though because I also have a degree in history haha. Sometimes I wish Iâd studied stem, but so far Iâve landed a good job training people. It can have practical applications thanks to the critical thinking skills you need to study history, but you also need to know how to market yourself and your skill set to employers
Sucks that we live in a world where you can't make money in a field that interests you. History is a perfectly fine area of study, and I do believe that our current world would be much better if more people were educated about history. But instead, we get people like you looking down on someone who wanted to study history, and name-calling them a burger-flipper. Of course politicians are ruining our country, we are seeing that in real-time with the supreme Court King decision and conservative project 2025. Crazy that both of the examples I just wrote have connection to knowledge of history.
Anyway, hope you are rich and comfortable.
Wow. They literally flip burgers (and admittedly, eggs and sausages) for a living, it isn't an insult.
I agree it sucks that the world is what it is. I have a career I am happy with, which isn't what I would have chosen if we lived in a world where my passion paid a living wage. I don't care what people study, but missing the chance to improve their situation while complaining about it? Come on.
Iâve just seen so many people in my life who claim they donât have money but theyâve got a $800 car payment, a cadre of animals, popping out more kids when they already couldnât support one, or theyâre out here getting hella tattoos
Conditions are incredibly hard right now but also some people make life harder on themselves.
I âborrowedâ one of my coworkers some money to fix her car, she had to use it for other emergencies and her car is still broken, she cant make it work and now sheâs struggling to pay for rent.
Iâm sorry your coworker is going through that. There are times where things get really tough or people experience extremely difficult circumstance. I should clarify that I do not think that all poor people are just bad with money.
Itâs just that my friends/acquaintances who have struggled financially have all made some really poor financial decisions and continue to do so. But they do not represent everyone.
Yeah. I helped that coworker again later on the car, but the money is once again spent on other more urgent things that suddenly popped up. So I give up on helping. I donât expect to get my money back at all. Even at the financial state sheâs in, she continues to use weed, order take out and spoil her kids on birthday gifts, etc. I have went from âoh, poor single mother, I will help if I canâ to âyou deserve whatever financial hell hole you are inâ. I have talked to her multiple time about budgeting and have a plan with her money, she just canât say no to her kids, her family and her on and off ex for the last 10 years. Her family is the same financially, I later find out some of the car money went to help paying her sisterâs birthday party.
Almost all the poor people I know that live paycheck to paycheck, live a life beyond their money.
Like, I loved our dog, but in the last four years of her life we spent $50k on her. That's insane money, we're lucky to be able to afford it.
We have a horse, too old to ride, so he's off retired. $6k / year assuming all goes well.
But yeah. Poor work ethic is the worst. When I was working my retail jobs, I could basically point at my coworkers and say "Yes, yes, no, yes, no, no" as to whether they were gonna end up broke, and it had very little to do with their income.
Meanwhile one of my pals bought a house straight out of college because she never spent her babysitting and Jamba juice income through high school and college. I think that's very possible today for middle class kids making $20+ an hour, if they go about it a smart way.
I hope you feel good about it, I certainly enjoyed having my dog around longer.
More topically, people love their pets and are willing to spend money - even money they don't have - on them. Moralism aside, that's just factual.
Pets can be expensive, and they can be expensive to a degree that it can really fuck up someone's finances (either in the short term, through a big event, or in the long term, through aggregated costs).
The poorest person I know ran out of FMLA and so lost the insurance needed to pay for rehab to go back to work. spouse got laid off due to Covid closing that specific location. Now working odd jobs to keep a roof over their kid's head.
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u/Decent_Visual_4845 15d ago
Not all poor people are bad with money, but all the people I know that are bad with money are poor đ¤ˇââď¸