The word according to Get Rich Slowly
In Huge Debts, Paid Off Fast Pulliam Weston writes about people who have overcome staggering debt through hard work and determination.
How did they do it? Among other things:
- They made debt payoff a priority, although most continued to save for retirement as well.
- They kept their basic living expenses as low as possible.
- They looked for creative ways to speed up their debt repayment, and some took extra work. ([One person], for example, volunteered for overtime and took a second job. [Another woman], a lawyer, moonlighted as a package loader on a FedEx loading dock.)
Your situation might be different from theirs in the details. But if you?re facing a big debt hole, you might find their stories offer inspiration and ideas you can use.
I am always amazed by how easy some people make it seem. They talk about paying off that debt and paying yourself first and not using this or cutting back on that. These are the people who are OBVIOUSLY not living paycheck to paycheck. It is much easier to have your expenses at less than 50% of your income if you are making a significant income. But there are certain things that you will have to pay for regardless of what your income is. Rent of $320 a month is easier on an income of $4000 than on one of $400.
Regardless of what you make gas is still $2.09 per gallon (as of 8:00am today). You could say get rid of the car…..but then how would you get to work and school in a city with almost nonexistant public transportation? Say ride a bike! Go on, I dare you! Yeah, ride a bike in this weather with this insane wind chill. I would like to see you do that.
You have to have money to make money and apparently to save money too. What I would like to see is a story from someone who was living paycheck to paycheck and managed to bring down their debt while earning a small income……say minimum wage.
I am not dissing anyone here, I just would like to see a story from a source that more of us can identify with.
If you know someone like this or would like to submit your story you can email me and I will post it or link to your site. You will be credited for submitting your story or you can remain anonymous if you wish.
The “Huge debts, paid off fast” article does include stories from people with various incomes, but most of them are average earners or above. I’m actually working on an entry (or series of entries, if it comes to that) about building wealth on minimum wage. I found a library book that touches on the subject, though it leaves it fairly quickly. I think that ultimately the “rules” for obtaining wealth on minimum wage are the same for everyone else (spend less than you earn, etc.), they’re just more difficult. There’s very little a person on minimum wage can do to cut expenses — they’re already probably cut to the bone — so it becomes imperative to *raise* income, either through a second job or by acquiring skills to get a better job. It’s a tough issue. I hope my current research pays off with a good entry (or two or three) sometime soon.