Has anyone else out there read John Cheese’s article on “The 5 Stupidest Habits You Develop Growing Up Poor?”
I highly recommend it, particularly for those of us who grew up never
knowing when the electricity was going to get shut off (hopefully not when a friend was visiting) and/or
were taught how to dodge collection calls from the time we first learned how to
use a telephone.
Cheese’s theory is that those of us who grew up poor developed
a certain mindset that stays with us, even after we land good jobs and have the
ability to stay on top of our bills. I have
always wondered whether poverty is hereditary, and I have come to believe that
it is. Not because money eludes us, even
after we grow up, but because money does not fix poverty. I’ll give you some examples from my own family’s
experience.
When I was growing up, my family was constantly in a state
of financial crisis. It always seemed to
surprise my father when the electric bill came in the mail, or when my mom had
to spend money at the grocery store in order to feed us.
