I spent most of my life trying to be sure I didn't end up that way. It's a choice. It's not easy if you had no parental help, guidance or financial backing. But

I spent most of my life trying to be sure I didn't end up that way. It's a choice. It's not easy if you had no parental help, guidance or financial backing. But that was me. I have done it, mostly through sheer personality (persistence) and just-enough IQ points to put ideas into action. Some people would say it's because of the color of my skin, which I assure you no one gave a damn about when I've been interviewing nonstop for 6 months straight, 3-4 times a week (roughly half of those a 30minute-1hour commute across the city on public transportation), and getting some rather rude rejections. Many people wouldn't even do it, unless it was on a platter for them. They accept less, what's easy. I've seen poor people, the middle class and wealthy alike end up living check to check. As my Depression-era grandmother always said, it's not what you earn, it's what you save. There's many ways to do that. You can work more, find a way to earn more while you do work, or spend less. I do all three to ensure I remain in the middle class, with a growing savings account. Most people have fanciful dreams they never achieve, shooting a little high for their talents. My most important career goal has been to not make Walmart greeter my retirement plan. I'm doing everything I can. Tomorrow morning in effort to prevent that, I'm maxing out my yearly contribution to my Roth IRA, which I opened up alongside my 401K/rollover traditional IRA. So what was I doing before I saw this story show up on my Firefox Livemarks? Working on a SQL query, while my wife is out eating burgers with her mom. It requires dedication to stay afloat. I know there's a lot of people here just like me. While I started on a Commodore128 and it's my passion (I know of many ways to make money, much easier), many people in this field found it because they simply wanted to improve their lives, which I admire. There's also some that didn't really earn their positions, carefully crafted and placed by their loving parents, and will have a lot of issue with my story, not fully understanding that it has been done and can be done from the bottom. Most of us are dealt a mediocre hand. I remain steadfast in that living paycheck to paycheck is ultimately a choice. A poor one at that.