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This was a well written article. Having gone through over a decade of hard times, I agree that a feeling of worthlessness and self loathing can easily set in.

This was a well written article. Having gone through over a decade of hard times, I agree that a feeling of worthlessness and self loathing can easily set in. I would also agree with the point that when someone who has not had money for a long time that finally has a stroke of luck and gets some will find it easy to devil it away and end up broke in a short time...A fool and his money? It is easy to get money but hard to keep? There is a book called "The Richest Man in Babylon" written by George S. Clason that touches on this matter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Richest_Man_in_Babylon_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Richest_Man_in_Babylon_(bo... Not to be too critical about the article because as I said it was well written, but I felt as though it might be a little too intellectual for the common reader such as myself. Sometimes elegant words make an author look smart but can create a barrier to getting the intended message out. I may be way off saying this but personally felt the vocabulary was challenging at some times.

Falkon1313 5y ago
>I would also agree with the point that when someone who has not had money for a long time that finally has a stroke of luck and gets some will find it easy to devil it away and end up broke in a short time...A fool and his money? From my experience and what I saw when I was poor - when you're poor you never have money, and you *can't* save money - there's always something. A broken down car, an unexpected medical bill, floor collapses and you need stuff to fix it, electric bill comes due before your paycheck because this month has a different number of weeks. Always something that drains your savings right back down to zero. Poor is never being able to get ahead of that. So that one time you get some money - like tax refund time - you spend it. Use it or lose it. You spend it on something that will at least hopefully bring you some happiness until next year. Because that's the only chance you'll have. And if you don't use it, if you diligently save it, it will be gone by next month anyway and you'll have nothing to show for the last year. That's not foolish. That's not "deviling it away". That's just taking the rare opportunity while you have it for something, anything.
- sigmaprimus 5y ago
  I can't argue to your situation and didn't mean to offend you. Hopefully you are out of that trap now and are not living hand to mouth anymore. Everyone's circumstances are different and I was making a comment in regards to myself not you. For me at my lowest there was no tax return as you don't get that if you don't have a job and any government rebate was seized before I saw it. I didn't have an electricity bill or car either. I will agree that when I was broke it didn't seem to matter that much if I was minus 30K or 35K and the collection agents eventually gave up on me. The few times I managed to pick up an odd job for cash, or through some other fortunate circumstances I happened upon some money, the last thing I thought of doing was getting in touch with a credit councilor and handing that cash to them...until I did.

Falkon1313 5y ago

>I would also agree with the point that when someone who has not had money for a long time that finally has a stroke of luck and gets some will find it easy to devil it away and end up broke in a short time...A fool and his money? From my experience and what I saw when I was poor - when you're poor you never have money, and you *can't* save money - there's always something. A broken down car, an unexpected medical bill, floor collapses and you need stuff to fix it, electric bill comes due before your paycheck because this month has a different number of weeks. Always something that drains your savings right back down to zero. Poor is never being able to get ahead of that. So that one time you get some money - like tax refund time - you spend it. Use it or lose it. You spend it on something that will at least hopefully bring you some happiness until next year. Because that's the only chance you'll have. And if you don't use it, if you diligently save it, it will be gone by next month anyway and you'll have nothing to show for the last year. That's not foolish. That's not "deviling it away". That's just taking the rare opportunity while you have it for something, anything.

sigmaprimus 5y ago
I can't argue to your situation and didn't mean to offend you. Hopefully you are out of that trap now and are not living hand to mouth anymore. Everyone's circumstances are different and I was making a comment in regards to myself not you. For me at my lowest there was no tax return as you don't get that if you don't have a job and any government rebate was seized before I saw it. I didn't have an electricity bill or car either. I will agree that when I was broke it didn't seem to matter that much if I was minus 30K or 35K and the collection agents eventually gave up on me. The few times I managed to pick up an odd job for cash, or through some other fortunate circumstances I happened upon some money, the last thing I thought of doing was getting in touch with a credit councilor and handing that cash to them...until I did.