13 ms·

Losing it All

331 points by shakycode 11y ago

shakycode 11y ago
I'm not sure if I'm the only one who went through this. But I'm an IT professional who was homeless and regained his life. Figured it would be a good read for those out there who are out of work and/or homeless.
- xtrumanx 11y ago
  It was a fantastic read. It's crazy how fast things got bad for you and up again. To go through that in 4 months must have been a emotional roller coaster. It's also great to hear how many people helped out when you told them about your situation.
  - shakycode 11y ago
    Thank you for the kind words. It was a roller coaster for sure. It's amazing how many people in the world are truly good at heart. And to think I didn't even have to ask for anything, I just put myself out there and people offered help. Amazing world we live in. <3
- pooriaazimi 11y ago
  Have you read Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London"? http://www.amazon.com/Down-Paris-London-George-Orwell/dp/015626224X http://www.amazon.com/Down-Paris-London-George-Orwell/dp/015... I'm sure you'll enjoy it...
jakebasile 11y ago
I am glad to have read this post. I have never been in as rough of a financial situation as you have, but I have been in a similar state of mind many times. I am happy that you were able to get back to a good place.
davisr 11y ago
I'd like to think I know the situation you're in. A few years ago, I chose not to go to college and instead jump into freelancing. However, doing the odd website here and there wasn't the ticket to success because clients can and do dry up, plus there's the overhead of finding them in the first place. So, I started looking to form relationships with companies rather than small business owners, and now things keep looking better. All the time, I read on HN about _things_, but never about _people_. I'm glad you shared this, because it reminds me there are humans here after all. Everyone wants to paint their life in the best light, but it's rarely true.
- shakycode 11y ago
  Freelancing is really tough but it helped me eat. Forming relationships is everything! It all starts with a simple conversation. And yes, there are humans here. We may post a lot of tech-ish stuff, but we live, breathe, and love as humans. I'm actually at a crossroad in my career right now. Trying to jump onboard with a new company as I'm miserable where I'm at. I'm only hoping all of the paying forward I've done since then can help me find a place I really love. Have to stay positive and focused. Good things happen when you believe it. :)
  - pcunite 11y ago
    Shakycode, Put some contact information in your profile. A friend of mine might like to hear your story. Might help.
facorreia 11y ago
"I pulled out my Glock from my bag, loaded a round in the chamber, and put the gun to my head. Sobbing I sat there and let my life flash before my eyes and I pulled the trigger." Wow, this is disturbing. I'm so glad to hear that you could overcome that bad turn. Your story is inspirational and shows that we should never give up.
- shakycode 11y ago
  This was a dark time in my life. I believe everything happens for a reason. That gun jammed and changed my life.
  - tlarkworthy 11y ago
    This is the shamanic trial. Your ego died, you have been reborn with new wisdom and experience of the abyss. [1] https://www.wingsofpeaceinternational.org/pdf/Shamanic_Journey_Epic_Hero.pdf https://www.wingsofpeaceinternational.org/pdf/Shamanic_Journ...
rb2k_ 11y ago
One big takeaway: When every single "personal finance" site tells you that having an "emergency fund" of 3+ times your monthly costs (rent, food, insurance, ...) is very important, they probably are right :)
- rev_bird 11y ago
  Honestly, I often hesitate to just take personal finance bloggers' word for this kind of stuff -- most of the time, personal finance/"early retirement" personalities write about it because they've done very well with it, which makes sense. But most of the time, they've done very well with it because they have made astronomical amounts of money: $100,000 on HN isn't an earth-stopping amount of money, but a $100,000 salary pretty much anywhere else is an absurd number. Not everybody is going to pull in that much at their job -- on average, probably less than half of that. Anyway, my point is that those bloggers are probably right, sure, but they're right for their circumstances, which are frequently very unusual.
znpy 11y ago
I always thought that having a yearly subscription to a gym that provides at least showers and lockers is a good idea. OP's story seems to confirm.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  Seems to be a great insurance plan for staying fit and clean when times are rough. +1
ErikAugust 11y ago
Heh - I'm kind of there now. Went from 125K last year to about $450/month now. Didn't have as much stuff - but still have truck payments and a couple credit card bills. Freelancing and remote contracting can be very uneven. Luckily I had a decent amount of savings to begin with when things dried up. Kudos to you for sharing - and for being a brave and resourceful person to get through it. The standoff scene is a crazy thing. Over nothing.
- tomcam 11y ago
  That's extremely rough--sorry. Do you have an ad on Craigslist? Seems like everyone I try to hire for a gig on CL here in Seattle is busy.
  - guessbest 11y ago
    Do they have to be in Seattle? Or would you be willing to hire for a gig remote like from Austin, TX?
    - tomcam 11y ago
      At the moment I don't need anyone but over the years I have used CL for short-term projects. Some of them were remote, some required in-person meets. I'm just saying that they all seemed to get work on CL pretty regularly.
  - ErikAugust 11y ago
    Eh - no worries. Thanks for the CL suggestion.
supster 11y ago
This is really eye-opening, thank you for posting! I hope you are doing well now! I'm wondering, as a fellow freelancer, what would you have done differently leading up to the 2008 crash that would have perhaps made life easier? Also seems like you had friends at the time, could you not have couch surfed?
fsk 11y ago
The big lesson is to keep an emergency fund of 6-12 months' living expenses. He shouldn't have been buying a leveraged investment property until he had an emergency fund. With $100k+/year in income, he should have been finding a way to save $10k+ per year.
- xtrumanx 11y ago
  Wait, is that normal in the U.S.? To be able to save only around $10k on a $100k a year income?
  - lappa 11y ago
    $10k+ isn't "only" $10k.
    - grub5000 11y ago
      Can you elaborate please? I don't understand.
      - fsk 11y ago
        "$10k+" is an abbreviation for "$10k or more".
    - fsk 11y ago
      $100k in pre-tax income comes to only around $60k after taxes. (varies by state) It also depends on rent and your lifestyle. I'm able to save 25%-50%+, but I live cheaply.
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    This could be an entire blog post, but yes, its common in the US to become overleveraged without a sufficient emergency fund. Its usually recommended to have 3-6 months of expenses in the event of income loss, but its only a rough guideline. In some industries or economic scenarios, you may go almost 12-24 months with a job or significant income (I leave out part time jobs or gig for keeping this simple). In short, we don't save enough in America (for a variety of reasons), and we don't have a proper social safety net for when that comes back to bite us. <soapbox> Have 6-12 months of expenses saved in your emergency fund. This is critical. When possible max out your retirement accounts (a Roth IRA can be used as an emergency fund in a pinch; contributions can be removed at any time penalty fee, but this should be a last resort). Save more. Live below your means. </soapbox> https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics Infographic: https://i.imgur.com/fb7Dtmh.png https://i.imgur.com/fb7Dtmh.png
rdegges 11y ago
This was one of the most touching stories I've ever read here on HN. I tend to read a lot of stories about people's misfortune, and how things turned around -- but hearing the story from someone in similar shoes as myself makes it feel so much more personal. It's really scary how fast things can turn around, regardless of how 'successful' you are at your job / work. Especially if you're doing any sort of freelancing / etc. One thing I'd really like to know is this: what can people like myself do to help others who are in a similar situation as the author? Are their specific charities that are useful for this sort of thing? As someone who wants to help out, what can I personally do to make a difference? Is going and volunteering at a soup kitchen something that's needed? I'm genuinely interested in helping in some way -- if any of you have advice / etc. I'd absolutely love to hear it.
larsiusprime 11y ago
First of all, this was a very touching post. I'm glad things worked out in the end. I have a question which I definitely don't mean to be taken in the wrong way, so please just take it as a purely informational query. If I were to find myself in this situation, my first instinct would be to move back in with my parents or otherwise lean on my network of family and friends (couch-surfing, etc), especially if I was reduced to homelessness. Please feel free to ignore this question if it's too personal, etc, but were family/friends not among your list of available resources, or if they were, was there some other reason you couldn't/wouldn't go there?
- DanBC 11y ago
  You ask a great, important question. I have zero idea about OP. We know that men do not seek help. That's why so many men die from testicular cancer - a disease that's mostly survivable if caught early. Campaigns to get me to check and get help if they find anything have reduced the death rate, but we did need to tell some men to seek help. We see a similar thing with suicide. "Soften the Fck Up" is an Australian campaign to make it easier for a man to seek help than to die by suicide. (They don't censor the word fuck on their website). http://softenthefckup.com.au/ http://softenthefckup.com.au/ They're linked to Beyond Blue which has some research about men seeking help. http://www.beyondblue.org.au/resources/research/research-projects/research-projects/men-s-help-seeking-behaviour http://www.beyondblue.org.au/resources/research/research-pro... It seems that some men just have a hard time seeking help, even when things are desperate, even for things that are treatable and survivable.
- Futurebot 11y ago
  Keep in mind that not everyone has living relatives (mine were all dead by the time I was 20), and some only have a very weak network of "friends" to fall back on.
- shakycode 11y ago
  I actually have no family and the one friend I could count on was a "full house". A couch would have been much nicer than a chair at Starbucks, for sure!
- 11y ago
tmalsburg2 11y ago
Something like this is much less likely to happen in Germany because social security is working really well there. You may say that Germans pay for that with higher taxes but my response to that is: 1.) If that prevents people from trying to kill themselves for no good reason, it's totally worth it. 2.) If it helps highly qualified people to overcome temporary financial struggles more effectively, that's also good for the economy. OP, congratulations for pulling yourself out of this situation, very impressive, and thanks for sharing your story.
mmrasheed 11y ago
Very interesting story. I'm glad that the story has a happy ending. While reading the story, I felt how the world still has a huge reserve of big hearts, and they can only be found at the right situation. Also, gratefulness is not only a great virtue, but also pays off sooner or later. Being said all that, recently I've read many similar stories of sharp fall from the height of success. It seems, many people working in the private sectors are vulnerable to "keep running, or you are doomed" like theory. The social and economical structure in many countries, even many developing countries, are different which prevent the "fall from the cliff" like cases. Strong family bonds, affordable permanent ownership of properties etc are key to stability. Many EU countries have balanced structure where you can choose to slow down in your career path, and to enjoy life. Although government in those countries charge a huge percentage of tax, they take care of their citizens to prevent the sharp fall in career and life. Perhaps, too strong capitalism, attention to too many distractions all over the world, relying on numbers instead of the quality in those numbers etc are affecting the whole domestic socio-economic balance.
spdionis 11y ago
Very touching post. Good luck with your life. I wanted to point out a funny thing though. Living in a post-soviet country I can sense my bias that tells me that this is totally ridiculous. Probably the difference between here and America is just so big. This situation is just inherently absurd by the simple fact that selling that iPhone would give me enough money to survive for 2 months paying a rent in a cheap apartment and buying another cheap phone. Besides that, the most important difference is that we never take such big loans here. Big loans are scary for us. I understand how important they are for developing an economy, but all around me most people would hardly get a loan to buy a car. Even if the economy is poor, people are much more free because they don't take insane debts. I think american culture really needs to remember that debt is dangerous. Just a quick thought about the abyssal difference between the 2 mentalities.
- shakycode 11y ago
  I've learned my lesson when it comes to debt loading. Now if I can't afford something, I simply don't buy it. I don't even have a car note or mortgage. Everything is paid for in cash or I simply go without. I'm glad you enjoyed my post as much as I did writing it.
- mzjs 11y ago
  There is a persistent short-term mentality though. When the economy is doing well, and people see others taking risks and getting rich, people forget that one day it won't. Also, popular culture is very focused on the idea of having lots of "stuff", which leads to people spending more than they should.
  - spdionis 11y ago
    Totally agreed on the lots of stuff argument.
- girvo 11y ago
  > Even if the economy is poor, people are much more free because they don't take insane debts. I think american culture really needs to remember that debt is dangerous. One of the greatest things my very successful Grandfather taught me was to never go into debt for anything that doesn't make you money, and even then be careful. He was right, too, and it's helped me through some times in which I've been tempted to go and get that nice car, buy those nice toys, get that $10k limit credit card. I don't even use a credit card, and I'm 24 and relatively successful; if I need a "loan", then I loan it to myself out of my savings account. When I was 17, I was homeless. I lived out of my car for 6 months, got a job delivering pizzas to pay for my own food. I wouldn't wish homelessness on my worst enemy, but living through it has helped me learn how to be properly self-sufficient and has given me the mental tools to tough out some pretty crappy situations over the years. It's interesting how that goes.
bozoUser 11y ago
Back in school I used regularly meet this homeless guy and very often bought him subway and talk to him. One day he showed me his book which I saw him scribble some notes plenty a time, during one of these on/off conversations he told me that he holds a PhD from some univ. in Europe. What intrigues me is that he had some background in astronomy or some similar field of science but the way he would explain things & would always make me wonder how can such an intelligent guy be homeless... This post brought back those memories as if I am reliving it now..hope in humanity still exists.
esperluette 11y ago
First off -- I'm so glad the OP is okay now. A couple of things in your story seem weird to me, though. Did they really foreclose on your rental house that fast? There were so many properties going under in 2008 that I thought the banks were backed up for months ... Why couldn't you just stay in the rental property until the bank came after it? (PS have you checked to make sure you don't have a deficiency judgment out in your name? Some people are getting charged hundreds of thousands of dollars years after foreclosure!) Also: you had no credit cards? With most modern credit cards you actually have to call and ask them to stop sending you checks. You could have moved debt from the car to a credit card pretty easily with those, then paid the mere minimum for months. Did you consider applying for public assistance at all? You could have also tried to barter your skills for housing or food with a church or social service charity. Again, I'm glad you're okay, and thank you for sharing your story. So many people don't realize they are a lost job or a bad accident away from homelessness; I hope your story encourages more people to save for a rainy day.
- shakycode 11y ago
  Yes, I'm doing ok now. Thanks for the kind words. Yes, the house foreclosed after 2 missed payments. Bank of America moved quick in my instance. I could have stayed in the house but I also lost my car and my house was very far away from my haunting grounds. Logistically it wouldn't have worked. Plus there's the fact that I couldn't afford utilities (in Texas you need A/C). I have no deficiency judgement as that was all cleared up after I was forced to file Chapter 7. No, I never believed in credit cards. I always tried to carry a low debt load, at least as much as I can. Yes I applied for public assistance, but since that year I made a good bit of money on paper I didn't qualify for government assistance. Trust me, I couldn't even get approved for WIC or Texas Lone Star. I'm glad I was able to share my story with everyone. In America it's very easy to lose everything (and gain it back again). These days I save as much as possible and live a very frugal existence. That's been my mantra ever since I recovered. Cheers!
  - kjackson 11y ago
    Having gone through foreclosure myself, there is zero chance that you would lose your house after 2 missed payments.
spacehome 11y ago
> Material-wise, I had everything I needed and could ever want. But not a 4-month emergency fund?
gasping 11y ago
> The 4 months of “hell” were really not that bad looking back at it now. All of this taught me a great lesson in humility and resourcefulness. It also taught me to be kind and loving to your fellow man all the while making sure to “pay it forward”. But it didn't teach them to save a year's living expenses so they'd never get into this situation again? I wonder what is protecting them from becoming homeless if they fall on hard time again -- probably nothing. With that said, this was a really engrossing read and should reinforce the idea that responsible spending is absolutely key to a comfortable life for those of us who perhaps don't appreciate our nest egg of savings quite as much as we should.
- shakycode 11y ago
  Quite the contrary. The whole homeless experience has taught me to save every penny I can in an "oh shit" or "emergency" fund. These days I'm well protected and typically have 5-6 months worth of expenses in case the bottom drops out again.
  - gasping 11y ago
    Glad to hear it. I wish you all the best.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - aces- 11y ago
    If you had advanced warning that you would go through the same financial hardship, what would you do differently? Have you considered driving an offroad vehicle out to BLM or USFS lands and subsisting there for free? You can live indefinitely without paying rent in some places.
angersock 11y ago
Things that strike me as odd about this story--and yes, odd things do happen in dire times, but still. 1. Why didn't the author just pawn the Glock? There are many shops here in Houston, and you should've been able to get a few hundred for it. 2. Why wasn't the rent being charged to the house letters enough to cover at least the 1,500/month mortgage? 3. Why couldn't the author stay with a friend? 4. How did HPD not shoot the author? Harris County is pretty good at that. :( It's a helluva story, and I'm glad the author is on the other side of it now, but wow. ~ Some questions: Were you by the Galleria, or in SW Houston? I'm getting it was SW Houston, maybe on Holcombe/Belaire (that being like one of the only two B&Ns around at that time)? Was the gym the LA Fitness on Wesleyan by chance? Was the movie theater the Edwards on Wesleyan, or the Angelika (I think they hadn't closed down yet), or what? EDIT: The hivemind clearly doesn't approve of trying to learn more about the situation. So it goes.
- greedo 11y ago
  He probably could have sold the Glock for $500 or so, less if he was impatient.
- RockyMcNuts 11y ago
  Starbucks lets you sleep in the chairs? I mean, if someone had a buddy who let them sleep in the storage room I could believe it. Corporate is slipping if they don't stay on top of their managers and nip that in the bud.
- ghufran_syed 11y ago
  Why not pawn the glock? Because you might get attacked by criminals while homeless? When I was driving across the US with my wife and 4 kids a few years ago, we somehow ended up in Las Vegas one night with about $5 in change and nowhere to stay, thanks to extreme levels of stupidity by my bank which froze my cards (Thanks HSBC!!!). Faced with the possibility of sleeping overnight in a local park, I'm really, really glad we had firearms with us...
downandout 11y ago
This is just a suggestion, but if anyone else encounters a circumstance like this, the best (counterintuitive) thing may be to go to school online. In the US, federal financial aid will provide you with cash for living expenses. There are several open enrollment online schools (here's one [1]) that are cheap enough for you to wind up with about $4-$5K/semester in cash for living expenses. It's not alot, but you can pretty easily "attend" classes online part time while you try to work yourself out of your situation. You get the "credit balance refund" about a month after classes start each semester, but many online colleges have "semesters" that start every month. While not homeless, my sister came to a crossroads in her career and is now doing this exact thing. The extra $10K/yr basically pays her rent, she is still able to work full time, and she'll have a degree in a field she actually likes at the end. If OP suddenly had $5K in the bank, his road to recovery wouldn't have been nearly as rocky. [1] http://www.apus.edu/ http://www.apus.edu/
- dredmorbius 11y ago
  Educational debt is non-dischargable. While it can be "easy money" for now, the debt will stay with you until you die. And while specific skills training may help, more education won't bring clients online. APUS is, despite its "public university" name, a private, for-profit institution, owned by American Public Education, Inc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Public_University_System http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Public_University_Syst... http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/apei http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/apei http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/American-Public-University-System/Internet/American-Public-University-System-American-Public-University-American-Military-University-866870 http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/American-Public-University-Sys... Those interested in changes to U.S. bankruptcy code, including educational loans, might care to look at the Student Loan Bankrupcy Exception at FinAid: http://www.finaid.org/questions/bankruptcyexception.phtml http://www.finaid.org/questions/bankruptcyexception.phtml Student loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy prior to 1976. With the introduction of the US Bankruptcy Code (11 USC 101 et seq) in 1978, the ability to discharge education loans was limited. Subsequent changes in the law have further narrowed the dischargeability of education debt.
  - downandout 11y ago
j_lev 11y ago
Any chance you could put together a video of yourself explaining to people you were homeless? You seemed to get really good responses from people, and I'm intrigued as to whether there was something special about the way you presented.
blahshaw 11y ago
This was sad for me to read, because it was completely avoidable with an emergency fund and failing that, credit cards.
chrisbennet 11y ago
Great story. For those of you who are asking "Why didn't you have an emergency fund?", please consider why you would say such a mean and thoughtless thing. Are you asking because you want to learn something or are you asking because it makes you feel superior because you made different choices? Do you like it when someone asks you why you made a big mistake (esp when they don't actually care about the answer)?
- fsk 11y ago
  "Have an emergency fund" is personal finance 101. It's kind of pointless to know enough to earn $100k/year, but not know enough to manage your money.
  - shakycode 11y ago
    I was just beginning to make 100k/year. I had the knowledge but was irresponsible with not putting enough away. It was a mistake which I will not incur again.
  - chrisbennet 11y ago
    And your point is what? Is it something constructive or are you pig piling on his (now obvious) mistake(s)?
- yummyfajitas 11y ago
  I have, on a number of occasions, made serious mistakes. On several occasions people have asked me "why didn't you X". Sometimes the answer is "I was stupid and irresponsible". This makes me feel bad, and rightly so. Other times the answer is "I didn't know I could X." Those are the times when I'm very glad someone asked me the "mean and thoughtless" question. Concrete example: a friend of mine graduated coding bootcamp and has been interviewing for her first job. After complaining to me about 2-3 interviews in a row where she bombed questions on the same topic (I think inner joins), I asked a mean and thoughtless question: "why don't you maintain a queue of topics you screw up on interviews, and study one topic each day". Her answer was "I've got no good reason for not doing that". So she made a queue. Then she shrank the queue. The number of questions she messed up started going down. Now she has a job.
DigitalSea 11y ago
This was a great read. The part where he tried to kill himself by the fountain and the gun jammed, wow. I wasn't expecting that. I am glad the author is doing okay now, it is a reminder that this can happen to anyone at any-time. As a developer I have had my fair share of job losses over the years, but the one thing that got me through each and every job loss? Savings. I can't stress how important it is to save money. It doesn't matter if you're on $100k or $50k per year, try and at least save a little bit of money from each paycheck. Recently I was contracting for a startup, like the OP I was earning some serious money, around $10k per month (Australian Dollars) after taxes. After paying my bills, I would set aside some entertainment money, money for a months worth of food/fuel and I would move the rest into a high interest savings account (the interest rate would increase when you cleared a certain balance level) after six months unexpectedly the startup announced they were done, the contractors were fired immediately and employees given a nice 4 week period. I was a contractor, so I had no notice, just a "Thanks for everything" Usually my first instinct would have been to panic, but living moderately after all of my expenses, I had about 12 months worth of runway. It took me 2 months to find another job, not paying as much, but I didn't struggle. Always save something, because for most of us it isn't a matter of when you'll need it, it is a matter of when.
grokys 11y ago
This was a very touching story, and like others have said, I'm very pleased the author has found his feet again. However, remember that for many people life is like this every day and has been since childhood. These people don't have the resources, skills or networks to pull themselves out of such situations as did the author. Next time you're tempted to judge someone who has less than you (and everyone judges based on their own experiences, it's all we can do) - remember that you've had it good, despite the downs and maybe they deserve some help too. This is something I need to keep reminding myself of regularly.
shocks 11y ago
Good story, thanks for sharing.
Kenji 11y ago
What's to take away from this story? 1. Revolvers don't jam - that can decide between life and death 2. The mind is remarkably good at warping memories to be more positive. Here we have a man who (spoiler) tried to kill himself and later describing this period of time as "not that bad".
- shakycode 11y ago
  1. I didn't own a revolver as I always favored semi-autos 2. Yes, looking back it now almost 6 years later it wasn't as bad as when it was happening. Yes I was on the brink of dying but I came out a stronger person and have learned to look back at the situation as a life lesson. If I let it haunt me to this day I'd be right back where I started.
  - kw71 11y ago
    I think you made a lot of decisions in a young person's mindset - some of them got you into the debt hole - but this one saved your life. Thinking about my acquaintances there are four kinds of people among them who carry automatic handguns. Cops. "Shooting enthusiasts" who spend a lot of time and money practicing and are highly skilled. Former military. And wankers.
srameshc 11y ago
Thanks Shakycode for sharing your story. I am glad you came out well and were brave to look back and share your story with the world in a positive way.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
jacalata 11y ago
> Now I understand why there are so many mentally ill homeless folks. The state of being homeless is very depressing and can bring about mental illness in the previously undiagnosed. I'm not sure this is actually the explanation he thinks it is. A significant portion of homeless people had mental illnesses before losing their house. In many cases, illnesses like schizophrenia or untreated mood disorders contribute to homelessness by making it harder to maintain the social connections that form a safety net for many people (for instance, if the poster had driven away all his friends with manic episodes before becoming homeless, nobody would have been around to lend him a car and go get a new contracting job).
Sir_Cmpwn 11y ago
Maintaining savings is very important. I've regretted this mistake many times.
xentronium 11y ago
Am I missing something? Why haven't you tried getting a low-pay day-job (like cashier in mcdonald's) to get on your feet? Also, I've heard a lot about american welfare programs, how come you weren't applicable?
- d23 11y ago
  I hate to be one of those guys who nit-picks and calls out too many specifics on stories, because I know how annoying that can be when you genuinely are telling the truth and someone is trying to pick it apart. That being said, I have similar questions here. > Money was flowing in like gangbusters. I had a house which I was renting out to people to make passive income, a posh apartment, and a sports car (vroom). Material-wise, I had everything I needed and could ever want. I was “successful” and doing great. But in the fall of 2008 things went south. > I went from making > 100K/year to literally 500/mo. [...] Rent was due and I had $400 to my name How, between owning a home, a sports car, and making 100K a year in a relatively low cost-of-living area did this person "suddenly" only have $400 to their name? > I was facing a $1,500.00 mortgage, utilities, etc. Again, no money to pay any of this so I had to let it go into foreclosure. Selling the home wasn't an option? > The only thing I had left was my turbocharged 350z which I started to live in as soon as I moved out of my apartment. Selling the car wasn't an option? Despite this "gangbuster" income, the poster had no savings? Anyway, I'm not saying this is made up, and I'm sorry the poster had to go through this. I'm just surprised one of the lessons that was learned wasn't the value of being financially responsible.
  - shakycode 11y ago
    Trust me, I've learned all about financial responsibility. Over the past 6 years I've made great strides to save and live a very minimal life now. The lesson has indeed been learned. There were some details omitted from my post regarding my finances as I did not want it to turn into a book. But long story short I had just started making that level of income the beginning of the year and I had a lot of expenses and debt I was paying off ergo why I had not had much saved. Selling the home was attempted but the house was tore up so bad from the renters that I didn't have the money to make it "sale ready". Selling the car was not an option as I was living in it at first.
encoderer 11y ago
What I see here is that people are quite generous when a member of our own tribe is harmed, hurt, or fallow. I'm curious if it's because once you engaged him he was articulate and clearly not a normal homeless person, or if it was just that humans empathize more with people they resemble?
jrbapna 11y ago
This might be a bit impersonal, but why exactly could this person not get a job? If he/she were previously consulting for over 100k a year, surely this person would have some skills that would make them employable?
- dnissley 11y ago
  At least in the US, it can be very hard to get a job without a permanent address.
tunesmith 11y ago
Having freelanced since the first dotcom crash, this reminds me a lot of my own financial anxieties early on. I responded by going super-risk averse in exchange for embracing the riskier income model. For those that are starting out freelancing, the best advice I can give: You're entitled to nothing! All you will have is what you earn, and you have to keep your sense of accountability. If you find yourself stretching your resources to buy something because you think you deserve it, remind yourself that (in the words of Clint Eastwood) "deserve's got nothing to do with it." Freelance cash is great, but it's a bit of a mirage, because security is far more valuable than a recurring fat check that might stop recurring. Random rough example: 3 years of guaranteed 5k/month is actually more valuable (on average) than a monthly 10k check that has a 5% chance of ceasing each month, assuming no further employment chances for the remainder of the three years. My order of priority was always: bare minimum of expenses, max out retirement, emergency fund, and then balancing my desire to increase standard of living with my desire to save. Also remember that buying luxuries has a nasty way of also increasing your ongoing expenses. I tried to aim for an emergency fund of a year, which meant keeping expenses low as much as it meant saving a pile of money. Volatile investments can make you richer faster, but they also have an increased probability of dropping you below zero, and that's why you must be conservative until you can afford to risk your capital. That applies even more to leveraged investments like taking out a mortgage for a rental property. Last priority should be purchases that don't make you any money - I'm currently making more than the OP topped out at in his article, but I still drive the same pickup truck I bought in the late 90's, because I personally don't need anything nicer-looking. I work from my laptop for clients that don't care what I drive. This isn't to lecture the OP - he had his own circumstances and one hell of a humbling experience - more power to him for making his way through it. But if you're a 20-something freelancer that thinks you're doing well just because you're on a 100k projected revenue... please think again. :)
bootload 11y ago
"In the end, money does not equal happiness. These days happiness is a good cup of coffee ... I don’t care about materialistic things anymore instead I focus on knowledge and experience and consider myself the wealthiest man in the world because of it." That is the best lesson to know. Question, why did the weapon jam?
bdcravens 11y ago
Thank you for sharing. We're very similar, same age, in Houston, so I can definitely relate.
mirimir 11y ago
That is an incredibly inspiring share! Thank you, OP.
spinlock 11y ago
I love how he blames Obama. I had a different perspective on our last 2 presidents. I sold everything in the final 2 years of Bush's presidency then bought into the stock market shortly before Obama took office. I've never had to sleep at a Starbucks.
- rsynnott 11y ago
  Was confused by that aspect, yeah. I'm not sure how McCain would have made the global financial crisis abruptly stop...
EdwardDiego 11y ago
I'm not sure I understand what Obama had to do with anything?
reustle 11y ago
> You see, there is a lot of food that restaurants throw out every night because they can’t serve it the next day. Is it possible to work out a deal with these (most?) restaurants to pick up this leftover food and take it to soup kitchens? Releasing liability, and things like that of course.
sillygoose 11y ago
I call bullshit. This guy has 100k/yr in income but no savings at all? And his much highlighted Nissan 350 Turbo "pro street" was bought on credit? Where did the money go? He had people renting his house, presumably for a monthly profit? Did he fail to mention being a heroin addict, or where thd hell did all his money go? He didn't sell his swanky car immediately, so he could rent a sucky apartment to avoid being homeless? He gets attacked by a bunch of hoodlums who beat him up before he gets his gun out? But he somehow gets it out anyway. Then his assailant pulls a gun right back at him, and instead of shooting in fear for his life, he proceeds to engage in a Mexican standoff (which the other guy is happy to maintain too!), and walks up to the guy to deliver a macho line, as if he's in a goddamn movie or something? Then cops show up and somehow magically diffuse the Mexican standoff situation without using any force themselves? And finally, there's a time when he's got thousands of dollars of "tax free" income (hah!) in the bank, but he's still homeless? Because having money in the bank sure beats having shelter? This story is complete bullshit.
- yyyyes 11y ago
  I don't believe a word of it either...
- djhworld 11y ago
  Even if it was bullshit, which I don't believe it is, what does he have to gain from this other than karma points on HN?
  - shakycode 11y ago
    Exactly. I am not monetizing my blog, looking to become famous, etc. I'm just a techie guy who wanted to tell his story. People will be skeptical and I encourage everyone to form their own opinions. In the end I was there and lived it and am so glad it's over. I appreciate all of your taking time to read and comment whether positive to negative. Be well and carry on!
  - sillygoose 11y ago
    My guess is that he's a psychopath and just making things up for his own enjoyment. Maybe he's a Narc and just wanted more attention? But either way, think about what I said about the article. If you're being intellectually honest, you'll have to admit it doesn't make sense.
PhasmaFelis 11y ago
This is a good example, I think, of how complex the idea of "privilege" is, in that you can have privilege even when you're pretty much at rock bottom. ShakyCode was living on the street, but was able to secure some advantages and eventually pull himself up because he was educated, well-spoken, and able to make a good impression on people who could help him. Those options might not be available to a lot of homeless people. When we say that it's possible to have privilege even if you're poor and marginalized in some ways, this is what we mean. (I hope it's clear that I don't mean to belittle ShakyCode in any way; there's nothing wrong with using whatever you have to make the best of a bad situation. I don't know what I would have done in his place; I doubt I would have had the emotional strength do do any coding at all in such a rough state, and I absolutely respect what he was able to accomplish. And that's another important point: saying that someone has privilege is not an insult; it's just an observation.)
mpoloton 11y ago
This is the risk involved in working as an independent. I have experienced a similar situation but not as difficult as this story. I think most independent contractors are generalists with a diverse set of skills. This makes them disposable in such situations and reduce their employability.
- mikro2nd 11y ago
  Risk, indeed. And always the first disposed of, yes. The first rule of being and independent contractor is to have a year's worth of expenses in the bank. Obviously you don't get to that instantly when you're starting out, but you should try and get there as fast as possible. Two years safety cushion is even better. Having no debt is a huge, immense advantage. Disclosure: I've been without work for the past 20 months, and will remain comfortable for another year if need be.
djhworld 11y ago
You write really well, thanks for this.
graememcc 11y ago
This will be me soon. I have to move out of my flat in 3 weeks, and have nowhere to go. The future's not bright. It's my fault, the result of determined head-in-sand burying. No sympathy is due. I've been living off my savings, with the aim of pivoting to a programming career after years post university stuck in under-employment. My aim was to build up a folio of work in lieu of the paucity of experience on my CV. I continued to contribute to various pieces of Mozilla: if you're running Firefox, you're running code I've written, and I managed to build an internal web app that is now considered a fairly critical piece of their internal infrastructure. Other successes included micropolisJS, my SimCity 89 in Javascript port. Others like my functional library funkierJS and my fresh rewrite of V8Monkey/SpiderNode I've not yet managed to get over the finish line. But as my savings dwindled, I refused to accept it, and focussed on how I'd easily claw my way back out when I landed a good position. Even in the past year, when I've been barely hanging on, I stupidly refused to accept reality. I've lived on one meal of lentils for about 9 months or so - shedding 6 stone has been nice; it would have been nicer if it had been in a healthy controlled manner. The mobile phone is long gone, and with it my world, and my friend's list shrank considerably. And still I wouldn't accept the position I'd dug myself in. And now, here we are. My landlord's patience is exhausted. No wonder. In 2 and a half weeks, I become the perverse dual of the homeless guy who learned to code: I know how to code but have sank the other way. There's no friend's sofas or family to bail me out, though that seems fair - I should face the consequences. At best I might get an emergency hostel with the heroin addicts and alcoholics, although my city has a reputation for failing to meet its legal obligations to the homeless. And I did this to myself, the architect of my own demise. Apologies for the wall of text. It was, at least, a little cathartic.
- saiprashanth93 11y ago
  You have quite the wonderful portfolio for a guy who is learning to code. What is stopping you from getting a job when developer demand is so high?
  - graememcc 11y ago
    Initially, I was convinced I hadn't done enough to be a convincing candidate. Recently, more prosaic reasons: no mobile phone, no website (can't afford the hosting), can't afford a haircut or suit dry-cleaning for attending interviews...
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

331 points by shakycode 11y ago

I'm not sure if I'm the only one who went through this. But I'm an IT professional who was homeless and regained his life. Figured it would be a good read for those out there who are out of work and/or homeless.

xtrumanx 11y ago
It was a fantastic read. It's crazy how fast things got bad for you and up again. To go through that in 4 months must have been a emotional roller coaster. It's also great to hear how many people helped out when you told them about your situation.
- shakycode 11y ago
  Thank you for the kind words. It was a roller coaster for sure. It's amazing how many people in the world are truly good at heart. And to think I didn't even have to ask for anything, I just put myself out there and people offered help. Amazing world we live in. <3
pooriaazimi 11y ago
Have you read Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London"? http://www.amazon.com/Down-Paris-London-George-Orwell/dp/015626224X http://www.amazon.com/Down-Paris-London-George-Orwell/dp/015... I'm sure you'll enjoy it...

jakebasile 11y ago

I am glad to have read this post. I have never been in as rough of a financial situation as you have, but I have been in a similar state of mind many times. I am happy that you were able to get back to a good place.

davisr 11y ago

I'd like to think I know the situation you're in. A few years ago, I chose not to go to college and instead jump into freelancing. However, doing the odd website here and there wasn't the ticket to success because clients can and do dry up, plus there's the overhead of finding them in the first place. So, I started looking to form relationships with companies rather than small business owners, and now things keep looking better. All the time, I read on HN about _things_, but never about _people_. I'm glad you shared this, because it reminds me there are humans here after all. Everyone wants to paint their life in the best light, but it's rarely true.

shakycode 11y ago
Freelancing is really tough but it helped me eat. Forming relationships is everything! It all starts with a simple conversation. And yes, there are humans here. We may post a lot of tech-ish stuff, but we live, breathe, and love as humans. I'm actually at a crossroad in my career right now. Trying to jump onboard with a new company as I'm miserable where I'm at. I'm only hoping all of the paying forward I've done since then can help me find a place I really love. Have to stay positive and focused. Good things happen when you believe it. :)
- pcunite 11y ago
  Shakycode, Put some contact information in your profile. A friend of mine might like to hear your story. Might help.

facorreia 11y ago

"I pulled out my Glock from my bag, loaded a round in the chamber, and put the gun to my head. Sobbing I sat there and let my life flash before my eyes and I pulled the trigger." Wow, this is disturbing. I'm so glad to hear that you could overcome that bad turn. Your story is inspirational and shows that we should never give up.

shakycode 11y ago
This was a dark time in my life. I believe everything happens for a reason. That gun jammed and changed my life.
- tlarkworthy 11y ago
  This is the shamanic trial. Your ego died, you have been reborn with new wisdom and experience of the abyss. [1] https://www.wingsofpeaceinternational.org/pdf/Shamanic_Journey_Epic_Hero.pdf https://www.wingsofpeaceinternational.org/pdf/Shamanic_Journ...

rb2k_ 11y ago

One big takeaway: When every single "personal finance" site tells you that having an "emergency fund" of 3+ times your monthly costs (rent, food, insurance, ...) is very important, they probably are right :)

rev_bird 11y ago
Honestly, I often hesitate to just take personal finance bloggers' word for this kind of stuff -- most of the time, personal finance/"early retirement" personalities write about it because they've done very well with it, which makes sense. But most of the time, they've done very well with it because they have made astronomical amounts of money: $100,000 on HN isn't an earth-stopping amount of money, but a $100,000 salary pretty much anywhere else is an absurd number. Not everybody is going to pull in that much at their job -- on average, probably less than half of that. Anyway, my point is that those bloggers are probably right, sure, but they're right for their circumstances, which are frequently very unusual.

znpy 11y ago

I always thought that having a yearly subscription to a gym that provides at least showers and lockers is a good idea. OP's story seems to confirm.

toomuchtodo 11y ago
Seems to be a great insurance plan for staying fit and clean when times are rough. +1

ErikAugust 11y ago

Heh - I'm kind of there now. Went from 125K last year to about $450/month now. Didn't have as much stuff - but still have truck payments and a couple credit card bills. Freelancing and remote contracting can be very uneven. Luckily I had a decent amount of savings to begin with when things dried up. Kudos to you for sharing - and for being a brave and resourceful person to get through it. The standoff scene is a crazy thing. Over nothing.

tomcam 11y ago
That's extremely rough--sorry. Do you have an ad on Craigslist? Seems like everyone I try to hire for a gig on CL here in Seattle is busy.
- guessbest 11y ago
  Do they have to be in Seattle? Or would you be willing to hire for a gig remote like from Austin, TX?
  - tomcam 11y ago
    At the moment I don't need anyone but over the years I have used CL for short-term projects. Some of them were remote, some required in-person meets. I'm just saying that they all seemed to get work on CL pretty regularly.
- ErikAugust 11y ago
  Eh - no worries. Thanks for the CL suggestion.

supster 11y ago

This is really eye-opening, thank you for posting! I hope you are doing well now! I'm wondering, as a fellow freelancer, what would you have done differently leading up to the 2008 crash that would have perhaps made life easier? Also seems like you had friends at the time, could you not have couch surfed?

fsk 11y ago

The big lesson is to keep an emergency fund of 6-12 months' living expenses. He shouldn't have been buying a leveraged investment property until he had an emergency fund. With $100k+/year in income, he should have been finding a way to save $10k+ per year.

xtrumanx 11y ago
Wait, is that normal in the U.S.? To be able to save only around $10k on a $100k a year income?
- lappa 11y ago
  $10k+ isn't "only" $10k.
  - grub5000 11y ago
    Can you elaborate please? I don't understand.
    - fsk 11y ago
      "$10k+" is an abbreviation for "$10k or more".
  - fsk 11y ago
    $100k in pre-tax income comes to only around $60k after taxes. (varies by state) It also depends on rent and your lifestyle. I'm able to save 25%-50%+, but I live cheaply.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  This could be an entire blog post, but yes, its common in the US to become overleveraged without a sufficient emergency fund. Its usually recommended to have 3-6 months of expenses in the event of income loss, but its only a rough guideline. In some industries or economic scenarios, you may go almost 12-24 months with a job or significant income (I leave out part time jobs or gig for keeping this simple). In short, we don't save enough in America (for a variety of reasons), and we don't have a proper social safety net for when that comes back to bite us. <soapbox> Have 6-12 months of expenses saved in your emergency fund. This is critical. When possible max out your retirement accounts (a Roth IRA can be used as an emergency fund in a pinch; contributions can be removed at any time penalty fee, but this should be a last resort). Save more. Live below your means. </soapbox> https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics Infographic: https://i.imgur.com/fb7Dtmh.png https://i.imgur.com/fb7Dtmh.png

rdegges 11y ago

This was one of the most touching stories I've ever read here on HN. I tend to read a lot of stories about people's misfortune, and how things turned around -- but hearing the story from someone in similar shoes as myself makes it feel so much more personal. It's really scary how fast things can turn around, regardless of how 'successful' you are at your job / work. Especially if you're doing any sort of freelancing / etc. One thing I'd really like to know is this: what can people like myself do to help others who are in a similar situation as the author? Are their specific charities that are useful for this sort of thing? As someone who wants to help out, what can I personally do to make a difference? Is going and volunteering at a soup kitchen something that's needed? I'm genuinely interested in helping in some way -- if any of you have advice / etc. I'd absolutely love to hear it.

larsiusprime 11y ago

First of all, this was a very touching post. I'm glad things worked out in the end. I have a question which I definitely don't mean to be taken in the wrong way, so please just take it as a purely informational query. If I were to find myself in this situation, my first instinct would be to move back in with my parents or otherwise lean on my network of family and friends (couch-surfing, etc), especially if I was reduced to homelessness. Please feel free to ignore this question if it's too personal, etc, but were family/friends not among your list of available resources, or if they were, was there some other reason you couldn't/wouldn't go there?

DanBC 11y ago
You ask a great, important question. I have zero idea about OP. We know that men do not seek help. That's why so many men die from testicular cancer - a disease that's mostly survivable if caught early. Campaigns to get me to check and get help if they find anything have reduced the death rate, but we did need to tell some men to seek help. We see a similar thing with suicide. "Soften the Fck Up" is an Australian campaign to make it easier for a man to seek help than to die by suicide. (They don't censor the word fuck on their website). http://softenthefckup.com.au/ http://softenthefckup.com.au/ They're linked to Beyond Blue which has some research about men seeking help. http://www.beyondblue.org.au/resources/research/research-projects/research-projects/men-s-help-seeking-behaviour http://www.beyondblue.org.au/resources/research/research-pro... It seems that some men just have a hard time seeking help, even when things are desperate, even for things that are treatable and survivable.
Futurebot 11y ago
Keep in mind that not everyone has living relatives (mine were all dead by the time I was 20), and some only have a very weak network of "friends" to fall back on.
shakycode 11y ago
I actually have no family and the one friend I could count on was a "full house". A couch would have been much nicer than a chair at Starbucks, for sure!
11y ago

tmalsburg2 11y ago

Something like this is much less likely to happen in Germany because social security is working really well there. You may say that Germans pay for that with higher taxes but my response to that is: 1.) If that prevents people from trying to kill themselves for no good reason, it's totally worth it. 2.) If it helps highly qualified people to overcome temporary financial struggles more effectively, that's also good for the economy. OP, congratulations for pulling yourself out of this situation, very impressive, and thanks for sharing your story.

mmrasheed 11y ago

Very interesting story. I'm glad that the story has a happy ending. While reading the story, I felt how the world still has a huge reserve of big hearts, and they can only be found at the right situation. Also, gratefulness is not only a great virtue, but also pays off sooner or later. Being said all that, recently I've read many similar stories of sharp fall from the height of success. It seems, many people working in the private sectors are vulnerable to "keep running, or you are doomed" like theory. The social and economical structure in many countries, even many developing countries, are different which prevent the "fall from the cliff" like cases. Strong family bonds, affordable permanent ownership of properties etc are key to stability. Many EU countries have balanced structure where you can choose to slow down in your career path, and to enjoy life. Although government in those countries charge a huge percentage of tax, they take care of their citizens to prevent the sharp fall in career and life. Perhaps, too strong capitalism, attention to too many distractions all over the world, relying on numbers instead of the quality in those numbers etc are affecting the whole domestic socio-economic balance.

spdionis 11y ago

Very touching post. Good luck with your life. I wanted to point out a funny thing though. Living in a post-soviet country I can sense my bias that tells me that this is totally ridiculous. Probably the difference between here and America is just so big. This situation is just inherently absurd by the simple fact that selling that iPhone would give me enough money to survive for 2 months paying a rent in a cheap apartment and buying another cheap phone. Besides that, the most important difference is that we never take such big loans here. Big loans are scary for us. I understand how important they are for developing an economy, but all around me most people would hardly get a loan to buy a car. Even if the economy is poor, people are much more free because they don't take insane debts. I think american culture really needs to remember that debt is dangerous. Just a quick thought about the abyssal difference between the 2 mentalities.

shakycode 11y ago
I've learned my lesson when it comes to debt loading. Now if I can't afford something, I simply don't buy it. I don't even have a car note or mortgage. Everything is paid for in cash or I simply go without. I'm glad you enjoyed my post as much as I did writing it.
mzjs 11y ago
There is a persistent short-term mentality though. When the economy is doing well, and people see others taking risks and getting rich, people forget that one day it won't. Also, popular culture is very focused on the idea of having lots of "stuff", which leads to people spending more than they should.
- spdionis 11y ago
  Totally agreed on the lots of stuff argument.
girvo 11y ago
> Even if the economy is poor, people are much more free because they don't take insane debts. I think american culture really needs to remember that debt is dangerous. One of the greatest things my very successful Grandfather taught me was to never go into debt for anything that doesn't make you money, and even then be careful. He was right, too, and it's helped me through some times in which I've been tempted to go and get that nice car, buy those nice toys, get that $10k limit credit card. I don't even use a credit card, and I'm 24 and relatively successful; if I need a "loan", then I loan it to myself out of my savings account. When I was 17, I was homeless. I lived out of my car for 6 months, got a job delivering pizzas to pay for my own food. I wouldn't wish homelessness on my worst enemy, but living through it has helped me learn how to be properly self-sufficient and has given me the mental tools to tough out some pretty crappy situations over the years. It's interesting how that goes.

bozoUser 11y ago

Back in school I used regularly meet this homeless guy and very often bought him subway and talk to him. One day he showed me his book which I saw him scribble some notes plenty a time, during one of these on/off conversations he told me that he holds a PhD from some univ. in Europe. What intrigues me is that he had some background in astronomy or some similar field of science but the way he would explain things & would always make me wonder how can such an intelligent guy be homeless... This post brought back those memories as if I am reliving it now..hope in humanity still exists.

esperluette 11y ago

First off -- I'm so glad the OP is okay now. A couple of things in your story seem weird to me, though. Did they really foreclose on your rental house that fast? There were so many properties going under in 2008 that I thought the banks were backed up for months ... Why couldn't you just stay in the rental property until the bank came after it? (PS have you checked to make sure you don't have a deficiency judgment out in your name? Some people are getting charged hundreds of thousands of dollars years after foreclosure!) Also: you had no credit cards? With most modern credit cards you actually have to call and ask them to stop sending you checks. You could have moved debt from the car to a credit card pretty easily with those, then paid the mere minimum for months. Did you consider applying for public assistance at all? You could have also tried to barter your skills for housing or food with a church or social service charity. Again, I'm glad you're okay, and thank you for sharing your story. So many people don't realize they are a lost job or a bad accident away from homelessness; I hope your story encourages more people to save for a rainy day.

shakycode 11y ago
Yes, I'm doing ok now. Thanks for the kind words. Yes, the house foreclosed after 2 missed payments. Bank of America moved quick in my instance. I could have stayed in the house but I also lost my car and my house was very far away from my haunting grounds. Logistically it wouldn't have worked. Plus there's the fact that I couldn't afford utilities (in Texas you need A/C). I have no deficiency judgement as that was all cleared up after I was forced to file Chapter 7. No, I never believed in credit cards. I always tried to carry a low debt load, at least as much as I can. Yes I applied for public assistance, but since that year I made a good bit of money on paper I didn't qualify for government assistance. Trust me, I couldn't even get approved for WIC or Texas Lone Star. I'm glad I was able to share my story with everyone. In America it's very easy to lose everything (and gain it back again). These days I save as much as possible and live a very frugal existence. That's been my mantra ever since I recovered. Cheers!
- kjackson 11y ago
  Having gone through foreclosure myself, there is zero chance that you would lose your house after 2 missed payments.

spacehome 11y ago

> Material-wise, I had everything I needed and could ever want. But not a 4-month emergency fund?

gasping 11y ago

> The 4 months of “hell” were really not that bad looking back at it now. All of this taught me a great lesson in humility and resourcefulness. It also taught me to be kind and loving to your fellow man all the while making sure to “pay it forward”. But it didn't teach them to save a year's living expenses so they'd never get into this situation again? I wonder what is protecting them from becoming homeless if they fall on hard time again -- probably nothing. With that said, this was a really engrossing read and should reinforce the idea that responsible spending is absolutely key to a comfortable life for those of us who perhaps don't appreciate our nest egg of savings quite as much as we should.

shakycode 11y ago
Quite the contrary. The whole homeless experience has taught me to save every penny I can in an "oh shit" or "emergency" fund. These days I'm well protected and typically have 5-6 months worth of expenses in case the bottom drops out again.
- gasping 11y ago
  Glad to hear it. I wish you all the best.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- aces- 11y ago
  If you had advanced warning that you would go through the same financial hardship, what would you do differently? Have you considered driving an offroad vehicle out to BLM or USFS lands and subsisting there for free? You can live indefinitely without paying rent in some places.

angersock 11y ago

Things that strike me as odd about this story--and yes, odd things do happen in dire times, but still. 1. Why didn't the author just pawn the Glock? There are many shops here in Houston, and you should've been able to get a few hundred for it. 2. Why wasn't the rent being charged to the house letters enough to cover at least the 1,500/month mortgage? 3. Why couldn't the author stay with a friend? 4. How did HPD not shoot the author? Harris County is pretty good at that. :( It's a helluva story, and I'm glad the author is on the other side of it now, but wow. ~ Some questions: Were you by the Galleria, or in SW Houston? I'm getting it was SW Houston, maybe on Holcombe/Belaire (that being like one of the only two B&Ns around at that time)? Was the gym the LA Fitness on Wesleyan by chance? Was the movie theater the Edwards on Wesleyan, or the Angelika (I think they hadn't closed down yet), or what? EDIT: The hivemind clearly doesn't approve of trying to learn more about the situation. So it goes.

greedo 11y ago
He probably could have sold the Glock for $500 or so, less if he was impatient.
RockyMcNuts 11y ago
Starbucks lets you sleep in the chairs? I mean, if someone had a buddy who let them sleep in the storage room I could believe it. Corporate is slipping if they don't stay on top of their managers and nip that in the bud.
ghufran_syed 11y ago
Why not pawn the glock? Because you might get attacked by criminals while homeless? When I was driving across the US with my wife and 4 kids a few years ago, we somehow ended up in Las Vegas one night with about $5 in change and nowhere to stay, thanks to extreme levels of stupidity by my bank which froze my cards (Thanks HSBC!!!). Faced with the possibility of sleeping overnight in a local park, I'm really, really glad we had firearms with us...

downandout 11y ago

This is just a suggestion, but if anyone else encounters a circumstance like this, the best (counterintuitive) thing may be to go to school online. In the US, federal financial aid will provide you with cash for living expenses. There are several open enrollment online schools (here's one [1]) that are cheap enough for you to wind up with about $4-$5K/semester in cash for living expenses. It's not alot, but you can pretty easily "attend" classes online part time while you try to work yourself out of your situation. You get the "credit balance refund" about a month after classes start each semester, but many online colleges have "semesters" that start every month. While not homeless, my sister came to a crossroads in her career and is now doing this exact thing. The extra $10K/yr basically pays her rent, she is still able to work full time, and she'll have a degree in a field she actually likes at the end. If OP suddenly had $5K in the bank, his road to recovery wouldn't have been nearly as rocky. [1] http://www.apus.edu/ http://www.apus.edu/

dredmorbius 11y ago
Educational debt is non-dischargable. While it can be "easy money" for now, the debt will stay with you until you die. And while specific skills training may help, more education won't bring clients online. APUS is, despite its "public university" name, a private, for-profit institution, owned by American Public Education, Inc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Public_University_System http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Public_University_Syst... http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/apei http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/apei http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/American-Public-University-System/Internet/American-Public-University-System-American-Public-University-American-Military-University-866870 http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/American-Public-University-Sys... Those interested in changes to U.S. bankruptcy code, including educational loans, might care to look at the Student Loan Bankrupcy Exception at FinAid: http://www.finaid.org/questions/bankruptcyexception.phtml http://www.finaid.org/questions/bankruptcyexception.phtml Student loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy prior to 1976. With the introduction of the US Bankruptcy Code (11 USC 101 et seq) in 1978, the ability to discharge education loans was limited. Subsequent changes in the law have further narrowed the dischargeability of education debt.
- downandout 11y ago

j_lev 11y ago

Any chance you could put together a video of yourself explaining to people you were homeless? You seemed to get really good responses from people, and I'm intrigued as to whether there was something special about the way you presented.

blahshaw 11y ago

This was sad for me to read, because it was completely avoidable with an emergency fund and failing that, credit cards.

chrisbennet 11y ago

Great story. For those of you who are asking "Why didn't you have an emergency fund?", please consider why you would say such a mean and thoughtless thing. Are you asking because you want to learn something or are you asking because it makes you feel superior because you made different choices? Do you like it when someone asks you why you made a big mistake (esp when they don't actually care about the answer)?

fsk 11y ago
"Have an emergency fund" is personal finance 101. It's kind of pointless to know enough to earn $100k/year, but not know enough to manage your money.
- shakycode 11y ago
  I was just beginning to make 100k/year. I had the knowledge but was irresponsible with not putting enough away. It was a mistake which I will not incur again.
- chrisbennet 11y ago
  And your point is what? Is it something constructive or are you pig piling on his (now obvious) mistake(s)?
yummyfajitas 11y ago
I have, on a number of occasions, made serious mistakes. On several occasions people have asked me "why didn't you X". Sometimes the answer is "I was stupid and irresponsible". This makes me feel bad, and rightly so. Other times the answer is "I didn't know I could X." Those are the times when I'm very glad someone asked me the "mean and thoughtless" question. Concrete example: a friend of mine graduated coding bootcamp and has been interviewing for her first job. After complaining to me about 2-3 interviews in a row where she bombed questions on the same topic (I think inner joins), I asked a mean and thoughtless question: "why don't you maintain a queue of topics you screw up on interviews, and study one topic each day". Her answer was "I've got no good reason for not doing that". So she made a queue. Then she shrank the queue. The number of questions she messed up started going down. Now she has a job.

DigitalSea 11y ago

This was a great read. The part where he tried to kill himself by the fountain and the gun jammed, wow. I wasn't expecting that. I am glad the author is doing okay now, it is a reminder that this can happen to anyone at any-time. As a developer I have had my fair share of job losses over the years, but the one thing that got me through each and every job loss? Savings. I can't stress how important it is to save money. It doesn't matter if you're on $100k or $50k per year, try and at least save a little bit of money from each paycheck. Recently I was contracting for a startup, like the OP I was earning some serious money, around $10k per month (Australian Dollars) after taxes. After paying my bills, I would set aside some entertainment money, money for a months worth of food/fuel and I would move the rest into a high interest savings account (the interest rate would increase when you cleared a certain balance level) after six months unexpectedly the startup announced they were done, the contractors were fired immediately and employees given a nice 4 week period. I was a contractor, so I had no notice, just a "Thanks for everything" Usually my first instinct would have been to panic, but living moderately after all of my expenses, I had about 12 months worth of runway. It took me 2 months to find another job, not paying as much, but I didn't struggle. Always save something, because for most of us it isn't a matter of when you'll need it, it is a matter of when.

grokys 11y ago

This was a very touching story, and like others have said, I'm very pleased the author has found his feet again. However, remember that for many people life is like this every day and has been since childhood. These people don't have the resources, skills or networks to pull themselves out of such situations as did the author. Next time you're tempted to judge someone who has less than you (and everyone judges based on their own experiences, it's all we can do) - remember that you've had it good, despite the downs and maybe they deserve some help too. This is something I need to keep reminding myself of regularly.

shocks 11y ago

Good story, thanks for sharing.

Kenji 11y ago

What's to take away from this story? 1. Revolvers don't jam - that can decide between life and death 2. The mind is remarkably good at warping memories to be more positive. Here we have a man who (spoiler) tried to kill himself and later describing this period of time as "not that bad".

shakycode 11y ago
1. I didn't own a revolver as I always favored semi-autos 2. Yes, looking back it now almost 6 years later it wasn't as bad as when it was happening. Yes I was on the brink of dying but I came out a stronger person and have learned to look back at the situation as a life lesson. If I let it haunt me to this day I'd be right back where I started.
- kw71 11y ago
  I think you made a lot of decisions in a young person's mindset - some of them got you into the debt hole - but this one saved your life. Thinking about my acquaintances there are four kinds of people among them who carry automatic handguns. Cops. "Shooting enthusiasts" who spend a lot of time and money practicing and are highly skilled. Former military. And wankers.

srameshc 11y ago

Thanks Shakycode for sharing your story. I am glad you came out well and were brave to look back and share your story with the world in a positive way.

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jacalata 11y ago

> Now I understand why there are so many mentally ill homeless folks. The state of being homeless is very depressing and can bring about mental illness in the previously undiagnosed. I'm not sure this is actually the explanation he thinks it is. A significant portion of homeless people had mental illnesses before losing their house. In many cases, illnesses like schizophrenia or untreated mood disorders contribute to homelessness by making it harder to maintain the social connections that form a safety net for many people (for instance, if the poster had driven away all his friends with manic episodes before becoming homeless, nobody would have been around to lend him a car and go get a new contracting job).

Sir_Cmpwn 11y ago

Maintaining savings is very important. I've regretted this mistake many times.

xentronium 11y ago

Am I missing something? Why haven't you tried getting a low-pay day-job (like cashier in mcdonald's) to get on your feet? Also, I've heard a lot about american welfare programs, how come you weren't applicable?

d23 11y ago
I hate to be one of those guys who nit-picks and calls out too many specifics on stories, because I know how annoying that can be when you genuinely are telling the truth and someone is trying to pick it apart. That being said, I have similar questions here. > Money was flowing in like gangbusters. I had a house which I was renting out to people to make passive income, a posh apartment, and a sports car (vroom). Material-wise, I had everything I needed and could ever want. I was “successful” and doing great. But in the fall of 2008 things went south. > I went from making > 100K/year to literally 500/mo. [...] Rent was due and I had $400 to my name How, between owning a home, a sports car, and making 100K a year in a relatively low cost-of-living area did this person "suddenly" only have $400 to their name? > I was facing a $1,500.00 mortgage, utilities, etc. Again, no money to pay any of this so I had to let it go into foreclosure. Selling the home wasn't an option? > The only thing I had left was my turbocharged 350z which I started to live in as soon as I moved out of my apartment. Selling the car wasn't an option? Despite this "gangbuster" income, the poster had no savings? Anyway, I'm not saying this is made up, and I'm sorry the poster had to go through this. I'm just surprised one of the lessons that was learned wasn't the value of being financially responsible.
- shakycode 11y ago
  Trust me, I've learned all about financial responsibility. Over the past 6 years I've made great strides to save and live a very minimal life now. The lesson has indeed been learned. There were some details omitted from my post regarding my finances as I did not want it to turn into a book. But long story short I had just started making that level of income the beginning of the year and I had a lot of expenses and debt I was paying off ergo why I had not had much saved. Selling the home was attempted but the house was tore up so bad from the renters that I didn't have the money to make it "sale ready". Selling the car was not an option as I was living in it at first.

encoderer 11y ago

What I see here is that people are quite generous when a member of our own tribe is harmed, hurt, or fallow. I'm curious if it's because once you engaged him he was articulate and clearly not a normal homeless person, or if it was just that humans empathize more with people they resemble?

jrbapna 11y ago

This might be a bit impersonal, but why exactly could this person not get a job? If he/she were previously consulting for over 100k a year, surely this person would have some skills that would make them employable?

dnissley 11y ago
At least in the US, it can be very hard to get a job without a permanent address.

tunesmith 11y ago

Having freelanced since the first dotcom crash, this reminds me a lot of my own financial anxieties early on. I responded by going super-risk averse in exchange for embracing the riskier income model. For those that are starting out freelancing, the best advice I can give: You're entitled to nothing! All you will have is what you earn, and you have to keep your sense of accountability. If you find yourself stretching your resources to buy something because you think you deserve it, remind yourself that (in the words of Clint Eastwood) "deserve's got nothing to do with it." Freelance cash is great, but it's a bit of a mirage, because security is far more valuable than a recurring fat check that might stop recurring. Random rough example: 3 years of guaranteed 5k/month is actually more valuable (on average) than a monthly 10k check that has a 5% chance of ceasing each month, assuming no further employment chances for the remainder of the three years. My order of priority was always: bare minimum of expenses, max out retirement, emergency fund, and then balancing my desire to increase standard of living with my desire to save. Also remember that buying luxuries has a nasty way of also increasing your ongoing expenses. I tried to aim for an emergency fund of a year, which meant keeping expenses low as much as it meant saving a pile of money. Volatile investments can make you richer faster, but they also have an increased probability of dropping you below zero, and that's why you must be conservative until you can afford to risk your capital. That applies even more to leveraged investments like taking out a mortgage for a rental property. Last priority should be purchases that don't make you any money - I'm currently making more than the OP topped out at in his article, but I still drive the same pickup truck I bought in the late 90's, because I personally don't need anything nicer-looking. I work from my laptop for clients that don't care what I drive. This isn't to lecture the OP - he had his own circumstances and one hell of a humbling experience - more power to him for making his way through it. But if you're a 20-something freelancer that thinks you're doing well just because you're on a 100k projected revenue... please think again. :)

bootload 11y ago

"In the end, money does not equal happiness. These days happiness is a good cup of coffee ... I don’t care about materialistic things anymore instead I focus on knowledge and experience and consider myself the wealthiest man in the world because of it." That is the best lesson to know. Question, why did the weapon jam?

bdcravens 11y ago

Thank you for sharing. We're very similar, same age, in Houston, so I can definitely relate.

mirimir 11y ago

That is an incredibly inspiring share! Thank you, OP.

spinlock 11y ago

I love how he blames Obama. I had a different perspective on our last 2 presidents. I sold everything in the final 2 years of Bush's presidency then bought into the stock market shortly before Obama took office. I've never had to sleep at a Starbucks.

rsynnott 11y ago
Was confused by that aspect, yeah. I'm not sure how McCain would have made the global financial crisis abruptly stop...

EdwardDiego 11y ago

I'm not sure I understand what Obama had to do with anything?

reustle 11y ago

> You see, there is a lot of food that restaurants throw out every night because they can’t serve it the next day. Is it possible to work out a deal with these (most?) restaurants to pick up this leftover food and take it to soup kitchens? Releasing liability, and things like that of course.

sillygoose 11y ago

I call bullshit. This guy has 100k/yr in income but no savings at all? And his much highlighted Nissan 350 Turbo "pro street" was bought on credit? Where did the money go? He had people renting his house, presumably for a monthly profit? Did he fail to mention being a heroin addict, or where thd hell did all his money go? He didn't sell his swanky car immediately, so he could rent a sucky apartment to avoid being homeless? He gets attacked by a bunch of hoodlums who beat him up before he gets his gun out? But he somehow gets it out anyway. Then his assailant pulls a gun right back at him, and instead of shooting in fear for his life, he proceeds to engage in a Mexican standoff (which the other guy is happy to maintain too!), and walks up to the guy to deliver a macho line, as if he's in a goddamn movie or something? Then cops show up and somehow magically diffuse the Mexican standoff situation without using any force themselves? And finally, there's a time when he's got thousands of dollars of "tax free" income (hah!) in the bank, but he's still homeless? Because having money in the bank sure beats having shelter? This story is complete bullshit.

yyyyes 11y ago
I don't believe a word of it either...
djhworld 11y ago
Even if it was bullshit, which I don't believe it is, what does he have to gain from this other than karma points on HN?
- shakycode 11y ago
  Exactly. I am not monetizing my blog, looking to become famous, etc. I'm just a techie guy who wanted to tell his story. People will be skeptical and I encourage everyone to form their own opinions. In the end I was there and lived it and am so glad it's over. I appreciate all of your taking time to read and comment whether positive to negative. Be well and carry on!
- sillygoose 11y ago
  My guess is that he's a psychopath and just making things up for his own enjoyment. Maybe he's a Narc and just wanted more attention? But either way, think about what I said about the article. If you're being intellectually honest, you'll have to admit it doesn't make sense.

PhasmaFelis 11y ago

This is a good example, I think, of how complex the idea of "privilege" is, in that you can have privilege even when you're pretty much at rock bottom. ShakyCode was living on the street, but was able to secure some advantages and eventually pull himself up because he was educated, well-spoken, and able to make a good impression on people who could help him. Those options might not be available to a lot of homeless people. When we say that it's possible to have privilege even if you're poor and marginalized in some ways, this is what we mean. (I hope it's clear that I don't mean to belittle ShakyCode in any way; there's nothing wrong with using whatever you have to make the best of a bad situation. I don't know what I would have done in his place; I doubt I would have had the emotional strength do do any coding at all in such a rough state, and I absolutely respect what he was able to accomplish. And that's another important point: saying that someone has privilege is not an insult; it's just an observation.)

mpoloton 11y ago

This is the risk involved in working as an independent. I have experienced a similar situation but not as difficult as this story. I think most independent contractors are generalists with a diverse set of skills. This makes them disposable in such situations and reduce their employability.

mikro2nd 11y ago
Risk, indeed. And always the first disposed of, yes. The first rule of being and independent contractor is to have a year's worth of expenses in the bank. Obviously you don't get to that instantly when you're starting out, but you should try and get there as fast as possible. Two years safety cushion is even better. Having no debt is a huge, immense advantage. Disclosure: I've been without work for the past 20 months, and will remain comfortable for another year if need be.

djhworld 11y ago

You write really well, thanks for this.

graememcc 11y ago

This will be me soon. I have to move out of my flat in 3 weeks, and have nowhere to go. The future's not bright. It's my fault, the result of determined head-in-sand burying. No sympathy is due. I've been living off my savings, with the aim of pivoting to a programming career after years post university stuck in under-employment. My aim was to build up a folio of work in lieu of the paucity of experience on my CV. I continued to contribute to various pieces of Mozilla: if you're running Firefox, you're running code I've written, and I managed to build an internal web app that is now considered a fairly critical piece of their internal infrastructure. Other successes included micropolisJS, my SimCity 89 in Javascript port. Others like my functional library funkierJS and my fresh rewrite of V8Monkey/SpiderNode I've not yet managed to get over the finish line. But as my savings dwindled, I refused to accept it, and focussed on how I'd easily claw my way back out when I landed a good position. Even in the past year, when I've been barely hanging on, I stupidly refused to accept reality. I've lived on one meal of lentils for about 9 months or so - shedding 6 stone has been nice; it would have been nicer if it had been in a healthy controlled manner. The mobile phone is long gone, and with it my world, and my friend's list shrank considerably. And still I wouldn't accept the position I'd dug myself in. And now, here we are. My landlord's patience is exhausted. No wonder. In 2 and a half weeks, I become the perverse dual of the homeless guy who learned to code: I know how to code but have sank the other way. There's no friend's sofas or family to bail me out, though that seems fair - I should face the consequences. At best I might get an emergency hostel with the heroin addicts and alcoholics, although my city has a reputation for failing to meet its legal obligations to the homeless. And I did this to myself, the architect of my own demise. Apologies for the wall of text. It was, at least, a little cathartic.

saiprashanth93 11y ago
You have quite the wonderful portfolio for a guy who is learning to code. What is stopping you from getting a job when developer demand is so high?
- graememcc 11y ago
  Initially, I was convinced I hadn't done enough to be a convincing candidate. Recently, more prosaic reasons: no mobile phone, no website (can't afford the hosting), can't afford a haircut or suit dry-cleaning for attending interviews...

deleted 11y ago

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