you'll break.

[raybear]

For a very brief period of time in my life, I was poor. For about six months after graduation, I was living in a crappy apartment with cheap rent and working retail full-time. I almost didn't have to file taxes because of my income level. I didn't have insurance. I had lots of credit card debt. But I'm pretty fortunate that if something dire had happened, at that point my parents probably would have chipped in to pay for the broken leg. And the whole situation didn't last for very long -- I found my current job and stabilized my life a bit, and went back to just being broke.

I'm still broke. Here's how I define the difference. When I'm "poor", I have no cash, can barely pay the bills (or not paying them at all), and I don't have much 'stuff', physical or intangible. When I'm broke, all my bills are paid (on time, for the most part) and I have stuff, like a 30-day bus pass, health insurance, some food in the fridge and pantry, and cable tv, but I still have credit card debt will little room remaining on the balances and I have no liquid assets. The ATM balance is dangerously close to one-digit. Or even negative.

Last summer I dipped below broke and got near danger zones that could have led to poor. But again I got lucky and I hustled a bit (in multiple meanings of the word) and things were okay.

I try not to take any of my situations for granted, because no matter what, they can certainly always get worse. But they can also get better, especially if I'm a bit more conscience with my money. Right now I'm in the situation where my bank balance seems high, but nearly every dollar is already allocated and it's only the 1st. Not quite the way I want to start off the month, but it's too late now.

However, in exciting news, my first shipment from the record pool arrived today. I couldn't resist opening the box a litte, just to pull out the supposed questionnaire being sent to me -- I fear I won't meet their requirements and will get dropped. But the only piece of paper I saw on top said, "Raymond, I set you up with some extra vinyl. Please send your next dues by May 1." So I sent them a check immediately today, with a note thanking them for hooking me up and letting them know that I didn't get the records until May 1st, and apologize if the check gets there late. Of course, I didn't budget in for this expense this pay period. But luckily I didn't mail off the bills I paid last night. So I decided to slip my cell phone bill into my drawer and wait to mail it in 2 weeks. Note to myself in the future two weeks: MAIL THE BILL IN YOUR DRAWER. Maybe I'll set an alarm on my computer. I already put a post-it note on the bill itself.

Then I realized I'm scheduled to pay my therapist tonight. There's no money for her right now. But in two weeks I can pay her in full -- she's usually understanding, but I can't help but feel weird showing up at her appointment tonight with a big box of records, telling her I have no money.

Someone on my friends list recently mentioned "graduating" from therapy and only going once a month. Perhaps if I show lots of improvement for the sake of my bank books. Is it lame to get more motivation for finanical reasons?

Another side benefit of the vinyl is that I can take it down to the used record shops and re-cup a little bit of cash. That's probably how I'll finance my weekend.

In other news, I went to a work event at the Daley center as part of some Law Day fair. It was pretty uneventful from my job perspective, but I met this awesome attorny who works for Lawyers for Creative Arts and she hooked me up with a guy who teaches music business seminars AND I can call her with any future copyright/legal business questions -- they offer their services pro bono. Maybe I won't be so bad at this networking type stuff after all, considering how excited I get by free stuff.

And then who knows. Maybe someday in the near future I won't even be broke anymore.

Comments

[freakysparks.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of postponing bill payments. That will be very helpful. But how does that affect one's credit rating?

In other news, I would like to have lunch with you. I feel that I have been bothering you for political "advice" overly much recently and would like to just chat about music, video games, cute gay boys, et cetera. What do you think?

bills bills bills

[raybear.livejournal.com]

Paying bills late doesn't really effect your credit, at least not until it goes past two months. I don't think I ever pay the ComEd bill on time -- I pretty much pay it every other month, partly because it's so small and I resent writing checks for less than 30 dollars. Even credit cards don't report missed payments onto your credit report until you've missed two in a row. Though I wouldn't recommend skipping on those, because the late fee is EXHORBITANT. I tend to pay the trinity of visa/mastercard/discover on time, and everyone else late, including doctor's office, electricity, cell phone, etc. etc. Oh, and never miss mortgage or loan payments -- those are bad news bears.
Ameritech is funny because they pursue at different rates -- when I lived in Evanston (even though it was a crappy apartment), I could pay every other month and they barely noticed. But when living in Uptown, if I missed a payment, I started getting disconnection notices.

But as for lunch -- yes! unfortunatley the rest of this week is already booked. But how bout next monday or tuesday? I'm sure even after seeing each other briefly on saturday we'll have much to talk about.

Re: bills bills bills

[freakysparks.livejournal.com]

Next Tuesday sounds great! Thanks for the bill clarification. I am SO relieved. No more FedExing credit card payments!

Re: bills bills bills

[gotmce99.livejournal.com]

The bill payment info helped me out too. I usually do ok with paying bills on time, but I have no idea what my credit rating is...and hence have always worried about it. this takes a lot of the worry off.

Adios,

margaret

Re: bills bills bills

[hissyfit.livejournal.com]

ameritech totally disconnected riley's phone a couple weeks ago. he recieved the disconnection notice the day after it happened. bastards.

poor vs. broke

[danielray.livejournal.com]

the time in my life when i had the least money was the time in my life i spent the most time with people who were poor (mostly from hanging out on the street near where i lived and making friends with people).

i didn't feel poor. i was a college-educated white kid doing activism, so even though i barely covered rent and didn't have much stuff, i was often really aware that i was coming to my life from a place of privilege.

(which is strange in itself. i grew up as just-on-the-comfortable-side-of-poor, but then spent 4 years amassing privilege at a private liberal arts college.)

anyways, my thoughts on poor vs. broke, at the time, were that, to me, it was more about economic mobility. i didn't have any money, but i knew that i had the *option* to make money if i wanted to, i had access to lots of resources, i had insurance, and i knew that, in the future, i was probably going to be making money. (heh--must've been fooling myself there....) i was broke, but i was confident about my future. i also was responsible only for myself.

being poor, on the other hand, implied to me a lack of mobility--a lack of confidence that the future was going to bring any change in the amount of money i was making or the manner in which i lived. also a physical lack of mobility--being tied to a single place, so that there was less chance of getting at oportunities, if the specific location didn't offer them.

eh, no point today. just a thought.

--ray

Re: poor vs. broke

[raybear.livejournal.com]

yeah, the concept of economic mobility is definitely a huge factor in the general definitions of poor and broke. and I think in that brief period of time, I did feel rather 'immobile', even it wasn't as true as i perceived it. i had just graduated from a private liberal arts college but was unwilling AND unable to tap into the privilege that most of my peers had (i don't think i could have gotten a consulting job even if i wanted it). but a lot of the struggles were purely mental -- i was feeling depressed and therefore incapable and trapped, versus my objective situation which was not as hopeless as it seemed at the time.

i think a lot of folks mix up broke and poor on a regular basis, which made me think about the concepts in my own life. just becuase i truly don't have any change in my pocket to give to the street person who asks for money doens't put us on the same level by any means, and i get ticked off when folks imply that. sure, you might be overdrawn in your account with only 50 cents to your name, but that's only for 2 weeks or less, and then you'll have money again. and in the meantime, you have a place to sleep and ways to eat and a job to go to everyday.