Is anyone “poor” and happy?

"Poor and Happy" is actually the motto of Colombia.

But I have always said that poverty is a horrible thing.

I will just touch on two reasons (relevant to current events):

[1] Poverty is the reason we have COVID-19

How?

Poor people in China who can't afford real food, have chosen to eat just about anything that they can afford to buy. Namely bats, rats, snakes, insects etc.

Purchased from wet markets, or perhaps even caught in the wild for free.

We all know where this new strain of corona virus came from. Just in case you have been stuck in a cave with your fingers in your ears and your eyes close, I will reveal it to you:

It came from wet markets in China, places where poor people go to buy food, because they can't afford real food sold at grocery stores.

[2] Poverty is the reason black people are shot and killed

Yes. This is the reason.

I know, I know . . . you will say, no it is because of racism, or because of guns or because of a criminal behaviour etc.

But I would argue that wealthy people (white and black) are not murdered at the same rate. Not even close.

Wealth creates a protective wall. A wall that separates the person from the degradation on the other side.

It is an achievement to be proud of.

I’ve been very poor, a professional runner and someone with a demanding job. They are all what you want them to be, in my experience. Also, in my experience, a college degree unlocks more doors, and more opportunities, than running.

Don’t drop out.

do the math wrote:

ChadBrad wrote:

By your logic a world class runner shouldn’t push himself to be a Olympic champion. Too much hard work and competition! Just chill bro, find that balance between great and nothing. Think it’s called being mediocre. And if that’s cool for you, then it’s allllll good....

LOL at this guy who equates climbing the corporate later with 'greatness.'

semi-important manager guy spotted.

ChadBrad is unfailingly polite, you can check his posts, but he’s also committed to truth telling. There is definitely a correlation between your lack of drive and your poor deductive reasoning skills, and it’s likely there’s causation as well.

OP - finish your degree and actually pay attention. What’s cute at 20 waits in line at the food bank at 60.

ChadBrad wrote:

do the math wrote:

LOL at this guy who equates climbing the corporate later with 'greatness.'

semi-important manager guy spotted.

ChadBrad is unfailingly polite, you can check his posts, but he’s also committed to truth telling. There is definitely a correlation between your lack of drive and your poor deductive reasoning skills, and it’s likely there’s causation as well.

OP - finish your degree and actually pay attention. What’s cute at 20 waits in line at the food bank at 60.

Who said I had a lack of drive?

Maybe it's you who has a lack of ambition and imagination. Maybe you just can't think of any other way to achieve 'success' than climbing the old drudgery ladder. well......enjoy!

You'll make upper-middle management day one day...I promise!!!

Finishing your degree won’t take away the chance of living a poor lifestyle. The way things are going, you’ll probably be poor no matter what you do!

YES, I have been poor and happy. How poor? Pretty close to the poverty line, but also have the knowledge and faith that this will not last forever.

Happiness has been researched at length and here are some conclusions:

1. The more you strive for happiness, the further away you will drift from it. The goal in life should be to experience all things and find MEANING and connection to the world. What gives life meaning? Responsibility. Having family. Having a good job. Taking care of people. Having commitments.

2. Striving for personal excellence and growth is key. When you do this, you are likely to make enough money to not be poor. It doesn't matter what kind of job you have. But when you make yourself a better and better person and better and better at your job, you will make money. Or at least enough to not be poor.

3. Overcoming adversity makes people stronger. It's like training for life.

4. Gratitude for what you have is the best way to get more things.

SO, my conclusion is from what you have written: keep the education. Don't be foolish!!! Honestly, education is a privilege and a gift and can only help you. Make the most of it as well. Don't just half ass it and get passes. Strive to LEARN something, even if you don't think you will use it later. You really don't know how it may help you later on.

Sheesh, youth is wasted on the young!

5k 10k 15k wrote:

Finishing your degree won’t take away the chance of living a poor lifestyle. The way things are going, you’ll probably be poor no matter what you do!

+1 Yeah, especially if I win.

I am 17 years older than you and tried that type of life as well.

You will wake up one day in your late 30s and wonder what the hell happened to your life.

having little money doesnt necessarily mean being poor. its a matter of living within your means.

ive made less than 12k for the past decade, in most cases under 10, and i dont use any government assistence. i work part time at most, though half the year i dont work. i have a nice place in a city that i rent and occasionally over the years ive had a car. i can easily save money and my life is full of high quality things wealthier people strive for but i taught myself how to make, fix, or build. ( i di recognize that i have no kids and that it counts for a lot.)

im extremely busy with learning and trying things. im very active in my community and probably work harder in those areas than someone working a job making over 100k.

the stress can be real at times because the margin for error is thinner. but in this virus situation literally nothing changed for me. im pretty used to storing up what i need and living self-sufficiently, its steady as always right now. but overall i am incredibly enriched as a person and i love my life.

thats my remarks about how possible it is. however you cant go back in time. finish your degree and youll have 60 years to live as many different lives as you want. get it done because getting good at finishing things you dont want to do, while holding on to that part of you that has ambitions elsewhere will be an extremely helpful muscle to have later on when you strike out onto greater things.

Solidly middle class. Wife and I don't understand why the US Govt is treating us like we are poor by giving us a debt financed $2400 "stimulus" payment. That money will buy us beer, wine, whiskey, pizza, chocolate, cheez-its.

Thank you again everyone for your insight. I figured that since the process of college is not making me any better of a person, then the end result wouldn’t either. Unfortunately that is not the case and the degree is needed to open up doors I may need one day. I suppose I need to understand that just because I am having fun and living comfortably now, I cannot always rely on that lifestyle that I very much want. My plan if I didn’t go to college would be to bum off my parents for a couple years and eventually go to the most competitive meets in the country and hit my goals. Then start a military career and get out when I felt like it (if I ever did, it sounds very promising to me). After that...I don’t know. I’ll take the advice of what most posters here have said so that I don’t have to live uncertain of whether or not I’ll have an alright job. Thanks everyone! Every post truly has helped in at least some way.

"Do not get married. Girlfriend only advised if she is not manipulative and is truly sympathetic to the frugal life. This is very hard to determine, it takes years. good luck. Absolutely don't have kids"

Almost impossible to pull off. Even in this day and age where marriage has, to some extent, fallen out of favor. A girlfriend who acts like a great wife is what you are describing. Such a woman will eventually tire of the arrangement and demand a commitment. That's true even of women who are financially independent.

Know tons of people who are happy as hell making less than 50 grand. Also know people who are depressed af making a couple hundred thousand. This is small state of course but money means very little. The only time how much you make matters is with women. They care more about your paycheck than you do.

So you went to college simply to run and you got terrible grades. Unless you can run professionally, dropping out is a terrible idea. Look at unemployment figures during the Great Recession and look at numbers today. The ones with the highest rates of unemployment are those without a degree by a factor of three. A person can be poor and happy, but it is pretty hard to be homeless and happy.

Yeah grades aren’t the best. Hovering around a 3.00 right now with easy classes inflating it and my major related classes bringing it down. I probably won’t be fast enough to make a living out of running unless sub 14 is good enough for that? Either way I am not depending on it. People here seem to think that getting a job without a degree is very difficult and unreliable, I lack first hand experience to verify this so I don’t know what to think any more.

Finding a good job is all about marketable skills. A non-degree vocational skill (electrician, millwright, pipe fitter, etc.) is going to have an easier time finding work than most people with a sociology/psychology/etc. degree.

That said, on average, having a degree is going to make finding a job easier.

Overall, if you're spending less time worrying about day-to-day expenses, you'll have more time to do what you want (running or otherwise). There are a lot of people without marketable skills who are doing side gigs to make ends meet. Think working a 10-hour shift at a warehouse four days a week then doing four hours each day the rest of the week driving Uber.

One thing to look at is sticking it out in a degree-required, entry-level job. Low stress. Top out at 40 hours per week (or less). My wife worked part time as a physiologist at a hospital (nutrition undergrad, kinesiology master's). You could look at being a PT (stay close to running). You could be a drafter at an architectural/engineering firm (basically draw stuff on computers from your house). If you're good (i.e., fast at drawing), you can probably tell them you're working 40 hours and goofing off for half of it (e.g., 90-min lunch run).

35K per year is "poor"??! OP. what have you been smoking?!

It's in the bottom quarter (well, 27th percentile). I'll bet most of that quarter is made up of senior citizens living on a fixed income as opposed to being mostly wage-earners. Yes, it's poor. It's not shantytown-outside-of-Mumbai poor, but it's low income.

https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/