Poverty teaches you to survive with limited means. Here are 8 lessons that poverty teaches a person. You learn to accept the harsh realities of life and find happiness in the little things. You don't need materialistic things like going out to dinner or enjoying retail therapy to enjoy a fleeting moment of happiness.
Instead, you invest time and effort in more meaningful things. You learn to be happy without depending on a few worldly possessions. Complaining and joking is not how you spend your precious time. Instead, you're grateful and appreciate every little thing you own.
Growing up in poverty can teach you valuable lessons that will help you earn, spend and save money as you age. You might not realize or appreciate these lessons at the time, and you might think that poverty is the worst thing that can happen to you in your life. But now, looking back, you can realize that growing up in poverty was probably a good thing. The day before leaving, my grandfather closed all the blinds to prevent anyone from peeking out, he put the radio on a Vietnamese radio station to make it look like people were talking from inside the house and allowed our neighbors, who normally parked on our street, to park at the entrance of our house to make it look like people were coming and going.
When we returned from our vacation, we learned that two houses had been robbed on a street down the road, but that our house had not been attacked. Growing up, learning to be inventive became a regular part of my identity. When I moved to San Francisco, some friends and I wanted to have lunch at a popular restaurant that would have to wait 1 to 2 hours unless you came with a reservation. However, to make a reservation, there must be at least 10 people.
I brought together a group of 10 friends and made a reservation for the following month. When the day of our reservation arrived, half of our group could no longer attend and only informed me when I was driving to the restaurant. My job is to work with people who are older and more experienced than me, but it's my job to be in the same room with them and give them advice on how to run their businesses; some of my clients joke that I'm young enough to be their son. For a 23-year-old, being in this situation can be scary, since you know that if you say the wrong things, you'll be out of work, but when you know what it's like to go days without running water, walking into a spacious room isn't so scary.
Phi wasn't the academic type, but he knew how to create opportunities for himself. When we all turned 18, we started getting credit card offers. These credit cards are designed to get you to spend and start a cycle of debt. For people who knew, they avoided letters altogether.
But even though as a child there were many times when I felt so embarrassed about our economic situation (such as paying at the supermarket with food stamps, which back then were paper bills that were obviously removed from a book), I must admit that this taught me some really valuable lessons that I have with me to this day and I hope to pass on some of them to my own children. When the amount of use makes the difference between being able to pay your bill and having your services disconnected, you learn to save that garbage. I filled up a bathtub in anticipation of our water being cut off and I had to make it last a few days until we could afford it. I keep pouring barely enough milk on my cereal to make it wet.
And candles are great if you consider them from a “cozy” point of view rather than “minimizing the electricity bill”. If you're willing to do so, you can learn many lessons from growing up in poverty that you can use to improve your current life and feel more satisfied. This is a lesson that applies to all areas of life, from your home to your marriage to your child's rate of development.
