Was your climb out of poverty a hard one?

[Anonymous]

Some of us grew up under poverty. Our parents didn't have the money to send us to college or have the connections to hook us up to a decent career. Had it been an easy or hard ride for you?

[Anonymous]

Yes. I gained the world but i lost my soul. I don't recommend it.

[Asker]

I really agree. The same happened to me.

[Opinion Owner]

👍👍👍

[worldscolide]

I fought like hell to get out of it.

[AI Opinion]

I grew up solidly middle-class, but many of my closest friends didn’t. Walking alongside them taught me a lot.

For those who did climb out of poverty, it was rarely “easy”:
- Constant stress about money
- Working while studying
- No safety net when things went wrong
- Little guidance on college, loans, or careers

What helped most were: one or two strong mentors, community resources (scholarships, libraries, public programs), and relentless persistence.

If you’d like, tell me your situation and I’ll suggest specific steps for education/career progress.

[Anonymous]

I have been confused by the way I grew up. My father was blue collar and no high school education yet the smartest man I have known. He bought our house in suburbia 2 years before I was born and it was a 3 br and 1.5 bath for what became a home for 9 people. It didn’t feel rich growing up and we lived close to very bad areas.

He started low but by the time he retired he was making $240,000 a tear adjusted for inflation. But we always lived in that house that was then worth $138,000 which I though was a large amount.

I married basically an orphan. She had no mom or dad and at one point was living in her car. We paid for our own wedding although my parents gave us a surprise which was a honeymoon vacation.

We came home to my apartment which was empty of furniture except a bed frame, mattress, dresser and a TV. An Army blanket was my window curtain.

I worked hard and smart. Driven to make money but to keep my ethics. It worked out big time. It wasn’t hard but took persistence and focus. I was always careful with money and still am. I live below my means but am very happy and content. I see what the net worth of the Real Housewives is and tell my wife she is worth more than many of them if not most. But we are the same people as we were and those types disgust me.

[Opinion Owner]

Typos but whatever. The $138,000 for our home that had 9 people in it is today’s adjusted value for inflation.

[Opinion Owner]

In case people are using translate software, let me correct this “ he was making $240,000 a tear” should be “he was making $240,000 a year”

To more directly answer your question, my father pushed my to go to college. I went to the state university which is considered excellent and we lived in easy commute distance so no extra costs for the family even though they were okay with that. I was working since I was young and had been a go-for (unskilled helper) at age 12 at a construction site, a janitor and dishwasher all before I was 18. I joined an Army National Guard unit while in college to serve my country primarily but it also gave me some extra money.

The college I went to rejected me at first but I found a back door in that incurred risk but eventually graduated after 5 years. I had to take remedial English and Math though, 099 courses. My degree was in technology. I had a 2.7 or so GPA but my last 18 months was 4.0.

My first week in the job once I graduated I was promoted to Team Leader of 6 people. I showed leadership in the training sessions and they liked my military background for leadership as well. Throughout my career I was seen as a leader but backstabbing people always found me to be a good target.

I had street smarts and intelligence so I had a big edge over people who were just book smart. I climbed the ladder of major corporations and invested wisely. I always made sure I was valuable to the companies I was at and to future employers. I became wealthy and managed to keep my ethics which is very hard in corporate life. The hardest part were the backstabbing people who had no talent but ambition. The second hardest part was not becoming succumbing to the temptation of selling my souk for money which others did do.

[Opinion Owner]

Souk = soul*

[Asker]

Imagine if your father never had the money to send you to college. would you think your climb out of poverty would've been way harder? There are plenty of kids who go to war , become soldiers , just to be able to attend college for free. It's very sad

[Asker]

and taking a look at your age, I assume you were from the prior generations. It was much easier to survive back then. Things were way cheaper, easier to get a job, better economy.

[Opinion Owner]

The college was cheap. We were instate, no dorm fees as I lived at home. In today’s money it was $1,920 a semester. The school is in the top 100 in the US today.

When I was 26 I worked at a huge company and was paid $135,000 a year in today’s inflation adjusted money. That is up from $59,000 three years earlier which was my starting pay out of school. I kept advancing from there.

I had already joined to be a soldier in a combat arms unit, a fighting unit. Maybe I would have stayed. I was offered an opportunity to go to West Point while in training as my test scores were high enough for a program that took enlisted men and put them in the Academy. I turned it down as they wanted a year for each year of school which was 2 year predatory training, then 4 years at West Point. If I failed out I still owed the years of schooling to be served in the Army. So that was a route but I was already enrolled in college so perhaps it wouldn’t have been offered if I wasn’t. I took the army training in the summer so I could squeeze it in my college studies and then back to the National Guard.

My age on here is not accurate at all as it is meant to be so high that it is not to be taken seriously. The better jobs back then were manufacturing. Those jobs would have dried up though 20 years later.

[Opinion Owner]

I was a smart risk taker who would have found a way or would have ended up in jail as I did illegals things often. Yeah, it would have been hard. Things were not a cake walk back then though. One thing I did that a lot of people then and now do not do is move locations. I moved to where the jobs were. I moved many times until I was 31. I lived in 5 different states all over during those years. And more moved within the states. Move to the jobs.

I vote Republican and did then. If you want higher paying jobs that is the better bet. The Democrats only offer BS.

I was smart and driven so I would have found a way or ended up in jail as I said. Maybe fulltime military. If I didn’t end up in jail, I would have made it out but it would have been harder. I always had a knack for finding the crack through the wall.

[Asker]

Do you realize you didn't need to be smart to buy a house, car and start a family back then during your time?

Nowadays even well educated, smart people struggle to buy a house and a car.

[Opinion Owner]

Well educated people are not necessarily smart. It sounds like you want to argue and just say well that was then and things were easy. The fuck they were. You are talking out of your ass. Only one of us was there. You have an agenda and a point to make so just make it.

[Asker]

@opinion owner

You can't be stupid and well educated. Because stupid people usually can't do well in school

[Opinion Owner]

Firstly, there are many who enter college today who are not smart but they have access to large student loans which colleges want but even still many people who went to school that I worked with were not truly smart. They were able to memorize and regurgitate but not think in a meaningful way. Many are even admitted for DEI reasons without being truly qualified. But it is about what you do with the learning, what can you do and then go to the jobs and make money.

Today it is harder but it was never easy. But you can make more money today doing less if you find the right job or open the right company.

If they are smart they will start their own business if they can’t find something better. But that takes a lot of effort generally.

[Asker]

@opinion owner

it seems to me like you haven't kept up to date on what life is like today. Cost of living has risen a lot today. You should know that. AI is taking up jobs, leaving many young people unemployed

I disagree that educated people aren't smart. Because stupid people dont tend to do well in school. which impedes with them getting educated.

And just because someone has attended college, it does not mean they are educated. Many failing students get admitted to failing colleges or community colleges.

[Opinion Owner]

I would guess you have a degree that hasn’t paid off. You can’t find a great job. You are angry. You may have college debt. I understand. But there is always a way. People flood this country as they know that. Someone who arrived with nothing a few years ago has surpassed you already. And some will surpass me in 10 years time.

You have to think hard. Find way through the wall. What are your strengths? Identify them and use them. Think about starting your own business. How can you reduce risk there. What would it be? How can you test it and gain experience without risking everything etc.

The Democrats like Mamdani will sell you a pipe dream. Someone like Rubio is on the right track. I just heard him talk about manufacturing and mistakes that were made. This is the way to prosperity for many as they pay well and have great jobs at the corporate level.

[Asker]

@opinion owner

I think there must be something seriously wrong with you if you insist you must be correct making random assumptions about random strangers online.

I don't have college debt nor do I not have a job.

[Asker]

college has paid off for me. that's why I posted this question. just wanted to hear about other people who had overcome similar struggles

[Opinion Owner]

I said i would guess…. Calm down. Well I’m done here.

[jennifer_bloom]

Your lying.

If you spent 1.5 years working part time at Pizza Hut as a dishwasher, you would have enough money to cover 4 years of tuition at the University of Toronto.

Only people who are too lazy to use toilet paper or put on underwear would pretend that university graduates do not deserve their degree because their parents are rich.

[Asker]

Not everyone lives in Toronto

[FunkyMonkee]

Getting the money was easy. All I had to do was sign for a couple checks but, what I had to succumb to get the money was highly evil and I'll NEVER forgive those two fucking greedy cunts for forcing me into this position!!! And, now, I'm almost back where I was 6 years ago before I got that money... nearly flat broke!!

[Nikki1989]

I had awful parents in many ways, but we always had money, food, clothes and pretty much anything else we wanted. I also became independent at 16 with my first job.

[MrChinaski]

I've never been poor and never will be.

My father was born dirt poor, died with millions, with no help whatsoever along the way. I always admired him.

[AngryCarl3]

Add Asperger's Syndrome and you have my life. Yes, it was very hard.

[jahaims]

Yeah, my wife and I used to worked a lot and made smart investments.

[Abbycado]

Never was in it.