Just wanted to share my story here for anyone who is living in conditions that may seem like they'll never get better.
I grew up in poverty, which was extreme at times. There were days when we had literally no food in the house. I remember when my mother dug out all the loose change she had to send one of my siblings to Burger King for a couple junior burgers to share. I remember bringing a friend over and telling him we could have peanut butter sandwiches, since that was all we had, to see that we'd run out of bread. I remember having no heat in Canadian winters, and having social services get involved (but ultimately not doing anything).
I moved out on my own as soon as I could and tried to live off student loans, but I had no idea what I was doing. When my loan ran out and I lost my job at the same time, I maxed out a small credit card my bank had insisted on giving me. Minimum wage where I was living couldn't pay the bills, even when I found a job. I destroyed my credit in about a year, and was incredibly ashamed, planning to do better than my family had.
Today though, I just reached $5k in savings. I'm getting regular increases on my credit card. I'm being approved for the things I apply for, like apartments and phone contracts. I did it. I'm a functional adult. I don't have a house or a car, but I don't want them at this point. I might have waited longer than most people to start planning for the future, but I'm fortunate enough to be making a great salary in a relatively inexpensive city these days. I can honestly say that money is usually not an object in my decisions (though I am frugal day to day).
It started with finishing community college in IT. Then I worked a couple of low-salary jobs for experience. With each new job I took a new role, taking on responsibilities that were getting closer and closer to what I wanted to do. The biggest risk I took was moving with no money to a big city where I'd heard the jobs were good. It paid off.
Today I can say I'm happy in my job and happy with my life overall. I still have things to learn about investing and RRSPs, but I've built myself a solid foundation. I'm going to be okay, and you can be too.
Submitted June 22, 2017 at 11:20AM by manamachine http://ift.tt/2sZiCH0
