Reddit stories from r/AskReddit
Rich people of Reddit that were poor before,
how did money solve your problems and what
new problems have appeared?
Went through childhood in the foster system
and fell through the cracks, ended up homeless
a few times.
Anyways I am not a 1%er but I do make more
than 80% of Americans (yearly salary wise).
Money relieved me of stress.
When I go shopping I don't check my bank account
before I make a purchase, I have insurance
so I am not afraid to go to the dentist or
doctor, going out with friends is fun because
I know I won't be financially struggling from
a night out.
It ultimately bought me a level of stability
I never was used to and I am incredibly grateful.
My 'new problems' I wouldn't call problems,
home maintenence, car upkeep, bills, etc.
I am grateful those are my main worries these
days.
I think this is the best response.
Many Americans live paycheck by paycheck for
most of their lives.
When you can finally not feel like you have
to check you bank account before buying something
or even after rent has been taken out, is
an amazing feeling.
But definitely comes with more bills and responsibilities.
Good for you though!
Money allows me to not worry.
It doesn't make me happy, but it frees up
my mind to BE happy, because I don't have
to spend time worrying about how I'm going
to pay the next bill.
Lifestyle creep is a very real thing, if you're
looking for a "problem."
We've gotten used to this level of money,
so if it were to go away, it would be a pretty
big problem pretty quickly.
Our bills have risen along with our income.
Holy shit man.
You are absolutely correct.
Doubled my salary, now it feels like I have
no money :(
lmao same, tripled my salary in the past 6
years, and then i go on my CC statement every
week and wonder how tf $500 more in expenses
showed up
I can now buy good gifts for my friends/family.
Downside: now I cant get them shitty gifts
Second downside: other people have trouble
buying YOU gifts because you already have
almost everything you need.
Except love.
I answered this a long time ago with a similar
question, and recently I've had to address
this with friends who aren't nearly as well
off.
If you are in this situation where they have
money and everything they want, something
that money can't buy is the way to go.
(Homemade cookies are fantastic.
Homemade chocolates are harder, but also fantastic.
If you gave me home baked cookies I will not
care one bit if I receive the same gift as
every other one of your friends, I will think
you are an A+ gift giver.)
Not rich currently but due to my work skills
I have been both flush with cash and scraping
by.
This position changes every so often.
When I had excess, fuck it level of money,
my immediate needs were taken care of so I
could focus on other things/take on new projects.
People don't realize that when you don't have
to worry about:
* Food for the next month(s)
* Basic household bills for the next month(s)
* Fuel for the car
you are so free to spend your energy on other
projects and learn new things.
For me, the issues that having that much disposable
income is the temptation to spend it.
Lifestyle creep and keeping up with the Jones'
will destroy people if the cash flow ever
gets interrupted.
Without that cash flow you can't afford you
mortgage or your new car.
I avoided it, luckily.
Many others have not.
I bought a small house and a nice 15 year
old truck when I had the money and then I
stopped.
I put my money in the bank/invested it.
My monthly stay alive cost is under 1K.
When the good times end, I still keep the
lights on working a low paying job.
I spent some time where I did have to worry
about food for next week and whether there
would be money for gas for the car.
If so, how far will $5 of gas get me?
I hope nothing breaks.
I always had a safety net that I could go
ask my parents for help, so I was never desperately
poor, but on my own I was down to accounting
for each individual dollar and what was the
cheapest food at the market.
Relatively, not having that level of worry
makes me feel rich.
I'll never buy an island or go to a black
tie charity event.
I'll never be rich at that level.
But I have strong incentive (and good memory)
to save plenty of money so I never fall back
to the worry about food for next week level.
Grew of middle class, until 12 years old,
then mom had a stroke and parents lost family
business and was essentially piss poor broke.
I think parents sheltered my brother's and
I from it a lot.
Always had something to eat but always moving
around different homes, xmas presents consisted
of socks, underwear and candy bars.
It sucked during high school.
I was jealous.
Went to college, got a job, and so did my
brother's.
My brothers started doing well and started
supporting our parents.
I ended up going to med school.
Getting through residency.
Still paying off massive loans but now in
a place where I dont have to worry about my
car breaking down, I can go to whole foods,
I can buy friends and family dinner without
thinking about it.
I can pay for my parents dental work without
thinking too much about it.
I can invest in stocks, invest in a good home,
maintain the home and my cars and even make
money on my house by investing correctly.
The biggest difference is that.
Now I can make financial decisions that on
their own make money for me, with real estate
and with investing.
And the ratio of this easy capital games money
only gets better every year.
When you are poor you own nothing and the
only way of making money is to work but if
your paycheck cant support your lifestyle
it is very difficult to break cycle.
> I can pay for my parents dental work without
thinking too much about it
I love reading this
Not "rich" by 1% standards, never been "poor"
(I always had a support system, even if I
had no money myself).
That being said, the number one thing I noticed
is holidays aren't as stressful, because money
isn't an issue.
Shopping for presents is relatively easy,
because I'm limited by creativity, not weighing
"how ashamed am I going to be to give this
crappy gift to someone vs how much do I want
to eat this week."
The main problems come from being in that
place where "enough" is never enough.
As long as I watch my spending, I can mostly
buy the occasional thing I want, but I don't
have enough that I can buy "whatever."
It's also a dilemma when it comes to helping
out my friends.
I don't have enough that I can afford to solve
(or really significantly impact) my friends
financial problems, while at the same time
I want to be generous/helpful when I can.
On the gripping hand, it becomes easy to be
taken for granted or even worse, taken advantage
of.
Springing for the occasional meal can easily
become being expected to pay for restaurants
that are more expensive than I want to be
going to in the first place.
You want to nip that shit in the bud real
quick.
But I have a lot of friends who are literally
looking through couch cushions for gas money.
At the same time, if I gave them gas money
all the time, I wouldn't be able to pay my
own bills.
So it sucks to sit there and have to figure
out when I can actually help vs when I'm lighting
myself on fire to keep someone else warm.
Went from extremely lower middle class (where
I didn't carry insurance because I couldn't
afford it, and could never pay all my bill
in any given month) to 1%er.
The biggest difference is bar none the loss
of that fear and shame.
My wife is an incredibly empathetic sympathetic
person but she came from money and doesn't
understand the feeling.
The stress, shame, and sleeplessness that
comes from not having money just can't be
explained unless you've lived them.
Not having that feeling, just knowing I can
buy what I want (with in reason, don't confuse
the 1% with the .01%) is one of the greatest
changes in my life.
Having come from almost nothing to where I'm
at now there are no problems.
The problems I face now are totally first
world problems, because money.
I went from a similar background - maybe a
bit less precarious than you, but got free
school lunches.
Now I’m doing pretty okay and I’m honestly
more freaked out.
I’m not 1%, but I’m certainly up there
for my age.
I’m afraid of what if I lose my job?
I can afford what I have easily now, but what
if I lose my job and need to work at 7-11?
How will I pay my rent when my emergency fund
runs out?
Kinda the opposite here, was fairly wealthy
living in a large single family home, now
living in a 250sqft trailer.
The biggest thing is probably not having the
time to be able to enjoy ourselves.
Working 7 days a week just to make ends meet
isn’t fun.
Before, we could go anywhere on a whim and
not have to worry about missing out on the
money.
One thing I can say for sure though is I will
never take normal things for granted ever
again.
How I miss having a dishwasher and a clothes
washer and counter space.
I miss having an oven big enough for a tray
of cookies.
I miss having more than one bathroom in the
house.
If I were to ever have these things again,
I’d never ever look at them how I did before,
I’d be eternally more grateful than I ever
had been.
I am not super rich, but definitely doing
ok, and really there aren't downsides.
Maybe a bit of guilt that I have some extended
family members who are always living paycheck
to paycheck, but they are just bad with money
and would spend it like NBA players if I helped
them IMHO (they all smoke like chimneys and
drink like fish, the ones that have a bit
more in their paychecks have big trucks/suvs,
etc).
I do contribute to college funds for their
kids.
Sometimes I feel a bit out of touch.
I had an AC unit blow 2 years ago, it was
a few grand, I had a friend over and just
mentioned it, and she was like oh man that
must have been a big setback- and I just kind
of shrugged it off, not really.
I knew it was struggling for a good year and
a half, I was happy to get as much time out
of it as I did- and the newer one was much
quieter.
I immediately regretted saying that as she
looked at me like I was crazy.
We lived way below our means for many years.
We had a smallish condo that worked well enough
for us, but we finally found our "forever
home" this fall which is much larger and nicer
and kind of shocked some people.
We didn't tell people what we paid, but still
kind of "outed" ourselves a bit, so we will
see how that changes peoples perceptions.
Its a much bigger nut to take on, we will
be ok but things could get stressful if I
lose my job or befall some other catastrophic
thing in the next 6 months to a year.
Can't say I'm rich but for my age (22) I'm
wealthy.
I always had to think a lot before buying
anything, having money makes it much easier.
I don't have to say no to my friends when
they invite me for something because I don't
have the money, always so embarrassing.
Still I'm always afraid I lose it again and
I end up being poor again.
It's a constant anxiety.
Wealth is where your money works for you and
generates more without you doing very much.
Rich is something you can blow in a weekend
of bad decisions.
The prophet Chris Rock taught me this.
The biggest thing is solves is that you no
longer have to worry about things.
$2000 car repair?
No big deal.. put it on your credit card to
save 2% with cash back and the bill is auto
paid in full on the due date anyways.
Your life is much less stressful when these
things randomly pop up, and you don't have
to worry about where you'll get the money
to cover them.
The problem I've been thinking about lately
is *why* I want to keep increasing my salary.
I'm on the fence about getting an MBA so that
I can move into a senior level management
position, CTO/CEO.
It's not like I need more money.. we already
live on less than 30% of my salary so why
do I need to earn 800k, 1M or even like a
20M salary.. it seems so wasteful.
I like my $250k house just fine..
I like my current vehicle and motorcycle...
what else do I possibly need?
But yet I feel like everyone around me is
like WHY!?!?!?.
So yeah, I'd say that.
I feel like i'm SUPPOSED to want to move into
those positions, and when I ask people why
I should WANT to move into that position the
answer is always "Because you'll earn way
more money!"
And it's like...
I earn $180-230k/year right now.. and we live
on less than $70k/yr.
So why in the world would I need even more?
I could retire on my current path at 43 years
of age with over $4 million.
Why do I need more money than that?
I'm not rich but I went from making restaurant
wages to having a salaried job with the state
with benefits.
Last night I was at Target buying towels and
was getting my usual $10 towels.
I was putting them in the basket when I stopped
and realized I didn't have to get those anymore.
Walked another aisle over and got much nicer
towels because I could afford it.
You don't have to be rich to enjoy some better
things when you were dirt poor for nearly
a decade.
As far as downsides?
I'm still not rich so I can't splurge that
often on other things.
I grew up without much money and was the first
in my family to go to college.
After college I kept on going education-wise
and now have a job that lands me in the top
1% of earners.
First the good:
- Grocery shopping without that sinking feeling
of having to put something back because I
miscalculated
- No more clipping coupons
- Nicer stuff (clothes, car, house, electronics)
- Able to set all credit cards to automatically
pay in full every month
- Nicer hotels and vacations
- Unique experiences (access to politicians,
musicians, VIP areas etc.)
- Able to donate big sums of money to causes
I care about
- No more stressing about bills.
They all get paid in full automatically
- I can hire people to do the many of the
things that used to take up my free time (laundry,
house cleaning, errands etc.)
- I can take care of my family and friends
when needed.
- The US system is designed by the rich to
help them maintain and grow wealth.
My stock holdings have made $600 so far while
typing this.
Now the bad:
- I try to be discreet because once people
find out I have money they try to separate
me from it.
Whether it's in the form of fees, inflated
quotes (was quoted 2k to clean my tile floors
once) or requests for loans, gifts or investments,
everyone wants a piece.
- I have to worry about what my money is doing.
Once my checks started coming in, I had $ sitting
in my checking account for months at a time.
Now I have to move it around to make i th
grow (401k, brokerage accounts, real estate
syndication etc.).
- Similarly, any new friends not in my income
bracket are suspect.
It sucks but I have to consider people's motives.
- I have to make sure my kids aren't entitled
little brats and don't grow up to be entitled,
awful adults.
I don’t know I’m rich, but I make around
$250k a year and my financee makes an additional
$110-$120k a year, we are both 32.
I grew up poor as shit (father worked in flea
market).
Honestly, money solves everything and causes
no new problems.
I see people say that people will use you
for your money, friendships arent real, you’ll
attract gold diggers, etc...but honestly this
is just a way for poor people to feel better.
My rich friends are 100x more loyal / reliable
/ better people than my poor friends growing
up.
The people I attracted while dating were 100x
nicer / more authentic / prettier than when
I was poor.
I live in a safe neighborhood in a luxury
building, can pay people to do everything
I hate (e.g., cooking), no financial stress,
travel all the time, my job - although sometimes
stressful - is super interesting and impactful,
I can retire young.
Money solves pretty much every problem out
there.
Like 99% of the problems.
The downside I can’t attend family events
anymore because everyone fucking want something
from me.
My cousins, uncles, aunts, all are pretty
much a waste of dna.
Never really worked anywhere.
I have no idea how they survive.
And I don’t wanna know
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