Money, get away...get a good job with more pay and you're ok...
Let me tell you how a 28 year old, white, suburban, middle class woman ends up broke…
I attended a 4-year university: My parents could not afford to pay for what ended up being 5 years of college, so I accepted every last dime the government offered me. It was the only way I could afford to take a full class schedule, be active in an international social sorority, live off campus, and still party my ass off 4-7 nights a week. I also worked part time as a waitress…but it wasn’t that good of money.
You only get 6 months of being free from books, classes, and exams before you’re expected to have landed a fabulous high-paying job with your bright, shiny, new Bachelors degree. Then the government attaches a straw directly to your bank account and starts sucking back all the money they gave you to drink like a fish and smoke like a Rastafarian.
I didn’t go on and get a Masters degree: When you’re in HS, your counselors would have you believe that all you need to do to get a good job is go to college. Unfortunately they don’t tell you things like Psychology degrees are totally useless unless you want to be making 9 dollars an hour working third shift, including weekends and holidays, in a career field with the highest burnout rate. All I wanted to do was help people for a living. I didn’t want to spend another 10 years wiping asses and getting punched in order to finally get something worthwhile. But alas, after 17 years of school…I was burned out. And poor. Too poor to move to a state that actually offered the program I wanted to go in to.
I moved to Madison: Madison is fucking expensive. Everything costs more here. Parking is NEVER free, our movies are $10.50, our drinks are $5 (for rail, not even top shelf), and our rent is absolutely outrageous. I pay as much to rent an efficiency as most people in my hometown pay towards their mortgage. But my address says “Madison” and that’s what matters. Location, location, location. I did not move to Madison to live in an outlying suburb so that every time I wanted to hang out or do anything in the city, I had to drive 30 minutes. No…that’s why I live IN Madison. Try hailing a cab at 2:30 a.m. that’s going to take you to Mt Horeb or Oregon for less than $20, including a tip. I dare ya.
I live on my own: So every last bill is mine and mine alone. I do not have parents or a husband to pay my rent, my cell phone bill, my car insurance, my electricity, or buy groceries. No one splits a cable bill or an internet bill with me…which is why I have neither. I don’t get to charge up a credit card and have someone pay off what I can’t afford every month. No, that’s all my responsibility too.
I have credit cards: In college there were three kinds of people: the people whose parents paid for absolutely every thing so they did whatever they wanted. The people whose parents didn’t pay for anything so they had nothing and did nothing. And the people who signed up for credit cards and just charged everything. I started out as the second type of person and got really fucking tired of having nothing…so I took my perfect credit and signed up for a credit card. That was the last time I had perfect credit! I somehow ended up with 2 Visas, 1 Old Navy, 1 Best Buy, 1 Maurices, and 1 Victoria’s Secret card. I have since paid off 5 of them…but the big Visa, that still carries a very high balance, has a minimum payment that keeps me from ever buying a new car.
I keep quitting jobs: Yeah, this one is absolutely something I have complete control over. I just can’t help it that I have yet to find a job where I fit. Like I said before, I just want to spend my life helping people. I haven’t gotten any sort of gratification from any job I’ve ever gotten paid to do. I had an internship in college at a mental health care facility that I loved…but those places just don’t pay as well as an office job. When you live alone, you can’t afford to work somewhere you love if it won’t pay your bills.
Plus, I refuse to spend 40 hours of my week somewhere where I’m miserable. Some people are able to separate work and life. They see work as just a way to make that paper and they don’t care if they enjoy it, make friends with their coworkers, or find meaning in what they do. I am NOT one of those people. If I’m at work for 8 hours and at home for 5…work makes up a majority of my day. I refuse let yet another office job suck the life out of me.
Every time I work at a job and get a pay raise or a promotion, I get a little higher up on the ladder. And then when I quit, I have to start all over again at the bottom…mostly because I have never been able to negotiate pay. Every job I’ve ever interviewed for has been a job I absolutely need and can’t afford to lose out on just because I want 2 more dollars an hour.
So that, my friends, is why I’m broke. I may have grown up with many, or all, of the privileges other successful folks had…but I’ve made some decisions and I’ve had some bad luck and I’ve been just plain lazy in some cases. People wonder how someone with a degree and an arguably good job can be broke as a joke. But of course, it ain’t no joke being broke.
But life is tough. Things are tight. I have found myself forced to miss out on a lot of fun. I’ve missed out on many trips, games, concerts, movies, shopping trips, dinners, and nights out because I can’t afford them. I don’t have cable and I don’t really have the internet because I can’t afford either. I have to park outside, start my car 10 minutes early, and scrape off ice and snow because I can’t afford to park in the underground garage. And speaking of cars, I’m still driving a ’99 Grand Am that’s literally held together with duct tape and probably on its last couple winters before breaking down beyond repair.
If I could do it all over, I’d probably go to a tech school and get a specialized degree. I would have been out in half the time and make twice as much money now. I wish I would’ve known at 18 what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. But I didn’t have a clue. I will spend the rest of my life paying, literally and figuratively, for the decisions I was forced to make when I was 18-23 years old. If not the rest of my life…at least as far as my mind can possibly fathom right now.
Of course, I also had the time of my life in college! So there’s that. I’ve spent the last 5 ½ years since college doing whatever the hell I wanted to do…going wherever I wanted to go…and with whomever I wanted to go with. I have answered to no one but myself. I have only been responsible for me. I’ve experienced so many things that most people will never get the chance to experience. I’ve gone places and done things that most people wouldn’t even do!
I love living alone! If it means half my salary goes towards rent…so be it. There is nothing in the world that is worth the peace of mind I get when I walk in the door to nothing but my stuff, my pet, my food, my mess! I can, and do, walk around naked—less so in the winter months, however. The heat/air is always where I want it to be. The only thing on tv is what I want to watch. I take a nap whenever I want wherever I want. I clean when I feel it’s necessary. I leave shit laying out if I’m too lazy to pick it up.
Never do I have to worry about having someone over…because the only people who walk through that door, I personally invited and didn’t have to ask anyone if it was okay first. It’s my name on the buzzer so the only food being delivered here is coming for me! The only pictures hanging on the wall star me and my friends. The only decorations are things I picked out. I only have to water my plants. I only have to scoop my cat’s shit.
And most importantly…if I want to have a tall dark and handsome stranger come over at 230 in the morning and then proceed to have loud raucous sex…there is no one to judge me. Except for maybe my crazy cat-lady neighbor who I share a wall with but fuck it…she’s a lonely old lady and probably needs the entertainment.
So at the end of the day…I may be living hand-to-mouth…but it’s my life. My parent’s don’t ask me when I’m going to be home or give me the third degree when I don’t come home. Unless, of course, I’m staying at their place for the weekend and end up sleeping at another house entirely and then getting a shameful and embarrassing ride home the next morning… I don’t have a husband to nag to take out the garbage or put away his laundry. I don’t have children to pick up after. And I definitely don’t have to put up with a free-loading roommates' boyfriend who always seem to jump in the shower right when you need it.
Such is my life and I will continue to eat ramen noodles and duct tape pieces of my car that fall off for as long as I have to if it means I get to be my own woman, in my own home, with only myself to answer to!
If you don't have the lyric in my blog title playing on repeat in your head...I'm afraid you can't read my blog anymore. Haha...just jokes.
Money, it's a crime
Share it fairly
But don't take a slice of my pie
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil
Today
But if you ask for a rise
It's no surprise that they're
Giving none away
Away
Away
Away
Away...
I attended a 4-year university: My parents could not afford to pay for what ended up being 5 years of college, so I accepted every last dime the government offered me. It was the only way I could afford to take a full class schedule, be active in an international social sorority, live off campus, and still party my ass off 4-7 nights a week. I also worked part time as a waitress…but it wasn’t that good of money.
You only get 6 months of being free from books, classes, and exams before you’re expected to have landed a fabulous high-paying job with your bright, shiny, new Bachelors degree. Then the government attaches a straw directly to your bank account and starts sucking back all the money they gave you to drink like a fish and smoke like a Rastafarian.
I didn’t go on and get a Masters degree: When you’re in HS, your counselors would have you believe that all you need to do to get a good job is go to college. Unfortunately they don’t tell you things like Psychology degrees are totally useless unless you want to be making 9 dollars an hour working third shift, including weekends and holidays, in a career field with the highest burnout rate. All I wanted to do was help people for a living. I didn’t want to spend another 10 years wiping asses and getting punched in order to finally get something worthwhile. But alas, after 17 years of school…I was burned out. And poor. Too poor to move to a state that actually offered the program I wanted to go in to.
I moved to Madison: Madison is fucking expensive. Everything costs more here. Parking is NEVER free, our movies are $10.50, our drinks are $5 (for rail, not even top shelf), and our rent is absolutely outrageous. I pay as much to rent an efficiency as most people in my hometown pay towards their mortgage. But my address says “Madison” and that’s what matters. Location, location, location. I did not move to Madison to live in an outlying suburb so that every time I wanted to hang out or do anything in the city, I had to drive 30 minutes. No…that’s why I live IN Madison. Try hailing a cab at 2:30 a.m. that’s going to take you to Mt Horeb or Oregon for less than $20, including a tip. I dare ya.
I live on my own: So every last bill is mine and mine alone. I do not have parents or a husband to pay my rent, my cell phone bill, my car insurance, my electricity, or buy groceries. No one splits a cable bill or an internet bill with me…which is why I have neither. I don’t get to charge up a credit card and have someone pay off what I can’t afford every month. No, that’s all my responsibility too.
I have credit cards: In college there were three kinds of people: the people whose parents paid for absolutely every thing so they did whatever they wanted. The people whose parents didn’t pay for anything so they had nothing and did nothing. And the people who signed up for credit cards and just charged everything. I started out as the second type of person and got really fucking tired of having nothing…so I took my perfect credit and signed up for a credit card. That was the last time I had perfect credit! I somehow ended up with 2 Visas, 1 Old Navy, 1 Best Buy, 1 Maurices, and 1 Victoria’s Secret card. I have since paid off 5 of them…but the big Visa, that still carries a very high balance, has a minimum payment that keeps me from ever buying a new car.
I keep quitting jobs: Yeah, this one is absolutely something I have complete control over. I just can’t help it that I have yet to find a job where I fit. Like I said before, I just want to spend my life helping people. I haven’t gotten any sort of gratification from any job I’ve ever gotten paid to do. I had an internship in college at a mental health care facility that I loved…but those places just don’t pay as well as an office job. When you live alone, you can’t afford to work somewhere you love if it won’t pay your bills.
Plus, I refuse to spend 40 hours of my week somewhere where I’m miserable. Some people are able to separate work and life. They see work as just a way to make that paper and they don’t care if they enjoy it, make friends with their coworkers, or find meaning in what they do. I am NOT one of those people. If I’m at work for 8 hours and at home for 5…work makes up a majority of my day. I refuse let yet another office job suck the life out of me.
Every time I work at a job and get a pay raise or a promotion, I get a little higher up on the ladder. And then when I quit, I have to start all over again at the bottom…mostly because I have never been able to negotiate pay. Every job I’ve ever interviewed for has been a job I absolutely need and can’t afford to lose out on just because I want 2 more dollars an hour.
So that, my friends, is why I’m broke. I may have grown up with many, or all, of the privileges other successful folks had…but I’ve made some decisions and I’ve had some bad luck and I’ve been just plain lazy in some cases. People wonder how someone with a degree and an arguably good job can be broke as a joke. But of course, it ain’t no joke being broke.
But life is tough. Things are tight. I have found myself forced to miss out on a lot of fun. I’ve missed out on many trips, games, concerts, movies, shopping trips, dinners, and nights out because I can’t afford them. I don’t have cable and I don’t really have the internet because I can’t afford either. I have to park outside, start my car 10 minutes early, and scrape off ice and snow because I can’t afford to park in the underground garage. And speaking of cars, I’m still driving a ’99 Grand Am that’s literally held together with duct tape and probably on its last couple winters before breaking down beyond repair.
If I could do it all over, I’d probably go to a tech school and get a specialized degree. I would have been out in half the time and make twice as much money now. I wish I would’ve known at 18 what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. But I didn’t have a clue. I will spend the rest of my life paying, literally and figuratively, for the decisions I was forced to make when I was 18-23 years old. If not the rest of my life…at least as far as my mind can possibly fathom right now.
Of course, I also had the time of my life in college! So there’s that. I’ve spent the last 5 ½ years since college doing whatever the hell I wanted to do…going wherever I wanted to go…and with whomever I wanted to go with. I have answered to no one but myself. I have only been responsible for me. I’ve experienced so many things that most people will never get the chance to experience. I’ve gone places and done things that most people wouldn’t even do!
I love living alone! If it means half my salary goes towards rent…so be it. There is nothing in the world that is worth the peace of mind I get when I walk in the door to nothing but my stuff, my pet, my food, my mess! I can, and do, walk around naked—less so in the winter months, however. The heat/air is always where I want it to be. The only thing on tv is what I want to watch. I take a nap whenever I want wherever I want. I clean when I feel it’s necessary. I leave shit laying out if I’m too lazy to pick it up.
Never do I have to worry about having someone over…because the only people who walk through that door, I personally invited and didn’t have to ask anyone if it was okay first. It’s my name on the buzzer so the only food being delivered here is coming for me! The only pictures hanging on the wall star me and my friends. The only decorations are things I picked out. I only have to water my plants. I only have to scoop my cat’s shit.
And most importantly…if I want to have a tall dark and handsome stranger come over at 230 in the morning and then proceed to have loud raucous sex…there is no one to judge me. Except for maybe my crazy cat-lady neighbor who I share a wall with but fuck it…she’s a lonely old lady and probably needs the entertainment.
So at the end of the day…I may be living hand-to-mouth…but it’s my life. My parent’s don’t ask me when I’m going to be home or give me the third degree when I don’t come home. Unless, of course, I’m staying at their place for the weekend and end up sleeping at another house entirely and then getting a shameful and embarrassing ride home the next morning… I don’t have a husband to nag to take out the garbage or put away his laundry. I don’t have children to pick up after. And I definitely don’t have to put up with a free-loading roommates' boyfriend who always seem to jump in the shower right when you need it.
Such is my life and I will continue to eat ramen noodles and duct tape pieces of my car that fall off for as long as I have to if it means I get to be my own woman, in my own home, with only myself to answer to!
If you don't have the lyric in my blog title playing on repeat in your head...I'm afraid you can't read my blog anymore. Haha...just jokes.
Money, it's a crime
Share it fairly
But don't take a slice of my pie
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil
Today
But if you ask for a rise
It's no surprise that they're
Giving none away
Away
Away
Away
Away...
Sounds familiar...twenty year payment plan! But, I used my student loans to pay off my college credit debt, so I was free of that until I lost my job two years ago. Now trying to recover once again. Who knew life could be so difficult? And oh so fun at the same time :)
ReplyDeleteI know!
ReplyDeleteBonus: count how many times I say "I can't afford..." in this blog. I'm just curious.
Oooh man. This sounds a little too familiar. Mostly the being broke part and the not being able to afford part. Those things are completely in my vocabulary. And, I haven't even finished school yet. :(
ReplyDeleteLorraine