I think everyone should have a mandatory year of poverty — it provides essential perspective on financial planning. And social services. And public policy. Throw everything you’ve got in a trust, you’ll get it back after a year. Heck, I’ll spot ’em a copy of the bus schedule, a minimum wage job, and 500$ of their own money to get started. Good luck finding a flat and getting to work on Sunday. Yeah, you work Sunday – your days off are Monday and Thursday this week. Check the schedule to see what your days off are next week. And the boss needs three weeks notice if you want to request a specific weekday off, weekends aren’t available for request until you’ve got two years of service.
I had people say that kind of rubbish to me when I was broke — and I’d happily let them run through my budget and find this money I was supposed to be dropping into my “emergency fund”. News flash: eating every couple of days? That’s an emergency. Heat in the winter when it’s 10F outside? Absolute emergency. Rent’s due on the 1st — you got it, another emergency.
Sure, you could drop the 20$ a month from the phone bill into a savings account — lose 5$ a month to the service fee since you’ve got no money, but there’s nothing for that until you amass 500$ — and come out with 180$ a year. But I’d get called in for overtime shifts, so saving 180$ in a year cost me a grand.
‘t wasn’t my “financial literacy” that caused the problem. It was the lack of income!