Basic Math

[entitled]

as sent to me by a friend. An absolute truth, but something so many people can't seem to get a grasp on.


What is poverty? Poverty is when your needs and expenses exceed your income.

What is wealth? Wealth is when your income exceeds the demands of your needs, your desires, and a little extra for savings.

There are only two ways to rise from poverty to wealth. They are to earn more, or reduce the costs of your needs.

Six hundred dollars a month is abject poverty if your expenses are six hundred and one dollars per month. It is amazing wealth and luxury if your need demand is three hundred dollars per month. Simple, basic math. Earn more, or spend less to grow rich.

 

[Aurora Black]

Who doesn't want to be rich? Le sigh.

 

[R. Richard]

Six hundred dollars a month is abject poverty if your expenses are six hundred and one dollars per month. It is amazing wealth and luxury if your need demand is three hundred dollars per month. Simple, basic math. Earn more, or spend less to grow rich.

Excuse me, but if your need demand is $300 per month, you need to get a life!

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

I need $5k a month. Anything less would be poverty.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Who doesn't want to be rich? Le sigh.

I don't.

 

[Aurora Black]

I don't.

How about comfortable?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I heard this one: The average American uses 315 times as much energy as an Ethiopian.

So an American family having two kids uses as much resources as an Ethiopian family having 630 kids.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

How about comfortable?

My financial aspirations are solely based around comfortable living. Extravagance just ain't my thing.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

I heard this one: The average American uses 315 times as much energy as an Ethiopian.

So an American family having two kids uses as much resources as an Ethiopian family having 630 kids.

That doesn't surprise me at all. I have a classmate that was born in Ethiopia. Her family still lives there, and I am always astounded at her accounts of life there.

 

[Pure]

hi ent,

i think that's a recycling of an old and famous Dickens quotation:

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] six [pence], result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.

David Copperfield (1850)

There are 20 shillings per pound, and 12 pence per shilling; IOW the shortfall or excess talked about is 6 pence.

 

[matriarch]

My financial aspirations are solely based around comfortable living. Extravagance just ain't my thing.

Exactly.
The only use I would have for 'rich', would be the benefit of my family and friends.

As long as I have enough to get us through each month without worrying her, then I am as rich as I want to be.

 

[matriarch]

i think that's a recycling of an old and famous Dickens quotation:

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] six [pence], result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.

David Copperfield (1850)

There are 20 shillings per pound, and 12 pence per shilling; IOW the shortfall or excess talked about is 6 pence.

Indeed, a famous quotation spoken by Mr. Micawber in Chapter XII of David Copperfield.

“My other piece of advice, Copperfield,” said Mr. Micawber, “you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the God of day goes down upon the dreary scene, and—and in short you are for ever floored. As I am!”

Strange how, if it were translated into modern British currency (i.e. 100p per £1 Sterling), it would lose all the beauty of the language:

Annual income twenty pounds (£20), annual expenditure nineteen pounds and ninety seven and a half pence (£19.975) - result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds and two and a half pence, result misery.

It just doesn't have the same impact in words, although the message remain exactly the same.

(The UK currency went decimal in February 1971, i.e £1 = 100p)

 

[Xelebes]

I need $5k a month. Anything less would be poverty.

I only need 1K a month, what are you doing that requires so much?

 

[R. Richard]

I only need 1K a month, what are you doing that requires so much?

If you are young and healthy, you might be able to get by on $1K per month. An older lady who lives a few blocks up the street from me spends more than $900 per month on the medications needed to keep her alive. You might think about it.

JMHO.

 

[matriarch]

If you are young and healthy, you might be able to get by on $1K per month. An older lady who lives a few blocks up the street from me spends more than $900 per month on the medications needed to keep her alive. You might think about it.

JMHO.

Exactly.
Situation is everything.
Necessities means different things to different people.

 

[Boxlicker101]

as sent to me by a friend. An absolute truth, but something so many people can't seem to get a grasp on.


What is poverty? Poverty is when your needs and expenses exceed your income.

What is wealth? Wealth is when your income exceeds the demands of your needs, your desires, and a little extra for savings.

There are only two ways to rise from poverty to wealth. They are to earn more, or reduce the costs of your needs.

Six hundred dollars a month is abject poverty if your expenses are six hundred and one dollars per month. It is amazing wealth and luxury if your need demand is three hundred dollars per month. Simple, basic math. Earn more, or spend less to grow rich.

This is not entirely correct. "Wealth" is the amount of net assets, and does not have to reflect income. If a family owns, free and clear, a large house and land and cars and furniture and has a bank account with millions of dollars, they would be considered wealthy, even if they had no income.

Other ways to rise from poverty to wealth are to inherit or to marry into wealth.

Six hundred dollars a month in income and $601 in expenses is not ;poverty if there are other assets such as a bank account that can be drawn upon.

 

[BlackShanglan]

“My other piece of advice, Copperfield,” said Mr. Micawber, “you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the God of day goes down upon the dreary scene, and—and in short you are for ever floored. As I am!”

Mind you, this is financial advice from someone about to be shipped off to Australia.

 

[English Lady]

This is a great simple truth which I have recently had first hand experience off. When we first moved here we struggled, certain payments we expected to get, we didn't get. I worked out the sums and we were(generally) about £20 in debt at the end of each month. I had to try hard to cut back , and believe me it's not that easy when you feel you're budgeting for all you're worth already.

Now we'vegot it sorted. We've got that £20 and a bit more extra a month and it makes a world of difference, it really does.

I don't need riches, I don't need lots of money. I know I sometims think I'd like it, but really and honestly, it could only buy me more stuff and I don't really need more stuff.

 

[matriarch]

This is a great simple truth which I have recently had first hand experience off. When we first moved here we struggled, certain payments we expected to get, we didn't get. I worked out the sums and we were(generally) about £20 in debt at the end of each month. I had to try hard to cut back , and believe me it's not that easy when you feel you're budgeting for all you're worth already.

Now we'vegot it sorted. We've got that £20 and a bit more extra a month and it makes a world of difference, it really does.

I don't need riches, I don't need lots of money. I know I sometims think I'd like it, but really and honestly, it could only buy me more stuff and I don't really need more stuff.

Hear, hear !!!!
I'm sick of 'stuff' at the moment. It just takes up space and needs cleaning.
No more stuff.

Budgeting is something I've never been good at, I'm the first to admit it. But its something I have to work at in the very near future.

I remember as a kid, quite vividly, my dad having to take a new job, on less pay, for health reasons. At the beginning it was a nightmare for them, trying to get the same or even more, from less. With 4 growing kids. I'm quite sure that part of the equation was for my mother to go without many things - including meals. Thank goodness the job worked out for the best, in the end, and they settled comfortably. Never well off, but by watching every single penny, they made ends meet. And more.

 

[matriarch]

Mind you, this is financial advice from someone about to be shipped off to Australia.

Indeed.

 

[English Lady]

Hear, hear !!!!
I'm sick of 'stuff' at the moment. It just takes up space and needs cleaning.
No more stuff.

Budgeting is something I've never been good at, I'm the first to admit it. But its something I have to work at in the very near future.

I remember as a kid, quite vividly, my dad having to take a new job, on less pay, for health reasons. At the beginning it was a nightmare for them, trying to get the same or even more, from less. With 4 growing kids. I'm quite sure that part of the equation was for my mother to go without many things - including meals. Thank goodness the job worked out for the best, in the end, and they settled comfortably. Never well off, but by watching every single penny, they made ends meet. And more.

Me and maths are not good bedmates, but I have had to become good at budgeting. I goggle at the amount my mum will spend in one go in a supermarket for food for her and my sister, she spends twice what I do per week and I have to feed three of us, including a 4 year old with a monster appetite! I shop around, it's scond nature now, picking up the best bargains where I can find them. I cook from scratch for nearly every meal, it's cheaper and better for us too

It's difficult sometimes, but part of my thrives on the challenge of making ends meet. There's a bit in the bible, I think Jesus might say it actually, and he talks about the corn in the fields being dressed in splendid gold and the sparrows in the fields always being able to find enough food to live on. He says if God does this for the plants and the birds, he's going to do so much more to make sure his people have all they need. I constantly take comfort in that.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

I only need 1K a month, what are you doing that requires so much?

Coke.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

...and lavishness is always in short supply.

 

[English Lady]

Coke.

Switch to Pepsi


The only thing I can afford to be lavish with, is my love.


(Did that sound as twee as I think it did? It did didn't it? )