Some think that being poor is simple.
You dont have enough money to buy a lot of stuff, so youre forced to buy less stuff.
But thats not really how it works.
It actually costsmoreto be poor.
It costs money up front to save money over the long run.
Ramen is under twenty cents a pack.
The problem is gettinghealthyfood.
Ramen consists of 20% empty calories and 80% salt.
This was the exact situation I found myself inwhen I was broke.
Time was more valuable than my health, and fast food was easier than cooking at home.
It wasnt much more expensive, either.
On a bad week, it was Ramen for days.
Now, a few years of that diet is already going to be pretty bad.
The long-term consequences were worse.
Even when I started earning more, the habits stuck.
Soda is still a staple of my diet.
Its taken a long time to build the habit of making proper, home-cooked meals.
This is a difficult trap to escape.
When you have money, thats not a huge deal.
Before taxes, by the way.
Who the hell cares about long-term health consequences when you’ve got the option to barely pay rent?
You know what has some serious long-term health consequences?
Ill pay rent today and worry about heart disease later.
When youre poor, you cant afford to think about the long run.
I didnt have enough time to be healthy, and I didnt have enough money to save money.
Owning a car is expensive even after youve paid off the initial cost.
Public transit may be more accommodating to lower income tiers, but it isnt always available in every city.
Transportation has two major hidden costs when youre poor.
First, lots of expensive car repairs are avoidable…if you have money to fix them early on.
I used to ignore changing my brake pads for months.
I hated the noise, but I hated overdrafting on my account more.
So, I turned the stereo up a little louder and tried to drive less.
Replacing brake pads cancost an average of $145, depending on your car.
At worst, I wouldnt have enough to pay utilities.
So Id put it off.
On at least one occasion, my brakes got so bad they were grinding down the rotors.
In case youve never had this happen, grinding rotors makesa terrible, metal-on-metal sound.
Replacing a rotor alsocosts hundreds morethan replacing brake pads.
Sure, I successfully put off one expense, but when the rotors broke, I was screwed.
The longer I waited on basic maintenance, the more expensive the repairs got.
Waiting was often my only option, though.
Unlike buying healthy food, there were times I literally didnthavethe money.
Not I have this money, but I shouldnt spend it.
More like, the car repair is $145 and I have $12 in my account.
And I still have to drive my car to work.
Theres no third option.
Public transit is a great option, but a lot of cities dont provide it.
If yours does, things still arent great.
With public transit, you face a very different cost: time.
What would be a fifteen minute drive becomes an hour long bus ride.
Miss a bus and youve lost another 10-15 minutes.
Unfortunately, transportation isnt exactly optional.
Some even lose their jobs.
The problem is, if you dont spend money on clothes, you pay a hefty social cost.
Several years ago, I worked for Walmart.
As is the case for most retail employees, I had to buy my own uniform.
At the time, we were required to wear dark blue shirts and khaki pants.
The problem was, I worked outside as a cart-pusher.
Navy blue shirts tend to fade in the harsh Georgia sunlight.
Plus, my shoes wore through every three months from walking on pavement all day.
And not just they look rattymy toes were literally touching burning pavement a few months after getting new shoes.
Needless to say, I looked like crap most of the time.
The rest of my wardrobe looked even worse.
Any money I could spare for clothing usually had to go towards new uniforms.
Dressing well is an awkward catch-22.
If youre poor and you have a nice wardrobe, people think youre irresponsible with money.
However, if you dress poorly, youre more likelyto be judged poorly, especially injob interviews.
Its sad, but its the world we live in.
Of course, the costs of clothing dont end at social pressures.
Merely keeping your clothes clean and presentable can cost time and money, too.
Yet it still feels like caring about how you look is vanity, rather than practical.
Why are you wasting your money on new clothes, and then complaining about how broke you are?
Fortunately, you could at least ignore this mindset.
You know, provided you’re free to scrape enough together to find clothes to begin with.
This gets its own category because when youre poor, fees areeverywhere.
Fees for having a bank.
Fees for not having a bank.
Fees for paying late.
Fees for paying with a certain throw in of card.
Fees for not being able to pay a fee.
A person can drown in the various fees that disproportionately hurt poor families.
One fee that hurt me alotover the years were overdraft fees.
This seems like a no-brainer, right?
Just dont spend money you dont have, Eric!
Except thats not how it works when youre broke.
You have to obsessively over-analyze every single transaction in your account.
Not just how much, but when.
My credit union in particular had terrible software.
Its website looked like it hadnt been updated since the 90s (and still doesnt).
It had absolutely no tools to keep track of which money was allocated for different purposes.
The Available Balance box attempted to indicate how much unspent money I really had, but it was unreliable.
Say I had $150 in my account, and accidentally spent $160.
One transaction was a $150 power bill, while the rest was four transactions of $2.50 each.
Then, each $2.50 transaction would cost me $35 extra in overdraft fees.
Unfortunately, this happensa lot more often than it should.
A minor mistake for someone with more money destroyed my budget for weeks.
Banks arent the only ones who charge compounding fees, either.
Every year, I had to pay to register my car.
One particularly bad year, I didnt have spare money to pay registration.
One week after my registration was due, I got pulled over.
I was let off with a warning, and told to pay my registration.
Since this was the second time for the same offense, I got a citation for nearly $100.
This wasnt making it any easier to pay the fine.
Eventually, I was finally able to pay it with money I received from relatives on Christmas.
Just what I always wanted.
Fees are everywhere when youre poor.
Banks may charge a ton of fees for using basic services like checking.
A simple traffic ticket can spiral out of control, sometimes evenleading to being arrested, plus more fees.
Utilities may charge fees if you pay by debit card.
All these fees add up to huge pains that hurt a lot worse when you dont have money.
With all of these things, there is an element of responsibility.
For example, could I have walked to work instead of driving a car with an expired tag?
Thats what makes being poor so tough.
Meanwhile, the amount of extra work you have to do just to break even is much higher.
This is just my experience, but many people had it way worse than I have.
Others arent so lucky.
Photos byHajime NAKANO,Magharebia,Lara604,Paul Swansen.
