Life Angles: LIFE Acronym #15 - Living In Financial Emptiness

LIFE Acronym #15:
"Living In Financial Emptiness"

Today I'm posting a somewhat thought-provoking story that relates to financial success, earning money, and living below your means. It's a story that I wrote back in 2007, and it is unchanged, just as I wrote it back then.


"3/15/07
What It Feels Like To Be Broke

Tonight I watched a movie titled “The Pursuit of Happyness”, starring Will Smith. He plays a man named Chris Gardner, a struggling salesman whose lack of money strongly affects his personal and family life. He finds himself homeless with his son, as he tries to sort out his life and strive for more. The movie hit home for me, mainly because I’ve been living on very little income for quite a while. It’s a bad habit that I need to break.

There was a part in the movie when a very important man asks Chris to lend him five dollars. Hesitatingly, he hands him the five dollars, and the man leaves. Then it shows Chris just standing there with an expression of anxiety on his face. He was completely broke and homeless, and those were five of his last dollars. You could feel in his face how much those five dollars meant to him.

Or maybe it was only ME who could feel how much those five dollars meant to him. I wasn’t just watching the movie, I was FEELING the movie. I’ve never been homeless, but I know exactly how it feels to be on your last few dollars. I’ve habitually been in that situation more than I care to say.

Do you know how it feels when your savings account has nothing in it, your checking account is in the negative, your credit card is over the limit, and you have zero cash? Do you know how it feels to almost constantly be borrowing money from your family and friends, and to be so sick of borrowing that you start using your coin collection to pay bills? Do you know how it feels to skip an event because you absolutely DO NOT have the five dollars that it costs? Do you know how it feels to not drive anywhere because your car is out of gas, and you have no money to buy more? Do you know how it feels to sell your $4,500 car for $3,000 with only $600 up front, just to get your checking account back in the positive?

Tonight I had five dollars left in my checking account, with my credit card over the limit, no money in my savings account, and no cash whatsoever. I swiped my debit card one last time tonight when I paid $4 for my friend and I to go to the two dollar theater and watch The Pursuit of Happyness. And I’m not even exactly sure where my next dollar will come from."