It's no secret that escaping poverty can be daunting and overwhelming. With the odds stacked against you, it can easily become a vicious, inter-generational cycle.
Well, Reddit user u/fromTheYear3969 recently asked, "How did you come out of poverty/being broke?" And there were so many thought-provoking responses. Here are some of the top-voted answers:
1. "Sacrificed comfort and focused on getting the bare minimum of what I need and how to get more money. I ate ramen and bread, slept outside, and took a shower when I could. I got a job at Walmart, then Ross. Found a cheap motel to stay at with the girlfriend, and we scrimped and saved. But $33/night on a $50/day salary eats at you, and it was impossible to save. Like, it would have been years before I could have afforded just a car to make sure I got to work on time."
"So, I moved into my father's place and saved up for a car. They paid for my TESOL (certification to teach English), and I used a lifetime of miles from flying between my mother and father to get a ticket to Poland, sold the car, and found myself eating potatoes in Polska until I got a job teaching English. Then, the money was steady.
The moral of this story is that poverty is a scary fucking thing, and it's really hard to get out of it without friends and family. There's no easy way out, and the longer you're there, the deeper the holes get, especially if you start borrowing money."
2. "I grew up with drug addicted/alcoholic parents. I've worked every day since I was 16 and stay far away from my family. My wife and kids are my rock and keep me working hard and pushing to be better. Pro tip: Leave your small town and never look back. Take control and grab life by the horns."
3. "Being at the right place, at the right time, talking to the right people. You can be the most talented person in the world, but if you don't know how to play the social game and have a lot of luck, it sadly probably isn't going to happen."
"That's even on a simple level of 'I'd like to do X career.' Someone in the group will say, 'I heard Y is hiring.' So you apply at Y."
4. "I was 100% on a path to just working menial labor-intensive jobs all my life in a shitty small town. An older guy who was a friend of a friend asked me three really important questions. 1.) Are you happy in the city you live in? 2.) Are you happy with the job you are in? 3.) Are you happy with how much you are getting paid? The answer as a 20-year-old kid was 'hell no' to all three. He asked what I was doing in a town I hated, working a job I hated, making money I hated. It clicked for me."
"I made my way to the next biggest town near me, sleeping on sofas and barely surviving for a few months until I got another shit job. But the fact that I was now in a city I liked changed a lot. Everything felt more possible — I changed something drastic in my life that made me happy. After six months, I said fuck it and applied for call center jobs that I naively thought only community college graduates could work at and got a job that paid $5–$8 more than minimum wage. Again, it really showed me that I had control over my life, and I just needed to 'make the jump.'
From there, I just kept climbing and staying hungry. I have never had a safety net, and I think that helps a lot. I'm by no means rich or outlandishly successful, but I can do what I want, when I want, and not stress out. More than I can say for all the people I grew up around."
5. "I only managed it because I had help from what little family I have. We have always lived frugally, and when my grandparents died, I inherited the house (a tiny, old 'shack' but with immeasurable character and coziness). That meant no more rent. When grandmother's sister died; my dad inherited her house. After putting in most of our savings and all of our free time, we could start renting it out. Whatever we had to do, we did ourselves, and that helped to cut costs."
6. "I divorced my ex-wife. Sadly, I'm not kidding. She was horrible with money (to the point of us declaring bankruptcy). When our divorce went through, my credit score jumped up 40–50 points. Plus, I was no longer financially covering for her (she bought frivolous things, then couldn't afford the electric bill). Here I am, 14 years after bankruptcy and 8 years after the divorce. While I'm not raking it in, I can make ends meet while being able to put some money away each month."
7. "I read, learned, exercised, went to night school, and got a GED. I went to a university (got a loan for that), learned to live on beans and rice for six years, and got a contract job in my industry. Worked, studied, learned, and took every minute of work that came my way. After gaining the trust of the middle-class people around me and making them believe I wasn't some loser, I saved up $10,000 and started my own business."
"I struggled for years, failed many times, and finally got here. I am 52 and still working 6 days/week, 12 hours/day. Sad but true. No easy options for me, unfortunately."
8. "I'm a child of poor immigrants. I just happen to love science and especially mathematics. I obsessively studied it because it was cool. Enrolled in a community college because I wanted to learn more before getting a 'grown-up job.' One thing led to another, and now I'm faculty at a university. I think people should choose something interesting and focus on doing it well, learning, and developing as a person for a few years. After a few years, then decide if you want to continue or not."
"If not, then look for ways to use your new skills to take a step in a different direction. Working hard and having a growth mindset is huge. But I have to acknowledge that I was super lucky that I just happen to love mathematics. Mathematics is one of those things that everyone needs, yet everyone refuses to learn, so I have a lot of opportunities."
9. "Took up a long haul trucking job, which allowed me to move out of my apartment (into the truck) and get rid of the car payment, as well as all the utilities except for my phone bill. Definitely not for everyone, but I've since married, and we've been touring the US for years in the truck. Yosemite this month!"
10. "My mum worked three jobs to put me through uni, and I worked a job at near full-time hours. If I wasn’t at uni, I was at work. If I wasn’t at work or uni, I was studying. If I wasn’t doing any of those things, I was sleeping. Literally had no social life. After uni, I got an entry-level job in my field (marketing) and still worked a second job on top of that so I could make ends meet. Eventually, I moved into the marketing team at big corporate retailer and worked up from there. I didn’t quit my second job until I started making over $80k/year. Three years later, and I now earn $135k/year at the same company and love it."
"It was not easy. It was fucking hard. I missed out on so much in my late teens and early twenties to make sure I could get ahead. There were times that I had to ask mum and dad for help here and there. I did all of what they tell you not to do: was first in the office, last to leave. Always said yes to extra work even though there were times I thought I was being taken advantage of. And it paid off big time. I have never been on a major overseas holiday and instead used that money for my down payment on an investment property with my brother and SIL. The sacrifices I made help me sleep at night because I now know I’ll never live paycheck to paycheck ever again."
11. "Keep job hopping until you find something that pays you what you're worth. Believe me, though, being broke never leaves your thoughts. It’s something my girlfriend has never had to deal with, and it’s difficult to get her to understand that in our relationship. I go home every night and make dinner. I bring lunch to work every day. She eats at restaurants for lunch and fast food for dinner almost every day, and she makes $15k less than I do. Once you’ve been poor and get a taste of freedom, you NEVER want to go back and do everything in your power to stay out of poverty."
12. "I sacrificed time with my family to work extra hours. Yes, it was worth it, but it still hurts when my kids tell me that the only memories they had of me in those times was of me sleeping or being at work."
13. "I worked two jobs since 17 and lived with my mum until 29. I didn’t have kids, didn’t have a relationship, went to uni at 25 still working two jobs. I’m now working one good job I enjoy, getting married, and traveling about a month each year. I allow myself to spend any amount of money on mum, my wife-to-be, and will admit that I’m now spending money on myself. Not consumables, though! For myself, I’m buying nice things that will last a long time. If it’s temporary and doesn’t serve a purpose, I can’t justify buying it."
14. "Hard work and a huge dose of luck. I was a rock star at my former job. My former boss got a new job offer, and he asked me to follow him to the new company. I got a $15k/year raise doing the exact same job. But that job never would have existed if he hadn’t taken the job he did. He created it for me. Now 12 years later, and he’s long gone, but I’m still here and making just shy of double what I started off at after a few internal role changes."
15. "Might sound harsh, but I dropped the group of people I was hanging out with. They all had no aspirations or drive to do anything or get out of the small town we grew up in. I knew that if I stayed in that circle of people, I wouldn’t do anything with my life. That was eight years ago now. I got a college degree, have my own house, and make $120k/year. Everyone back at home who I left still isn’t doing anything."
16. "I went back to school at 24 to get a degree in computer science, got an internship at a big tech company, and converted it to a full-time offer at the end of the internship. Now, I make insane money. I worked full-time with a lot of mandatory overtime during the entire period I was in college. It was brutal but ended up being worth it."
17. "I married my way out. My now-husband moved in with his dad after his divorce (MIL died several years prior). I moved in after we got married. That was five years ago, and my father-in-law died this past spring. Not having mortgage/rent or utilities to pay allowed us to really get our feet under us: emergency fund, good cars, etc."
"Because my FIL was a boomer government employee and MIL was a bit more invested than was rational in life insurance, the kids have well-funded college funds, the house is paid off, and we suddenly have a retirement fund that’s more than it 'should' be for our age/income. We’re even able to make some of the repairs and upgrades the house has needed. Unfortunately, we DID have to live with my FIL for those years, and he spent his life riding that toxic/abusive line pretty hard, which got worse in his last six months. It was…not ideal."
18. "I got a good scholarship to a private uni and got the first major-related job by being able to talk to people, not necessarily skill. Made a bunch of connections. Those connections got me references, and doors opened to other, better-paying jobs. Never burn bridges. Words are powerful, even when you think no one is listening. Also, a lot of fucking luck."
19. "Grew up poor. I am good at learning, and my country has affordable education. Getting into university is a matter of getting a diploma from the right level high school, which I did. I then went to university and got a good job. I now pay more in taxes than my education cost the government. It should be that simple anywhere."
20. And finally, "I was homeless, bouncing from shelter to shelter, hustling weed. One day, my cousin took me to a place where construction companies pick up a day laborer. At the end of the day, you go back to the office, and they cut you a check for the day's work. When I got to that job site, the other punks were lazy and slow and complaining all day. It pissed me off. We were hired to work. So I worked my absolute guts out. The boss came during the day and saw me carrying two steel 5-gallon pails filled to the top with mud up the stairs and out the back door constantly. He took me aside and said, 'You're not going back to the agency tomorrow — you're hired.'"
"From there, I continued to work my guts out for him and eventually was promoted from laborer to a carpenter's apprentice. I learned a few trades there since they were a general contractor. From there, I moved on to other companies and continued learning new trades. Today, I'm a jack of all trades, making good pay. I do everything: windows, doors, flooring, brick and concrete repair, drywall, mud and tape, tile, siding and aluminum, you name it. I've got my own brand new van, fully kitted out with all the best tools I could possibly need to do any job. And my work is appreciated because I am meticulous and hardworking."
If you escaped poverty, what was your journey like? Share your experience in the comments below.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.