Rich Little Poor Girl Friday #7

Lesson #7: JUST POOR ENOUGH

If your goal is working to live, not living to work, then you might want to consider being “just poor enough”.

Yeah, I know that sounds weird – and I’m not being facetious, either.

There are varying degrees of poverty, and while I wouldn’t suggest that anyone should drop into the bankruptcy/homeless category, I also don’t recommend floating on the dividing line between upper-poverty/lower-middle-class.

I spent several years hovering at the top end of poverty only to discover that there is such a thing as “not being poor enough“; making more than the cutoff to be eligible for subsidization (health premiums, co-op percentages, etc.), but not necessarily making enough to be a player in the consumer game.

This particular tactic is not suited for everyone – it seems to work best for single, artist-folk who would like to spend most of their time working on their own stuff rather than working for someone else just to pay for things they don’t necessarily need or want.

It is not without its drawbacks.  Even though I choose not to buy into the consumer mode that society has programmed for me (I mean that both literally and figuratively), I still experience days of anger and depression that I can’t participate like so many others do.  When I have these dark days, I try to remember that I don’t have huge, black clouds of debt hanging over my head, I give up as little money as possible toward things that I think should be paid for by my government, and  I work very few hours for others, which means I’m able to work towards my goal of making a living off my art practice.

Working hard for someone else and still being poor truly sucks.  So…if you are not “poor enough”, you might actually be able to work less and still have the same bottom line by trimming a few grand off your annual income.

I say if yer gonna be poor, be smart-poor.  That way you can afford to spend your time doing what you really want to be doing.