Donna Freedman

Living “poor” and loving it.

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Happy Throwback Thursday! This is the original version of my second article for MSN Money. Given the popularity of the reboot of my first-ever MSN piece – the one about surviving and thriving on $12,000 a year – I’ve decided to post its successor.

Some of its sentiments about the Us-vs.-Them mentality are still relevant. (Unfortunately.)

Incidentally: I didn’t write the headlines; they were thrust upon me. My own suggestion was “How to be poor,” but the editor liked his version better. I’m leaving in the original because I’m masochistic like that.

 

I don’t consider myself deprived, although I can see why some people might think so. I don’t own a laptop computer, television, DVD player, stereo, iPod, video-game system or  many of the other things marketed as necessities.

But I have food, shelter, family, friends, a radio, a bus pass, a library card and the chance to attend a respected university. How could I consider myself “poor” when so many people have nothing to eat, nowhere to sleep and no chance to improve their situations?

Yet there is another reason I hesitate to call myself poor: the cultural baggage associated with the word. Poor people are lazy, stupid, immoral, shameless and incapable of making smart decisions. Poor people are losers; our country loves winners. We want poor people to trade their rags for riches. We want them to embody the American dream.

 

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Cheryl paid off her mortgage.

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When I visited my dad in Tarpon Springs, Fla., last year, he and I met up with a reader named Cheryl. The three of us sat in a Dunkin Donuts talking about life and money. One of the things she mentioned was a rapid mortgage paydown.

Recently she wrote to say she is now completely debt-free, 14 years ahead of schedule.

Cheryl also included a letter she wrote to her niece, a mid-20s newlywed who’s trying to vanquish student loans. While I’m loath to throw around the word “inspirational,” this note fits the bill. That’s why I’m excerpting it:

 

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Six good things.

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Jana from the Jana Says blog recently wrote about half a dozen good things happening in her life. The post was an antidote to a previous article in which she screamed rather primally about a whole lot of bad, frustrating stuff.

I hear her on both counts. Now I’m going to steal her format, and share half a dozen decent occurrences of my own.

(Got six good things – or even one – of your own? Do share, in the comments.)

We’ll start with something sweet:

 

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$#*! my boyfriend says.

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This morning DF cut five pounds of pork loin (99 cents a pound!) into one-inch chunks that he dredged in flour and spices and then seared in hot oil. They went into the slow cooker along with green enchilada sauce, salsa verde, green chiles, and sautéed onion and pickled jalapeno.

Not all the meat went in; the chile verde recipe called for five pounds but the pork loin he’d bought was 5.38 pounds. He brought a chunk down the hall for me to taste.

The meat was tender and flavorful, slightly zingy with spice but not overwhelmingly so.

“Well done you!” I said.

“That’s the name of my cooking school: Well Done U,” he replied.

DF is known for his love of charred foods, from blackened salmon to burned toast. He is also known for his puns, which means I’ve found the man of my dreams: Someone whose mind is wont to take the same slightly twisted paths that my own brain favors.

 

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Random observations.

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Instead of writing one long column, I’m doing a handful of random short takes.

Local boys make good: Portugal. The Man took a Grammy for best pop duo/group performance. Still giddy over this, even though I don’t know them. At one point I may have met Eric Howk, the guitarist, because I used to work with his mom.

Point being, it was a band that originated in the Last Frontier and has worked hard since the oughties. It’s great to have something Alaskan other than oil fields and giant cabbages being celebrated nationally (and internationally).

Rock on, guys – and I say that as someone who listens exclusively to the classical music station.

Winter-ish: We got a little snow, and the temperature has dropped below zero at night so it’s sorta-kinda-winter. On the whole, the season has been a disappointment, especially for Nordic skiers and the guys and gals who plow driveways as a side hustle.

Dear Lower 48: Please give back our snow. We miss it.

 

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Picking up money: My 2017 gleanings.

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Another year of picking up money: change amassed from sidewalks, parking lots and the return bins of those Coinstar machines. This year it added up to $8.80.

It’s not as much as I’d hoped for, but a lot more than I’d feared. Sometimes a couple of weeks would pass between finds, and I’d wonder if I’d even manage to get $5 in 2017.

Regular readers know the drill: All year long I glean specie (and occasionally folding green) wherever I find it, and drop the cash into a vase my daughter gave as a gift when she was little. After a dozen months I count it, round it up and send a donation to the Food Bank of Alaska.

Denomination-wise, here’s how it broke down:

  • 17 quarters
  • 31 dimes
  • 10 nickels
  • 95 pennies

This time around, the food bank gets $20.

 

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Early auto loan payoff: Three inspiring stories.

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Aside from a house, a car is probably going to be the most expensive thing most of us ever buy. According to Experian’s 2017 “State of the Automotive Finance Market” report, the average auto loan amount is now $30,621.

Sound like a lot? That’s because it is – and our cars probably cost more than that. The $30,621 figure is the auto loan amount. Imagine how much it might be without trade-in allowances and/or down payments.

Oh, and we’re borrowing for a lot longer. Almost one-third of borrowers (32.1 percent) are choosing terms of 73 to 84 months.

These are the kinds of numbers that make me want to lie down with a cold cloth over my eyes. I learned them while researching “How to finally pay off your car this year,” an article for Magnify Money.

Fortunately, I also know of some consumers who didn’t opt for seven-year loans. Instead, they paid off their vehicles in six to 18 months. They weren’t well-heeled – just determined.

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Where I’ve been.

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To quote a recent headline from my daughter’s website:

Blah.

As in, “I haven’t written much lately and I apologize. But things have been so busy that when I finally stop for the day my mind is, well, pretty blah.”

Can’t focus on brilliant new blog post ideas. Heck, I can barely focus on anything except putting out freelance fires and after that, hanging out with DF for a little while and going to bed.

Maybe it’s the long spell of gray, gray days. Maybe it’s age-related fatigue; where I once could write from morning until the midnight hour, now I just want to get away from the screen after a few hours. Whatever the reason, I just haven’t felt creative enough to write anything.

Yet I hate to have 10 days go by with nothing new up on the site. I miss you guys when I don’t post!

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Books: Why aren’t we reading them?

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At the end of the year I saw a lot of New Year’s resolutions mentioned on blogs and social media. Chief among them: “I will read more books/read a book a week.”

As a nation we aren’t doing that. According to a Pew Research study, 26 percent) of U.S. adults say they haven’t read a book – or even part of a book – in the past year.

We can’t blame Kindle Unlimited or Audible for this trend since the study encompassed e-book, audio and print formats. However, the Pew Research Center notes that adults with a high school education (or less) are three times as likely as college grads to cop to ignoring books. People who earn $30,000 a year or less are twice as likely to be non-readers.

 

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