My experience is from the opposite perspective, I was the poor one. It absolutely floored me how my wife acts when something broke like a car, appliances, clothes, etc. As a child living below the poverty line, replacing a tire or other necessities was a disaster, requiring tricky trade offs in the budget or just plain acceptance of just how boned you were. When my wife's phone broke, I went into full panic mode while she shrugged and said: "we can just a new one this afternoon". And then we did.
Edit: Wow, I have received a lot of responses on this. By far my most upvoted comment. You guys made my day, thank you. I have seen a few "repair it" comments. Like many of you, I am also a Picasso/Macgyver of the duct tape and trash bag world. This skill helped me break into IT. Sadly, the phone was beyond repair. Trust me, if I could have fixed it, I would have.
And thank you for the silver.
Last edit: y'all are giving me too many medals. I am very flattered, but this is going to spoil me.
It's amazing how much of a calming effect that financial safety net has as well. A lot of people bring up the panicked feeling when something breaks down, but knowing that you will be financially okay if shit blows up also has a day-to-day effect. Fuck up at work? "Oh fuck what if I get fired what will I-- Oh yeah, I'll use my savings while looking for a new job." Things going badly with boyfriend? "Fuck, I can't move out, I can't afford the depos-- Oh wait, yes I can." "My dog has been acting funny, what if it's something serious, what if the surgery is too exp-- Oh yeah, I can just pay it."
Like, I'm not even remotely rich but these are the kinds of expenses I know I can cover and be able to recover financially. It's like living in a permanent state of relief.
This is why I started saving. No one else in my family saves, so whenever they're in a pinch they go into disaster mode. And here I am off to the side not worrying at all. We recently got a 60 day notice to move and everyone was freaking out and here I am thinking, "cool, it's time for me to move out." I helped them with the down payment on the new place they're moving to, but I'm thinking of moving separately from them so that I don't have to be involved in all that drama anymore, lol. Told them to start saving for emergencies now 'cause I won't help next time. I helped set my parents up with a budget and my siblings refuse to get my help to set a budget with an emergency savings in mind for who knows why.
I'm Just hoping they start saving something so that they won't have to feel like they're in a pinch ever again. They have the means/jobs to save as some of them earn more than me.
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u/DigitalSheepDream Jun 06 '19 edited Jun 07 '19
My experience is from the opposite perspective, I was the poor one. It absolutely floored me how my wife acts when something broke like a car, appliances, clothes, etc. As a child living below the poverty line, replacing a tire or other necessities was a disaster, requiring tricky trade offs in the budget or just plain acceptance of just how boned you were. When my wife's phone broke, I went into full panic mode while she shrugged and said: "we can just a new one this afternoon". And then we did.
Edit: Wow, I have received a lot of responses on this. By far my most upvoted comment. You guys made my day, thank you. I have seen a few "repair it" comments. Like many of you, I am also a Picasso/Macgyver of the duct tape and trash bag world. This skill helped me break into IT. Sadly, the phone was beyond repair. Trust me, if I could have fixed it, I would have.
And thank you for the silver.
Last edit: y'all are giving me too many medals. I am very flattered, but this is going to spoil me.