Unless you were born into great wealth, you probably know what it’s like to be broke (which we normally define as not having money at the moment), if not “poor” (which tends to refer to an entire socioeconomic situation affecting work, home, lifestyle, etc.). And then, as you know, things are far more expensive the less money you have.
Even as a “broke” college student, you might have gone to get your first credit card, for example, and seen an enormous interest rate since you didn’t have a credit history of your own. That makes payments harder to keep up with. A rich person (unless they forget to pay their bills) doesn’t have that problem. (Oh, and we won’t even talk about student loans!)
You can also look at banks, many of which have minimum limits to open and maintain checking accounts. Fall below that limit and you get charged (even though that would indicate you don’t have the money to pay an extra charge).
All in all, it’s pretty ridiculous that it sometimes costs more to be poor than it does to be rich. So when a Redditor asked for some more examples, the replies came flying in.
“In what way is it expensive to be poor?” they asked. Here are some eye-opening responses:
1. Laundry and transportation
“I saw a lady coming out of a laundromat, loading her baskets of clothes into a taxi (there is zero other public transport where I saw this happen and only a few taxis).
Not being able to put enough money together at one time to buy a car or a washing machine (she probably rented so this maybe wasn’t even an option) was costing her a fortune. Just being nickeled and dimed to death.”
2. Bank accounts
“And if you can’t maintain a minimum balance or don’t have a bank in your neighborhood or were raised to be suspicious of banks and don’t have a bank account, you’ve got to pay fees to cash your paychecks. Then there are fees to buy money orders to pay your bills– or the cost of getting TO the utility office or car dealership or wherever to pay in cash.”
3. Healthcare
“Healthcare. That’s the big one. If you don’t have a healthcare plan or have a shitty one, you don’t go to the doctor unless it’s life or death. That means small problems that could have been caught in the beginning become hugely expensive problems later on.”
4. Car repairs
“My car has a leaky seal on the transmission. It’d be about $250 to replace the seal and flush the transmission. I don’t have $250, so I keep topping up the fluid and keep driving it because I’ll never get $250 if I don’t get to work. But, in time, that’s going to destroy the transmission, which will be about $1200 to replace.”
5. Interest rates
“Being stuck with higher interest rates because you don’t have enough credit to get low rates.”
6. Quality clothing
“If you’re well off, you buy one pair of boots for $150 and they last a lifetime. If you’re poor, you buy boots for $30 and they last a winter. You end up spending more, because you can’t afford to spend more.”
7. Rent
“The fact that rent payments aren’t added into the credit score equation is bullshit. Or even just into mortgage lending.
How a lender can ignore me paying upwards of $1500 a month in rent while contemplating a mortgage loan that is equivalent to $850 a month. You’d think that would be a pretty safe bet right there.”
8. The justice system
“The justice system. If you can’t pay a fine, the state will make things more expensive by adding fees on top of fees on top of fees, then they will incarcerate you for not paying the inflated fees. Then you have to pay the parole officer who is keeping an eye on you while you care unable to get a job that pays enough to pay him.”
9. Rent to own schemes
“Renting to own anything is really bad. You pay 4X the value of whatever it is you’re renting to own. And if you miss a payment they repossess it and someone else might start at the beginning of attempting to pay for it again. Not only that you very well might be paying 4X the new value for a used item. And only low-quality items are sold rent to own. Ashley furniture, shitty used cars, the cheapest big-screen TVs available at wholesale. Houses might be better, but rent a center, and JD Byrider are worse than loan sharks.”
10. Food costs
“Food deserts, where everything at the single grocery store for miles around is marked WAY the hell up because its shoppers usually pay in food stamps and/or have nowhere else to go.”
11. Home repairs
“Our roof is leaking. It’s $1,000 to fix it. I know the water damage is happening and will be enormously expensive. But we just don’t have the $1,000.”
12. Parking tickets
“Parking tickets. I couldn’t afford the $2 to pay to park my car so I get a $30 fine. After 2 weeks, it goes up to $60 and so on. If I didn’t have $2 to park in the first place, I don’t know how they think I can pay more.”
13. Stagnant minimum wage
“As prices go up, and minimum wage stays consistent, it’s completely expensive to be poor. We’re paying all of our checks for food and rent, and we have no wiggle room.”
14. Mental health
“If you want to not be stressed-and stress is huge when it comes to health-then that means not having to worry is kind of an integral part of poverty.
Stress means less awesome interpersonal relationships, means less sleep, means overwork to try to make ends meet.
Good interpersonal relationships, getting enough sleep, and not working yourself to exhaustion are things that help you stay alive.”
15. Spending money to save money
“Not being able to buy more than you need to save money in the long run. The toilet paper in the larger bundle is less expensive per roll? Too bad — you can only afford the smaller package. Buying peanut butter? If you get the bigger family-sized tub of it, it’s cheaper by the ounce. But if you can only afford the smallest size, too bad. It sounds like it’s not a big deal, but when you’re counting individual coins, the savings from buying in bulk can definitely make a difference.”
16. Education
“Being unable to pay for education is the most expensive way of staying poor. And don’t come with scholarship and that stuff, it is expensive af and even more if you are like me from a poor third world country.”
17. Tickets
In certain parts of British Columbia, you have to pay a fine if you’re caught panhandling. Homeless people literally have to pay money for asking for money.”
18. Retirement
“No money to invest in a retirement fund, stock market, etc. With inflation you’re losing money, if you have any saved up at all.”
19. Phone plans
“If you’re poor, you don’t buy phones, you buy shitty phone financing plans, where you pay way more overall at some monthly rate.”
20. Social networks
“Lack of network. Poor people often come from poor families, and their neighbors and close friends growing up were also poor. I grew up in an affluent neighborhood. My high school girlfriend’s mom was a controller for a real estate company that my other friend’s dad owned, and they got me my first job. If I ever need advice from a lawyer or doctor, I have friends who are lawyers and doctors, and the same was true for my parents. I know a number of owners of restaurants and other businesses, and have often gotten food or services for free or at a discounted rate. None of that’s possible when you grow up poor.”
21. Financing
“Being unable to buy things in cash means financing multiple purchases at once. So someone could (theoretically) have monthly payments for a school laptop, car, apartment, furniture, large appliance like a fridge, CareCredit balances for unexpected medical needs, and credit cards for past emergencies they’re still paying off.
This puts such a squeeze on the smaller income that when the next unexpected expense comes along, like a car repair or AC blowing, it has nowhere to go but on credit making the hole even deeper.”
22. Time
“Not MONEY expensive, but TIME expensive. Everything takes longer, and you always have to wait. The bus, the laundromat, the store, the line for Money Orders or check cashing…
Before they installed the self-check registers, the Wal-Mart near my work was guaranteed to have a 10-minute wait in line, no matter when you went. Once, there were 42 people in each of the only 2 lines open, at 7P.M. on a Friday. I thought, ‘They can only get away with this because these people have no other choice.’
There’s no way the store in the nice neighborhood up the road would ever allow that, their customers would have a fit.”
23. Therapy
“Therapy is $400 PER SESSION even with the insurance from my job. My job doesn’t pay enough to live on my own. My spouse and I are slowly falling out of love and I’ll end up homeless and dead either way (working non stop and can’t afford living still or spouse passes and still end up homeless and dying). I’m on the autism spectrum and getting further insight costs more than what I can afford after my bills are paid. When everything is paid, I have $20 left. There’s no ladder for me to climb. I try my best to stay upbeat, because in the past I’ve already attempted suicide 3 times. That’s won’t help. But yea, poor sucks because your whole life is more expensive than it feels it’s worth many times. But somehow it’s still beautiful in tiny ways. Death won’t take me that easily; that fucker has to fight to get my soul after the abyss of madness I’ve seen on Earth… and survived.”
24. Theft
“If you’re poor you likely live in a lower income area, and poverty is a large factor in crime, especially theft, and thus, you’re more likely to have stuff of yours stolen.”
25. Dental health
“Dental. Not being able to have regular dental checkups and small spot fixes means issues with root canals and infections and extractions down the road.”
26. Nutrition
“Food. You have to buy cheap, low quality, but filling food that will “hold you over.”
It keeps you from being hungry and gives you just enough energy to get by, but it’s not really all that healthful. Therefore, in the long run you’ve got poor quality energy and tend to be more fatigued, can have weight gain (cheap empty carbs like mac n cheese are cheap, high quality complex carbs like dark leafy greens and such are not), and other health issues from low quality food.”
27. Investment opportunities
“Not being able to get gains from the stock market like the rich can. The rich can easily invest huge sums and even take risks, enabling them to have free money, whereas the poor have no money left over, so they can’t get stock market gains.”
28. Savings
“If you have 500$ extra to put away a month you don’t have to worry about emergencies. You will have money to pay for them. If you cannot save any each month the smallest emergency will bankrupt you.”
29. Switching jobs
“Having a shitty low-paying job but being unable to risk giving it up for something better because you live paycheck to paycheck AND you need your benefits. Leaving would mean starting over at a new job with a delayed first paycheck, and often at least a 3-month wait until benefits start to kick in sometimes 6 months to a year. Nevermind that higher-paying jobs regularly “require” degrees and multiple years experience meaning you’d need to fork out for college or university, probably get financially screwed for the rest of your life by student loans, find the time while working cuz going to class won’t pay your rent or bills.”
30. Upgrading appliances
“Older, less energy-efficient appliances will cost more on bills. If your home isn’t well-insulated, that will add up too. And the age-old not being able to afford a down payment to purchase a home when renting is more expensive per month than owning.”
31. Dying
“Dying. Like seriously. The cheapest most basic casket and burial spot costs a small fortune.”
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