There is no easy way out of poverty, but here are 3 hard ways out.
In 2020, over 37 million Americans (11% of the population) live in poverty. We can debate the reasons as too why and how people can get out of poverty.
However, the truth is there is no easy way out of poverty.
You have you work cut out for you.
Maybe you were born into poverty. Maybe you had more kids than you can afford (a major cause of poverty).
Or maybe you made some bad choices or just had some bad luck.
For some it is a matter of overcoming laziness. You got to have that ambition and drive to change your life situation for the better.
Some don’t want to get out of poverty. It is easier to live off hand-outs and government welfare checks. Why change anything? It’s “free” money, right?
But what about those who want a better life? What about those who want to get out of poverty?
You can do it. However, it will take a lot of necessary work to climb your way out of that deep hole you find yourself in.
There is no easy way out of poverty.
Study Up on Personal Finance
If you financially illiterate and know nothing of managing your money, then it is time to study up on personal finance.
Luckily, many resources are available for you. Online blogs, YouTube channels, and books are all good ways to get started.
In fact, I created a Getting Started page to help you begin your journey into personal finance and dividend growth investing.
Getting out of poverty is a matter of changing your mindset (lots of the books I list can help with that).
More than half of financial success is going to come from your mentality. Your dedication, discipline, and desire.
You need to drop the loser mentality, the lazy mentality, or any victim mindset you have and develop the mindset of ambitious winners striving to succeed.
It takes time to build that up and meet the mistakes you will make head on. We learn and grow the greatest from our mistakes and adversity.
Learning personal finance is essential to your wellbeing in life.
You need to learn how to manage a budget and not live paycheck to paycheck (normal people). Or worse, live credit card to credit card in constant debt (poor people).
Instead find ways of saving money, building an emergency fund, investments for retirement or extra income, and learn new ways of budgeting.
The alternative is financial illiteracy which means staying in poverty, living a hollow life, and dying miserably in debt.
Likely Need to Relocate
In order to get out of poverty, there is a strong possibility you need to relocate.
That means moving to a new place.
Moving in itself is a huge headache and relocating is not something most people are keen to do. It means starting anew in an unknown place with unknown prospects.
In other words, you have to take on the risk of moving to get out of poverty a build a better life.
This means moving to an area of the country (or world) were there are better jobs a preferably a lower cost of living.
For example, if you are living in poverty in New York City (where taxes are high and rent for a one-bedroom apartment alone is $3-5,000 per month), then it is best to relocate to a less expensive part of the country with greater job opportunities.
If you can’t get a better paying job where you are or obtain some skill that you can use for earning a living in your area, they you will likely have to cast you die elsewhere.
This can be difficult for most people who have roots, family, and friends in a particular area, but how much is your desire to get out of poverty?
Furthermore, we are often products of our environment. For better or worse, our environment affects us.
If we are surrounded by impoverishment, then likely that is what we become. Changing the people you surround yourself with often affects your mindset and behavior.
This alone makes relocating many times necessary.
The alternative is staying in poverty, living a hollow life, and dying miserably in debt.
Choose Careers with Higher Pay
Here is the thing. Jobs with high pay are often higher pay for a reason. Those jobs are hard!
They are hard on your body and on your mind. Many times, they require years of study and training to master.
Indeed, the highest paying jobs in terms of median wages tend to be in the medical profession.
Followed by that is engineering and trade school jobs (which shows strong job growth prospects due to these skills being in demand).
The worst paying jobs are liberal arts degrees. Avoid those.
Want to stay in poverty or struggle financially with money? Major in English, History, Art, or any Social Sciences.
Those are degrees are easy, but easy doesn’t get you out of poverty.
You will need to put in the hard work and study/train for the hard jobs that pay well.
Bear in mind, that you may need to take on certain temporary debt for education and training in these fields or trades.
For example, the average tuition for trade school is between $3,863 and $15,549 per year, but there is a wide variety of factors and ways to reduce these costs.
Often these jobs are worth taking on the debt since you will have a higher paying skilled job in the end. You will have to make that determination.
These jobs are tough, but they often pay well.
Combine that with learning about personal finance and likely relocating and you will be set on the road to better life and a financial success.
The Easy Ways Never Work Best
Poverty is a tough hole to climb out of. There is no easy way out of poverty.
Some, for whatever reason, think there is an easy way out. Some try to find the easy way.
Lottery tickets are the prime example of people looking for the easy way out.
Never mind that the chance of winning is 1 in 17 billion, low-income households spend a higher percentage of their incomes on lottery tickets per year hoping for the easy way out, then their wealthier counterparts.
But there are no cheat codes out of poverty. It takes a lot of uncomfortable hard work.
And it is that hard work that probably turns most people off from even trying to get out of poverty. It is easier to buy a lotto ticket and hope.
Those who are selling you easy ways out are scamming you (or just want your vote).
They’ll promise you get-rich-quick schemes saying that you could make millions a month while they enrich themselves using the money you spent on their seminars or courses.
Or they’ll give you government checks (money taken from other people) to keep your head just above water and keep you dependent on the state.
Both lead towards a sub-par life and disaster in the end.
Conclusion
There is no easy way out of poverty.
As dark and hopeless as poverty seems, there is a way out.
It just takes a lot of hard work. You are starting from a deep hole rather than from the ground level.
If you commit yourself to getting out of poverty and take the necessary steps, you will find it was worth all the hard work you put in.
In many ways, while I have had plenty of financial (and life) misfortunes, I thank my lucky stars I never had to climb out that deep hole of being below the poverty line.
Even with the road bumps being at ground level, I am glad to have stayed afloat.
I am working each day to better my financial position, build up my investment portfolio, and increase my passive income.
I have a goal to become financially independent and free. Keep working on building a better tomorrow.
So, what do you think? Got any other tips to help those struggling with money? Let us know in the comments below!
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