Finance: Leveraging $1

How to Leverage Yourself Out of Poverty by Cutting Corners

by Gloria Merle Huffman

2/15/2013

1,251 words

One client of a United States university career counselor managed, with his wife, to save money for much-needed training to advance in his career by lopping off a whopping $1,720 in expenses every single month. That is truly amazing. What will power! What courage! What ingenuity!

$1,720 in monthly savings (without even making a dent in overall lifestyle) represents $780 more than the total $940/month I receive from Social Security while not being able to afford the small monthly electric bill or eat more than 1 1/2 meals a day ... while I am fighting the H.U.D.-associated landlord, who has the right to take 1/3 of my Social Security check with no regard for the local cost of living, leaving me with no food budget for the month. My rent this year increased to 1/3 of my income because last year I couldn't afford to pay the mounting electric bills or make out-of-pocket payments for health insurance premiums or other medical bills in order to receive rent credits to lower my rent. I have a financial noose around my neck, the same noose that is around the necks of 98% of the disabled and elderly and the unemployed. The experience of the couple just mentioned, however, has infused me with new hope.

Let's see ... how can I find ways to save money like that inspiring man and his wife? Even more money than I already am, that is.

1. STOP EATING

I could take the time-honored route of weaning myself off of food instead of cooking everything from scratch, a process that currently takes several hours a day. That would cut out an amazing $400/month from my food budget: 42% of my income. There will be no food pantry to go to, as I've been banned because I pointed out that I'm highly allergic to wheat, corn, carrots, onions, and several other food pantry staples, and that eating canned food with high fructose corn syrup or the abundant sugary pies, cakes and cookies offered at the food pantry will surely lead to overweight and probable diabetes. Hence, the need to eliminate food from my budget entirely: I have no other option if I want to save money on food without spending all day trying to get meals with complementary proteins from hours of soaking and cooking cheap dried beans and finding something from somewhere that can restore the entire B vitamin complex to the cheap white rice that promises to be the other half of the complement. An added bonus is that I would no longer be faced with gut-wrenching choices about my grocery budget like "Prunes? Or lettuce? Prunes? Or lettuce?"

2. STOP PAYING RENT OR GIVE UP THE CAR

I could stop paying rent, leading to an eviction from subsidized senior housing which would solve the pesky problem of having to come up with the absolutely very low but relatively astronomically high rent every month. Or I could pay the rent and give up my car, saving on those auto insurance premiums. But that would leave me no car in which to live as a last resort. Hmmm, on second thought, maybe keeping the car is more important than paying the rent, since the apartment doesn't go anywhere and the car can at least take me places faster than waiting for a one-hour, 10-mile, two-bus trip to go two miles for a single errand in a direction the buses don't go.

3. STOP BUYING COSMETICS AND GROOMING SUPPLIES. PERIOD.

If I'm saving money by being homeless, no one will be in the least surprised if I look 20 years older than my age, my hair is all matted up, and I smell bad, so I could save several dollars a month by not using makeup or shampoo or body wash. More pennies for the piggy bank.

4. STOP TRYING TO KEEP UP WITH THE JONESES

Not having a place to live would eliminate the inevitable envious comparisons of my house with the houses next door or over in the richest part of town. And not being able to do needed body work on the car or fix the loud muffler would drive me into an introverted state of complete denial, a very handy psychological space for dealing with the exigencies of my admirable goal-directed belt-tightening.

5. LEARN THE POWER OF LEVERAGE

I can learn the fine art of leveraging what I do have. For example, when I receive my $940 Social Security check, I can ask myself how I can use that money to pry myself out of poverty, as returning to the life I had with the college degree I got is no longer possible once I'm off the merry-go-round. Since I'm not eating, I could theoretically study a field that doesn't require a college degree, like real estate, in all that spare time I've created by not having to prepare or eat food. Then I'd have enough money to put $500 into the required 60-hour classroom course on Principles and Practice of Real Estate (passing the course online is not allowed in my state), and about $240 into the textbooks. I would then, in a major display of self-restraint and budgetary discipline, put the remaining $200 aside until I bring in the additional $200 or so needed for the costs and fees associated with the exam and the license.

In short, by ruthlessly looking for every conceivable budgetary corner to cut, I could leverage my small Social Security check and quickly amass the necessary $1,140 for the training and fees I would need to become a licensed real estate agent and move myself up on the socioeconomic ladder.

When I succeed, I will write a best-selling book on "How I Saved $940 a Month on a $940-a-Month Income Without a Degree from Harvard and Made A Killing in Real Estate." A fascinating story of financial success achieved through total self-control, this book will have a digital version in the Amazon Kindle Store that requires a small minimum Google Adwords beginner's budget of $450 per month. This minimal amount will feed one online search engine advertising campaign to generate enough sales royalties per month to propel my book into the Top 100 Sales Rank at Kindle for a few days in a row and barely cover the cost of advertising. While this break-even venture may not seem to be a legitimate illustration of leverage, the mere cachet of having an eBook with a Kindle Sales Rank in the Top 100 could give me sufficient prestige to help leverage a later project with global appeal and actual profit.

A person can theoretically live 40 days without food, so I think this plan will work.

The largest obstacle to be surmounted would be discovering on the first night of real estate agent classes that I am locked out by the instructor due to my frightening skeletal appearance and the unwashed stench emanating from my direction. In that case, I would be inclined to simply sue the organization sponsoring the class for discrimination against the homeless, except that the lawyers available pro bono to the poor only handle assignments in eviction cases (i.e., your assignment is to pay the unilaterally landlord-determined sum of money ... the exact amount you couldn't pay that got you the eviction notice ... and write 1,000 times over your legible signature, "I am sorry, I will not ever be late with my rent again").

If I can just get past that first hurdle, I'm home free.

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© 2013 Gloria Merle Huffman