What Would it Take to be Worry-Free?

A fiscal thought-exercise — or maybe just wishful thinking.

Photo by Shot by Cerqueira @shotbycerqueira on Unsplash

For as long as I can remember, money — or, specifically, the lack of it — has been my Achilles heel.

Of all of my “issues” — my weight, my mental illnesses, my physical disabilities — poverty has been the one that has defined me the most. Honestly, I might think that poverty might have been the precursor to all of the rest.

Chances are, you don’t need me to preach about how much not having money sucks. But I’ve found that a lot of people have a much more comfortable idea of what not having money means.

My family was not “sorry, kids, we’re not going on vacation this year” kind of poor. We were “the three of you need to split that burger and those fries” kind of poor. The kind of poor where school is the highlight of the day, week, year, because there’s literally no money to do anything else. The kind of poor where you’re lucky to have a roof over your head and a car that runs — most of the time. The kind of poor where you’re only one small accident away from Absolute Ruination.

So, so, so, so, so many people have no understanding of what this is like. And my dream was that, once I became an adult, I would no longer know what it was like. I would do something with my life. I would be…