Bootstrappers guide to being successful.

Mist

Eeyore Enthusiast
<Gold Donor>
30,512
22,437
You are doing good man, don't get discouraged. Keep it up.
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But, do you mind if I ask how much the "Dog ER visit" was? This recently came up in my family. My cousin's dog got cancer and my mom disclosed that he drained his most of his retirement account, allegedly "over $16,000" (dude is in early 30's and doesn't make much), to pay for it. And the dog *might* live another year.

Spending $16,000 on dog surgery is egregiously bad money management. Fuck that is a car, hefty house down payment, or a seed for kid's college fund. I have 2 dogs, but there's a cutoff of around $1000 medical bills and they are getting put down. Anyone else have a hypothetical "dog ER cost ceiling"?
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I agree with this. I remember when my parents spent 4k on dog surgery that ended up killing their dog, yet didn't give me a dime for college or help me buy a car (or allow me to drive, I had to move out when I was 26 just so I could get a license.)

I don't even know why I talk to my parents, fuck.
 

a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
29,948
29,762
Uh, we had basically 0 income
You posted that after telling us a story of your parents spending 4K on animal surgery ....

I lived in a van (not down by the river) in CA after my parents left the nudist colony (probably a cult) in NM. I have paperwork about myself before I was adopted that is a police report where the officer recognized my brother and me alone on the street and brought us back to my parents. We ended up in the Hillcrest Receiving Home in San Diego which is the 80's way of saying orphanage when they tried to go score one last big buy of drugs to resell to "get out of the life for good".

Look at me now, successful.
 

Mist

Eeyore Enthusiast
<Gold Donor>
30,512
22,437
You posted that after telling us a story of your parents spending 4K on animal surgery ....
That was when I was like 21.

We were only really poor until I was 8 or so. Then we were just like regular working poor (<24k a year combined.)
 

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
24,815
32,295
Best part is people bitching they can't get ahead because of the system. Won't listen to people who beat the same system at all. Won't seek out or listen to them at all. People who started with nothing and wound up with something in the same time period. It's NOT FAIR. Seriously? Make a point of finding someone who actually made something of themself and model yourself after them. That's a huge problem in our country apparently. I tried to always at least ask how people got to where they were. Not sit around and tell them how unfair or stupid they are for having made it.

Yes, you are unique and the only person in the world like you basic econmic principles, basic human interaction, and investing your time/effort into skills to better yourself doesn't apply to you either.

If you come off 1/10th what you do on on the internet as you do in real life..I'm guessing it takes < 30 seconds for people to say fuck this and move on and mark you down as a write off and not wasting any effort/time on you at all. I'm gonna guess you come off as smarter than everyone else who doesn't have any real life experience beyond what you read on the internet and the sytem is rigged against you. Nobody wants to hear that shit and will move on quickly.
 

Urlithani

Vyemm Raider
1,978
3,148
Thanks for the advice all.

Astral: it was last year. She was a rescue. Someone grabbed her by her front legs and threw her, breaking both of her legs and then abandoning her when she was a puppy. Both of her front legs made her walk around gimpy, so we thought it was that worsening with age, but she had cancer by her lower spine that degraded a vertebra. She jumped down off the bed one day and paralyzed herself. Being my favorite dog ever we rushed to the ER. I wasn't thinking clearly but I think it was a total of almost 5k with an overnight stay. Didn't even cross my mind that she's clearly paralyzed, and charging 3k for a specialist to come in on call isn't going to change that fact. I called off work and spent the next 5 days at home taking care of her until we put her to sleep.

Then we got 2 dogs to replace her which cost 850 and 1000, so that got thrown onto the cards (all of our dogs are Basenjis, just like the breed a ton. No dog odor, short hair, clean themselves a lot, and don't bark).

But yeah I learned a lot in the last 3 years about money between buying a house, kids, etc. Once the cards are paid down my wife is gonna need an act of Congress to make me want to put anything significant on them again. (Including dogs no matter how cute we think they are)
 

Srathor

Blackwing Lair Raider
1,850
2,968
Mist could have Gold bricks on the road to the promised land and she would bitch that they were hard on her feet. She would also bitch about trying to pull them up because they would break her lesbian nails. The only reason her twat is wet is because of all the fucking tears that roll down every second of every day. Nothing can stop her from her cunty revolution of bitchiness. So in short fuck Mist and the god damned endless bitching about woe is her.
 

Talos

Silver Baronet of the Realm
3,404
10,755
Because they use that wealth to manipulate politicians and rig the system even more in their own favor once they're already winning.

The insidious thing about our system is that it's not enough for rich people to be rich and comfortable, they have to rig the system so everyone else has nothing so they can feel even richer.
Can you provide any evidence of this?

I'd also like to make a note that it's not in the interest of wealthy people to make everybody else poorer. Quite the opposite, in fact.
 

khalid

Unelected Mod
14,071
6,775
If we believe Mist's own words, she is doing everything in her own power to remain stuck in a dead end job and dead end life. She is the exact opposite of someone willing to work on improving their life.

She is always trying to blame this on other people with her political views, but then her comments about her personal life and job show its all her own fault.
 

Eidal

Molten Core Raider
2,001
213
People like Mist are like League of Legends players that bitch about ELO hell. There really isn't any point to discussing it with them, they need their false belief because otherwise they're responsible for their own consequences and that's just not palatable.
 

ZyyzYzzy

RIP USA
<Banned>
25,295
48,789
Mist, my father and grandparents moved to the US with nothing. Hell my father and grandmother came first, while my grandfather worked 3 more years in Italy because they couldn't afford the trip for all of them at once. They lived in a place without a bathroom and "bathed" using the kitchen sink and buckets. They also alll shared a bed because the only had one. He grew up in complete poverty, enlisted in the AF during Vietnam, went to college and made something of himself. My father retired making well over 7 figures, paid for 3 children to go to college and retired at 57. Stop being a bitch and do something to actually improve your situation
 

Fifey

Trakanon Raider
2,898
962
But it's so much easier to bitch on the internet than it is to change anything about your life.
 

Picasso3

Silver Baronet of the Realm
11,333
5,322
Mist could have Gold bricks on the road to the promised land and she would bitch that they were hard on her feet. She would also bitch about trying to pull them up because they would break her lesbian nails. The only reason her twat is wet is because of all the fucking tears that roll down every second of every day. Nothing can stop her from her cunty revolution of bitchiness. So in short fuck Mist and the god damned endless bitching about woe is her.
Quality writing, how does the story end?
 

AladainAF

Best Rabbit
<Gold Donor>
12,867
30,832
Spending $16,000 on dog surgery is egregiously bad money management. Fuck that is a car, hefty house down payment, or a seed for kid's college fund. I have 2 dogs, but there's a cutoff of around $1000 medical bills and they are getting put down. Anyone else have a hypothetical "dog ER cost ceiling"?
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My corgi got out one night and managed to get into a trash bag which had a bunch of bad onions in it from a neighbor. Yeah... but he was only 2 years old and had a serious serious severe case of liver failure due to that. He had to be pumped full of stuff, and his AZT levels were off the chart. I paid for it, it was about $2,000 or so, but he was 2 and I really really love that dog so yeah. If he was over 7-8 years old I wouldn't pay it, but 2... and a corgi? Yeah, I'll pay it. He's been fine since
 

Cad

scientia potentia est
<Bronze Donator>
24,548
45,625
So Mist is it your position that people are stuck in a can't-escape ghetto death spiral of govt housing and the US is so unfair and rigged against poor people? OR

Is it your position that you and your family were completely dead broke living in govt housing making $0/yr and now you're getting your phd and you support your mom living in a $200k+ house in suburban rhode island?
 

Kirun

Buzzfeed Editor
<Gold Donor>
18,779
35,022
Won't listen to people who beat the same system at all. Won't seek out or listen to them at all.
Yeah, fuck all those people who won't listen to the anecdotal evidence provided by 5 or 6 posters on an obscure message board! That shit totally invalidates the mounds of evidence that thevastmajority of this country has very little social mobility.
 

OU Ariakas

Diet Dr. Pepper Enjoyer
<Silver Donator>
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That was when I was like 21.

We were only really poor until I was 8 or so. Then we were just like regular working poor (<24k a year combined.)
My dad was an electrician and my mom stayed at home with me, my twin brother, and our two older half sisters. There were many times that we were in the exact same position that your family was since my dad was furloughed a few months of the year. We were on food stamps and even relied on the church for money to pay bills/rent. All of us payed our own ways through college and worked while attending. My two half sisters are doing just fine for themselves while my twin and I are both making 6 figure salaries. How did all four of us pull ourselves out of that poverty hole?

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