How broke have you been?

[Aaron Sice]

interesting stories.

we've been broke to the point of no food, one measly income and no govt assistance (EVER) because of what our parents earned....! never mind we were paying for uni and a mortgage and i was working like a dog on $23kpa.

this was my motivation to better ourselves and our position.

this has bred my blind hatred of govt handouts.

it has also bred my desire to get rich and fund a terrorist group to bomb canberra - oops - did i say that out loud....?

 

[craigb]

Hi, good thread to while away these in between times of shall I buy or not?

I'd cheerfully give up all my properties if I could go back to when I had 5 cents left.

Serious. Yr 2 Uni lived on campus, food & laundry included. Didn't occur to me I needed money to live on.

I had to borrow $1 from my friend [bus fare to go into the city] to go cash the cheque my sister sent me.

Ah, to be 20 again!!

At 30, house number 1 had me in serious deep poo - had to look for $53000 in cash. my colleague asked 'Are you OK?' I put my head in my arms and wept!

On that day, some wires in my head must have shorted! I have since bought 11 houses, 5 units and 7 shops. Sold half of them.

Extreme neediness = extreme determination

I thank the day I was very very poor! It has made me very rich.

KY

That is the greatest quote i have ever read! kudos!

 

[craigb]

how broke is broke.

When my perants seperated dad went o/s with his newbie wife, unfortunatly had a prety bad car crash he was stuck o/s for a year or so!
we had me, mum and my two bro's and nill income . the salvation army came to us on x-mass day to give us a bbq chicken , that was it. i give now when i see the salvo guy , i try to provide enough for another to get the same gift we did on that x-mass day .

 

[craigb]

how broke is broke.

When my perants seperated dad went o/s with his newbie wife, unfortunatly had a prety bad car crash he was stuck o/s for a year or so!
we had me, mum and my two bro's and nill income . the salvation army came to us on x-mass day to give us a bbq chicken , that was it. i give now when i see the salvo guy , i try to provide enough for another to get the same gift we did on that x-mass day .
This is why i take maximum risk, in prop and investments, i survived ok back then , and now i know what broke is i doubt if i could achive this even if i tried.
Been there done that and it did'nt hurt me. or did it!

 

[Andrew L]

It just amazing to read these stories. The one common theme is everyones drive to better themselves.

My broke story is alive and currently be played out...............I lent funds to a developer for a project in QLD that has been finished for almost 12 months. He has still not paid my funds in full and has basically moved my funds to his next project -------- not very nice. I'm relying on his repayment every month to cover my current Ip mortgage and other debts...... its getting closer and closer to missing payments but somehow each month I manage to get it done.

With the funds he has returned I have bought a IP in Dundas Valley in Sydney and about 6 weeks ago received the DA approval to build 4x2x1 duplex property. The search for constructions funds is challanging to say the least. I refinanced 8 weeks ago to ING wholesale on the pretence of them offering the construction finance on DA approval, well 7 days after the home loan was refianced ING wholesale pulled out of multi dwelling residential construction.

Now I need to refiance the lot again + pay ING exit fees for leaving the loan. I have an application with CBA at the moment so fingers crossed it goes through. All could be to no avail as I'm out of cashflow and chasing the QLD guy to repay more funds or preferably all the O/S funds so I can continue..... other wise I can't pay the next months mort and a for sale sign goes up on I deal I can make 180k only if i can build otherwise I'm in the big black hole for alot of money + the c/cards I've used to make mort payments.

I heard on the radio yesterday that 1 in 3 people have no savings and if they lost there jobs couldn't pay the next weeks bills????? thats me at the moment.........Is that declared broke - to me it is. Everything I have is in this property and a stupid car I've been trying to sell for 12 months with no luck.
Anyway its back to ringing every man and his dog to finance my deal and clear all this debt make a heap of cash and build again & again & again ........

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Philip Thomas]

From adversity comes opportunity


Its not until you are really on the bones of you bum that you really appreciate what you had, have or what you could have. It’s from here that the burning desire to get out of this place really kicks in. It’s in adversity that we find strength & true character. I’ve been there many times & have always come out stronger, leaner, hungrier. It’s frightening what you can do when you put your mind to it, are determined & focused. When you are on the ground how much further can you fall? You either stay on the ground & give up or get up & fight. You have nothing to loose & everything to gain.

Real estate is like this. You may think you are screwed on a project or an investment. Then you either find a way or make a way. It’s amazing how creative you can be when you are against the wall.

Philip

 

[lizzie]

i have never been "can't eat" poor but have been "poor" so that emotionally i was a mess.

the worst was when we bought a knockdown in 2003 and rebuilt to sell. the build was finished 2 months after the boom collapsed - we tried to sell vacant but not takers. we rented. they trashed the place. we cleaned up and tried to sell again as the difference between rental income and interest payments was sucking us under. no takers.

in the end all credit cards were maxed out and no one would give me an increase. no money in the bank accounts. land tax bill arrived for $27,000. mortgage payments due ... i sat and cried for hours.

fortunately the next week we got an offer for the property. we lost around $70k on the deal and it still stings years later.

 

[tobe]

I changed careers from Chef to mortgage broker. For the first year I worked during the week broking, and worked the weekends cooking breakfasts. I then took the plunge and bought my third property, and the cafe promptly stopped needing me on the weekends.

The commissions took longer than I imagined, and bills started piling up. The place I bought needed lots of work, which I tried to do myself. I contemplated delivering newspapers for a while, as I was reached my credit card limit. In the end I just 'pulled my head in'. I cooked up a load of vegetarian mexican beans and brown rice and ate it pretty much the whole week. I rode my bike to work, lost gym memberships and everything else that wasnt income producing.

Each time I am frightened of the next step, I remind myself of how little I need to survive, and how lucky I am to be able to leave pride aside and take any job, be it washing dishes or delivering pamphlets if push comes to shove. It is really enabling.

 

[csc]

our family was that poor when i was a kid my parents use to tie a raw pork chop around my neck to get the dog to play with me cause being dressed in rags no other kids would come near me....now thats poor!

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

One Christmas we took all the clothes we received as gifts, and returned them to the various stores, in most cases for cash. We then used the cash to buy groceries.

As Tobe suggested, starting or running a mortgage broking business isn't as profitable as some people believe. It's worthwhile long term, but there are serious sacrifices to be made first. I also held a crappy weekend job when I started.

 

[Learnings]

I have never felt so poor

I just lost the gf of 3years. You know, the first love the "one". Yes im young and sure plenty of other people are alot worse off than myself, but man it introduced a whole new world of pain ive never had to deal with before. Finance hit a wall. My trading results went to ****. 9-5r sales job = no commissions. it was so crippling.

Im just starting to get back on the horse and keep peddling myself towards the goals.

It was good to get real life hardcore practice on my emotional intelligence. Trying to peice together my first homeloan while feeling like I have a sword swinging around inside me. I feel like ive grown up 30 years in 3 weeks.

Hard times fall on everyone, and its ok to feel crap about it for a while, but its how fast you bounce back that counts. Its not easy but dont let the bad times drag you down.

Theres always going to be another 'the one' wether its the deal/house/loan/girl-of-a-lifetime. Atleast thats what im telling myself atm.

At the end of it, your still alive and kicking so get back on it and try and take some lessons away from the experiance that will help motivate you in the future.

Funny thing is, im sure ill laugh about this in 5yrs time, but 3 weeks ago i could barely eat.

Anyone got some hindsight forsale? Im at rockbottom so things can only go up from here!

 

[Rob Williams]

Funny thing is, im sure ill laugh about this in 5yrs time, but 3 weeks ago i could barely eat.

Anyone got some hindsight forsale? Im at rockbottom so things can only go up from here!

I can't remember who was quoted as saying this back in the 80's. It was a well known business leader:
"Never chase a woman, a business or a bus. There's always another one around the corner".
So far, I know this to be true of business deals and buses. Of the other, I'm not so sure.
I'd like to think that it's true and hasn't manifested itself for me as yet.

 

[chrispy]

Great reading, just love them.

When we were married we owed my parents 30 pounds. We paid that back straight away and were renting in Lower Templestowe. We bought a block of land and were trying to pay it off and Owner build at the same time.

By the end of each week we had absolutely NO money at all, so we used to save the milk bottles so that we could take them back on Wednesday nights to buy milk until we got paid on the Friday. At that time there was a deposit on all glass milk bottles. We survived and in later years could see the humour in this. The people in the milk bar became very good friends and used to remind us of when we were 19 and 20 and trying to build our own house.

We succeeded and were never that broke again!!!!

Thanks for reminding me and making me smile as I think back to those times

Chris

 

[Learnings]

I'd like to think that it's true and hasn't manifested itself for me as yet.

It'll happen one day. Its fair enough to be pessamistic up until that day though

Id rather run the risk rather than go back to her and always be wishing things were 'how they used to be' to me thats more punishment then flushing the years we were together down the toilet.

Start fresh with an open mind

 

[chilliaa]

since i was around 10yrs or so and became aware of the concept of money i can proudly say i have never been broke in my life. Set up my first business in primary school with a push bike and a cart, used to hunt the periodic junk collection days (when everyone throughs unwanted things on their nature strip), collect things that i could re-sell, wash them up, and spend the next few months, door nocking and re-flogging the stuff off to other people.

 

[Ms Jade]

I have never felt so poor

I just lost the gf of 3years. You know, the first love the "one". Yes im young and sure plenty of other people are alot worse off than myself, but man it introduced a whole new world of pain ive never had to deal with before. Finance hit a wall. My trading results went to ****. 9-5r sales job = no commissions. it was so crippling.

Im just starting to get back on the horse and keep peddling myself towards the goals.

It was good to get real life hardcore practice on my emotional intelligence. Trying to peice together my first homeloan while feeling like I have a sword swinging around inside me. I feel like ive grown up 30 years in 3 weeks.

Hard times fall on everyone, and its ok to feel crap about it for a while, but its how fast you bounce back that counts. Its not easy but dont let the bad times drag you down.

Theres always going to be another 'the one' wether its the deal/house/loan/girl-of-a-lifetime. Atleast thats what im telling myself atm.

At the end of it, your still alive and kicking so get back on it and try and take some lessons away from the experiance that will help motivate you in the future.

Funny thing is, im sure ill laugh about this in 5yrs time, but 3 weeks ago i could barely eat.

Anyone got some hindsight forsale? Im at rockbottom so things can only go up from here!

I feel for you. Sorry you are going through this but I can actually give you some free hindsight. Just about everyone will have their heart broken at some stage. I remember it well; though it was 20 years ago. Didn't eat for many weeks & pretty much faded away. Drank a couple of bottles of pinot a day... Embarassing to think about it now. Of course, telling you that you will get over it may not make you feel any better right now. It's normal to feel like you will never feel really happy & free to love again....but you really will! If you let yourself. You just have to trust that you are way too close to the situation to learn anything from it right now. One day you WILL realise that it has made you a stronger person and you will appreciate the relationship that you had. 99% of relationships don't work out. But don't feel like it's 3 years down the toilet, as you say. Just because it's over now doesn't mean it wasn't a great relationship. What you had was real while you had it. the situation now does not change that. You cannot imagine from where you are now that the skills you learned in that relationship will make the next ones so much better. I remember when I was heartbroken I was absolutely convinced that the only person in the world that I could ever love for life was gone, so I would never get married. How amazing that I am writing this 1 day after my 12 year wedding anniversary. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am with the right person now. I cannot imagine what would have happened if I'd stayed with "heartbreak guy." I'm almost certain that we would have broken up eventually. there are no accidents with these kind of things.
Two things I'd like to leave you with:
1. It's OK to be sad / mad whatever you are. All human beings feel loss & you have to allow yourself to grieve & know that you'll be OK. Give yourself permission to feel however you feel & you may be surprised that you start feeling better. There's nothing wrong with sadness; you don't have to "positive think" your way out of it!
2. You feel poor right now but trust that there's something better in store for you. One day the things that you learn from this will make you rich beyond measure. You're not called Learnings for no reason.

 

[Learnings]

Thanks for the kinds words Ms Jade.

I definetly appreciate what shes done for me & i've let her know that. I tried to stay mature about it all.

I'd like to think im getting past the greif stage as im starting to get excited about life again, tradings up, commissions are back, just baught 2 new jackets off ebay (confidence +1) Eyes are back on the prize.

My post did come accross abit "positive' but if I were to have typed that a few weeks ago it would of been very different. Friends have said let yourself be sad to get it out of the system and thats what ive done.

Atleast I dont have to get the bathroom reno out the way first anymore

 

[Propertunity]

All these posts about how poor we have all been remind me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRxjqOcvxoE

 

[csc]

I have never felt so poor

I just lost the gf of 3years. You know, the first love the "one". Yes im young and sure plenty of other people are alot worse off than myself, but man it introduced a whole new world of pain ive never had to deal with before. Finance hit a wall. My trading results went to ****. 9-5r sales job = no commissions. it was so crippling.

Im just starting to get back on the horse and keep peddling myself towards the goals.

It was good to get real life hardcore practice on my emotional intelligence. Trying to peice together my first homeloan while feeling like I have a sword swinging around inside me. I feel like ive grown up 30 years in 3 weeks.

Hard times fall on everyone, and its ok to feel crap about it for a while, but its how fast you bounce back that counts. Its not easy but dont let the bad times drag you down.

Theres always going to be another 'the one' wether its the deal/house/loan/girl-of-a-lifetime. Atleast thats what im telling myself atm.

At the end of it, your still alive and kicking so get back on it and try and take some lessons away from the experiance that will help motivate you in the future.

Funny thing is, im sure ill laugh about this in 5yrs time, but 3 weeks ago i could barely eat.

Anyone got some hindsight forsale? Im at rockbottom so things can only go up from here!

40 oz bottle of rum works wonders...short term o/night though!

bag of mull works well, about 6-8 hrs on a good session.

1/2 hr with a nice hooker, well that takes a half hour if that

(I dont support any of the above but I know those that do)

life skills and learning, well takes that your whole life until you pass away

best suggestion: exercise, push some weights, turn your mental anguish and the "i feel sorry for myself" into a positive. talk as you are doing now be it online to anyone who will listen......talking to people does help.

get a piece of paper , draw a line down the middle, pos and neg thoughts write them down...release all your anger, lost sole syndrome thoughts.....the list is endless on how to get motivated.....if you really want to!

for sure everyone handles relationship breakdowns different, its how you come out the other side that really counts.

the weak get left behind, the strong move forward quickly.

pick your chin up champ, most of us have been down this exact same track.....all it did for me was to make me wiser in the next relationship....hopefully the anxiety will ease and you will soon see light at the end of that tunnel...

good luck.

 

[Nathan]

Therewas a time, where i had nothing, i had no money, no clothes, no undies, no phone, no food, I was living in a confined space which wasnt very comfortable.......

.......Then my mother gave birth to me and i started my journey of accumulation (both knowledge and materialistic)