Psychosis on the Road to Financial Freedom

Have you ever been so poor that all you could afford to eat was beans, rice, potatos, and ramen noodles?

In the Beginning

Many years ago, I was working as a hair stylist part time and my husband was working at UPS part time. We did this for years, running up debt because we simply didn’t make enough money to pay our bills. He had an Associates degree in Electronics Engineering Technology but was having trouble getting a job. Student loans were over $30,000 and the monthly payments was about $500 per month. The school’s job placement department actually sent him on an interview (for a job in his field) that paid $6.00 per hour! When you consider we probably made about $2,000 per month between the two of us, life was a real struggle. I’ll go on record right now and say that I was just being lazy and that was why I worked part time. I suppose I was frustrated because I hated doing hair, but I had no other skills to earn a living with.

Keeping up with the Jones’

Our best friends were doing pretty well, and it was painful to sit back and see all the things they could do. We seemed to model ourselves after them for a while: they got a dog, we got a dog; they bought a house, we bought a house. We couldn’t afford either one. Within 6 months of moving in to that house, we had to replace the central heat and air units for $3,000. As you can imagine, we didn’t have the money, so we charged that, too. The stacks of bills were getting higher, and our telephone began to ring non-stop.We were desperate and didn’t know what to do.

An Opportunity

We went through a lot of things during this time (I’ll save those for another time). About a year later, I received a phone call from a customer whose hair I had cut the day before. He wanted to know if I was interested making extra money. Of course I was! I was flattered, but told him I could not meet with him unless my husband came along. We met up with this guy and he showed us the Amway opportunity.

Now I know a log of people hate Amway, but I don’t. I signed up and we stayed in for 10 years! We never made any real money - mostly because we were afraid to approach people and tell them what we were doing. But it was a good experience overall because of the people I met, the books I read, the tapes I listened to, and the seminars I attended. Amway didn’t change my life, but the opportunity did.

Beans Again

We met another couple who were as broke as we were. They’d always ask us, or we would ask them: what’s for dinner? The reply was always “beans again”. And that was no exaggeration…it was all we could afford. We ate so many beans that we became immune to the “side effects”. But I will tell you this: they were the best of times, they were the worst of times. I would never want to go back to being that poor, but it changed my life in more ways than I will ever be able to share. So everytime I say or hear the phrase “beans again”, it puts a smile on my face and brings back great memories. It also reminds me that sometimes sacrifices have to be made today so that we can have a better tomorrow.