Wednesday, February 27, 2008
14. What does it mean to you to be financially responsible?
My Grandma will walk out of a restaurant rather then pay more then 8 dollars for a meal. She cans the peaches from the trees in her backyard, reuses tinfoil and for Christmas I get a 5 dollar bill. She is cheap because she grew up in The Great Depression. The memories of doing without have been a powerful motivation for how she lives her life. I am thankful for the conservative financial values she has instilled in me. Your assignment is to talk to someone who has lived through an economic depression. Economic depression means to be broke, poor, having to do without. Ask them what it was like, how they survived and how it changed their relationship with money.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
My grandmother lived in the days of the Great Depression.She told me she and her family were very poor.They didn't have any money for
food,cloth,and all those types
of things people need.There were no jobs.She was always hungry.Even bread was a big luxury.Everyday she did not know what she would be eating the next day,because she had nothing to eat at her house.
Everyday was similar to each other
and it seemed like there was no light in the future.But slowely,
the countries started to stand up and because of that the Great Depression was no more.That is how she survived the Great Depression.
But since that time she has always had something with her and it was
hope.The hope of the end in the Great Depression.
Unfortunatly, with the job my father has, it is likely to occur that he has a lay off. A lay off, is when the company my father works for does not have a job for him and sends him home for some time. Because the amount of jobs rises and falls we are under an economic depression for some time. “When we are, we have to watch what we buy and spend our money on. It is hard because my parents aren’t able to buy new clothes for you children or new clothes for ourselves. We have to limit the amount of money we spend on food to make sure we would be able to pay the months rent and bills” says my father. “The way we survive is that I go on the internet and sign in for unemployment, and wait for my job or look for a job in the time being. I receive the job eventually, when there are buildings for me to work on (I am a carpenter) I receive my job and try to pay off all my debts and the credit card companies. Once we finally begin to go on track, this usually occurs for a few months, we go under an economic depression once more.
“The way this has changed my relationship with money is that we tend to use it wisely so that once we are having some troubles, we would have some left over from before that we didn’t use on something that wasn’t quite needed.”
To me being financially responsible is when you go to school, graduate, and get a well paying job. I think being responsible with money is when you save money but you also have money to the side for other things you want.If i got my first paycheck i would make sure i put some of it in the bank. I would also always make sure i have money in the bank to fall back on. Being financaily responsible is also meeting your basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter.
My neighbor Mrs.Giselle Roberts went through an economic depression.When she was 15 years old her mom would stay home and take care or her little brother James and her father would go to work.Her dad was the only working person in the household, but he got laid off. Mr.Carter(Giselles dad) did not finish off college which meant he was not experienced in many working fields.At his old job he worked as a delivery man for a big time company, but he got laid off.So Giselles dad was trying to find a new job but he couldnt because he wasn't experienced.So he went 4 months without a job.She said that her mom felt really bad because she thought that they were going to loose their house.She also put a lot of pressure on herself because she felt that she should have gotten a job too, just in case something like this had ever happened.Giselles dad bacame very sad because he'd felt that he had let his family down by not bringing home an income.Giselle did agree that everyone in the house was worried about where they would end up.
Giselle said that they had to move out of their house and get a smaller apartment.She said that her parents had to get financial aid, which still didn't help.They had to get money from family members and Giselle had to get a small job at a local restaurant.
Giselle said that she felt that going through that point of her life showed her that she had to be cautious about the way she spent her money.She said that she always wanted to have extra money put away just in case of hard times.She said that when she was 18 she opened a savings account.To me it seems that Giselle is worried that she might be poor one day so she saves up the money she gets.After i got off the phone with Giselle she reminded me that i should never spend money unless I REALLY NEEDED TO!
Since I dont have a perosn to interview for this web blog, i will do my web blog on Dorothea Lange. Dorotheawasa born in New jersey on May 26th 1895 she was an Amertican documentary photographer and photojournalist who lived duirng the Great Depression, infact she is best known for her Depression era work. Langes photographs showed the whole country the traumatizing consequences of the Great Depression. Dorothea Lange died on October 11th 1965.
My dad went through economic depression. My dad was raised in a village and he lived in a family that could only afford daily meals. My dad's family wasn't a wealthy family and my grandparents didn't have enough money for my dad to go to school. My dad decided to immigrate to Macao a country in china. My dad immigrated at the age 14 and lived with my aunts. My dad was a hard worker and he worked in hotels as a part-time and he also worked as a construction worker. Every month my dad sends back money to support my grandparents.
My dad was doing fine until, owners of casino's started opening up in Macao and made many of the hotel guests move to live in casino's. My dad was one of the workers who got laid off. The hotel that my dad was working in was getting less business and the hotel couldn't afford to pay the amount they normally paid the workers. The owners of the hotel started lowering the amount they pay the workers monthly. My dad was laid off because he was new to working and he was at a very young age. My dad lost his job and he didn't know what to do. My dad tried to get a job in the casino's but he knew that he might start gambling money too. My dad only had enough money for his rents in my aunts house and he didn't have enough money for my grandparents. My dad suffered through a long period of time until he was more experience in working. My dad remember that one night he was starving to death because he didn't have enough money for dinner and he went to bed starving. After many years depression my dad finally found a job that is best for him. At the age 18 my dad solved all the problems that he had and he no longer was in a economic depressing because he was a experience and a motivated worker. My dad taught me that I should try my best in school because I wouldn't want to be laid off like him in the future. With my dads word I learned to always try my best in everything and never give up when I am making it through half way.
What i think it means to be financially responsible is that you have to be on a budget. When my great-grandmother came to the USA, she worked in the fields and was paid very little. So what she did with that money was put towards different things. For example lets say if a person has about $20, they would put $5 towards food,$5 towards clothing,$5 towards the house, and $5 towards anything else which includes savings. Savings is when you save up money in a bank in case of an emergency or the future. My great-grandmother has been through alot. But because of her savings, she now has a home and foods and extra money for anything she needs.
I asked my grandmother if she live through the great depression, she said no. But she said that her mother did though. Before she died she told me about life during the great depression. During the great depression lots and lots of people had no jobs or lost their jobs. There were nothing to eat because they had no money to buy any food. Everyday of the great depression it got worse and worse. No longer the countries started to stand up on their feet. That was how she survived the great depression.
What I think it means to be financially responsible is that you need to know how to use your money and when not to use it. For example if you saw a nice pair of shoes and it was 50$ and then you said but I’m a little hungry and all I have is 50$ which one would you choose? If you picked the shoes it wouldn’t be responsible. You could have shoes but you don’t need it to survive like people need food.
Post a Comment