There are varying types of low income households, distinguished by terms such as lower middle class, working class and working poor. Across the nation, these families are feeling the pinch of escalating food and gasoline prices, rising unemployment, an expanding crisis in housing markets and little to no economic relief from government. Single folks and married couples alike are abandoning pets, moving in with relatives, maxing credit cards and pooling all of their resources to make ends meet.
The effects of these - depression, isolation, fear, desperation and hopelessness - build on each other to overwhelm you and make you feel like coping with your financial circumstances is impossible. Don't panic. No matter the category you fall into, it is possible to live with contentment, manage the effects of crushing economic times and even enjoy some degree of wealth with a low income.
CHANGE YOUR MIND
Managing with a wage or salary that minimizes your standard of living first comes by changing the way you think about the state of your affairs. You make the choice to be happy and live well or to categorize yourself and have a poverty mentality. Happiness and wellness are gained by making logical choices about your money, being narrowly influenced by pop culture and having an attitude of survival. Many others, who have low incomes, have overcome its ill effects, have gained wisdom from their financial experiences and lived on to tell their stories. You can, too.
An optimistic mindset is the first step in conquering your income, rather than allowing it to dictate to you. Once you've determined that you're going to be your most beneficial advisor and that you'll see your circumstance through to a positive resolution, at the very least, you can then focus on living your best life.
TAKE A CENSUS
In light of your new found confidence and determined optimism, know that you, as an individual, are an economy. Your household is a micro-economy with its own market forecasts and fluctuations; and your first task, as repository of food, leisure, education and political markets (to name a few), is to take a census of your appetites. Name them. Are they necessary? Are they reasonable?
Emotional or trend-based saving and spending is inefficient and quickly lowers already low income. As chairman of your household-level "federal reserve," you have to be transparent and accountable to yourself and your family in a manner that explains and justifies the motives and rationales for how you are managing individual or combined salaries.
TAKE INVENTORY
After you've taken a census of your appetites, eliminate the appetites that are not mandatory and trim back necessary appetites that have become unreasonable. Trim money-spending cravings by giving them each a budget. To achieve this, take inventory of your willingness to discipline your "I wants" and your capacity to "I don't need" and stick to it. Consider what drives you to spend - holidays, trends, persuasive commercials, other peoples opinions, blatant self-satisfaction, fear - and restrain and regulate these one-way influences.
BE CONTENT AND ENJOY YOUR WEALTH
Finally, redefine the words "low income" ad "wealth." Income is low or high when it is compared to someone else's income. Your income is a tool for necessary survival and long-term life management. No matter how little or how much of it you have, your good money is aggressivey sought after by product retailers and service providers. They design marketing that moves you to tap the potency of your relationships (how you maintain them), your goals (how you measure achievement) and your imagination (what primarily occupies your thoughts) and purchase their products or services.
Corporations know the value of what you have in your pocket; but these economics flows belong to you, while you have them. What gratifies you? What entertains you? Don't pay someone else to do it. Find less expensive forms of entertainment. Host a weekly event at your home, instead of your friends individually going to dinner and a movie. What do you need? Find a way to need less.
Did you know that people are assets? Leverage the people in your life, not by borrowing money, but by asking a family member to provide low cost or no cost daycare. Ask a friend to enter a partnership and start a small business. Realize the value of your money by placing it in currents that flow back to you through maximized inlets.
When you've tried ideas like these, you'll find that you have more than you originally assessed. The wealth created by depressurized living, creative leisure, wants and needs that have boundaries, taking inventory of your motivations and budgeting your appetites can be used to invest back into your personal economy.
Be vigilant. Be creative. Be innovative. Plan, invent, dream and never give up. You can manage with a low income.