I Was Making $13K A Year: How Being Broke In NYC Humbled Me
Once upon a time, I was broke as hell. Not just broke, but broke as hell. Broke is when you have more month left than money. Broke as hell is when you continuously have more week left than money.
My brokest point came after I was laid off from my job at an S&P 500 listed company in 2011. I decided it was time to “give back" and joined Americorp. As a result, I was earning $13,500 annually and living in New York City. This wasn't the only time in my life I was broke before I decided to change my relationship with money, “broke" was a familiar situation.
By 2015, I had turned my situation around and was making nearly $80,000 a year. I got comfortable with my new income, took a couple of bucket list trips and launched my own company. But I will never forget the days I claimed I was “fasting" so that I didn't have to explain not having lunch because the truth was, I couldn't afford it.
As the saying goes, "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger," and there is a bright side to my days of penny pinching.
I learned valuable lessons when I was broke that I will carry with me throughout my life, and that I believe will help anyone who's in a financial struggle.
Humility Goes A Long Way
I drove a Lexus in college and it's safe to say that I was feeling myself, not exactly Kanye status, but I had a very healthy sense of self. Fast forward to 2011 when my vehicle had been towed for unpaid tickets, and I didn't even have enough money for train fare to get to work -- it was a much-deserved slice of humble pie.
Through my experience I began to understand what it was like to live paycheck to paycheck. While I wasn't exactly sitting in the front seat of the struggle bus, I began to understand what it felt like to question whether or not you'd be able to make ends meet. As a result, I started judging others less. I became thankful for the opportunities I had been afforded, and realized that nothing in this world is given and shouldn't be taken for granted.
You Have To Learn To Legally Hustle
Have you ever felt a job was below you? Right after college, I refused to take jobs that didn't require a college degree--that is until student loan reps started calling. During times of crying broke, I did jobs that I would have previously never given a second glance, and I created income streams using my skills. I sold cars, wrote term papers for college students, learned to bartend, and I even became a photo booth operator at events and private parties. There's something empowering about learning that you have "hustle" in you and that you can make cute ass lemon drop cookies when life throws you lemon peels.
Related: Six Tips For Getting Your Side Hustle Off The Ground In 2019
There Is A Difference Between Friends & Associates
In 2011, my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer. I didn't have a legitimate savings account; I barely had a bank account. A few months prior, my best friend had lost her job and was owed back pay by unemployment. As soon as she received her back pay, she purchased me a plane ticket home and see my grandfather. He passed less than a month later.
I not only learned who my friends were because of their generosity, but also because of their desire to actually be around me when we weren't having fun or spending our coins in a club. Mother Oprah said it best, "Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down." There are several people who opted not to ride the bus with me and I am beyond grateful that I learned what their intentions were early on.
Maximize & Value Resources
When you don't have money to do traditional twenty-something things, let alone paying your rent, an evolved version of first world "fight or flight" begins to occur. For me, "flight" was returning home to North Carolina, and I wasn't about to let New York City get the best of me. While I didn't become a freegan (although I knew plenty of people who were), I got creative with my life.
A friend and I did a "dining out fast". We committed to only dining out if someone else was picking up the bill. I cut my drinking bill down to zero. If I was going out, it was to open bar events. I started shopping at thrift stores and participating in clothing swaps. I effectively utilized my resources to make my money stretch. To this day, I cut corners where it makes sense. For example, I haven't had cable in five years and I've gotten really good at doing my own manicures.
One of the beautiful things about struggle is that you never know how strong and capable you are until you are challenged.
That's when you learn what you are really made of. Being broke changed my heart and life for the better. Now, would I ever want to be that broke again? Meeeehhh. Not by choice. I think I've had enough of being broke for a lifetime. What are some lessons you learned (or are learning) when you were broke?
xoNecole is always looking for new voices and empowering stories to add to our platform. If you have an interesting story or personal essay that you'd love to share, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us at submissions@xonecole.com.
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Tonya Rapley is a nationally recognized millennial money expert and was deemed the "New Face of Wealth Building" by Black Enterprise magazine. She is a Certified Financial Educator and founder of MyFabFinance, where she is on a mission to help women break the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck.
ItGirl 100 Honors Black Women Who Create Culture & Put On For Their Cities
As they say, create the change you want to see in this world, besties. That’s why xoNecole linked up with Hyundai for the inaugural ItGirl 100 List, a celebration of 100 Genzennial women who aren’t afraid to pull up their own seats to the table. Across regions and industries, these women embody the essence of discovering self-value through purpose, honey! They're fierce, they’re ultra-creative, and we know they make their cities proud.
VIEW THE FULL ITGIRL 100 LIST HERE.
Don’t forget to also check out the ItGirl Directory, featuring 50 Black-woman-owned marketing and branding agencies, photographers and videographers, publicists, and more.
THE ITGIRL MEMO
I. An ItGirl puts on for her city and masters her self-worth through purpose.
II. An ItGirl celebrates all the things that make her unique.
III. An ItGirl empowers others to become the best versions of themselves.
IV. An ItGirl leads by example, inspiring others through her actions and integrity.
V. An ItGirl paves the way for authenticity and diversity in all aspects of life.
VI. An ItGirl uses the power of her voice to advocate for positive change in the world.
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Why You Should Implement The Closing Shift Cleaning Hack Into Your Daily Routine
A new cleaning hack could allow you to do away with Saturday cleaning altogether because your house is already tidy. Closing shift cleaning is a viral trend originally named by influencer Clara Pierce, who shared with her followers how she keeps her apartment clean and how that leads to productivity and a better overall experience in her apartment daily.
"Whenever I'm really trying to set myself up for success for the next day, I close up my apartment like I'm closing a shift at work. Sometimes, the closing shift involves cleaning my entire apartment, and other times, it involves cleaning it 10% to make sure that it's better for the next day," Pierce shared with her followers.
The Closing Shift Cleaning Hack
@clararpeirce goodnight 😴🫶🏼 #closingshift #closingshiftcleaning #nightroutine
The closing shift video has garnered over 3.8 million views, and the hashtag #closingshiftcleaning now has over 71.3 million views, proving that TikTok users are benefiting from this cleaning trend. Now that we've entered the spring equinox, I applied this trend to my own home and discovered that spending an hour tidying my home daily versus having days where I clean for hours was far more productive.
The day-to-day ways that your home can become messy with dirty dishes, clothes, boxes from packages, etc., can easily create an environment that isn't conducive to rest. My home is my sanctuary, and with a busy schedule, making time on the weekends for one big clean wasn't giving me the experience that I needed in my home.
But taking the time every night before I went to bed to clean allowed me to wake up in an environment that not only looks good but feels good for my space and my mind. It also helped me to develop a routine to clean my dog's food and drink bowls nightly so that he was also benefiting from the closing shift routine, as the FDA recommends washing pet food bowls and utensils "after each use" and cleaning water bowls daily.
Decluttering experts such as Rebekah of Organize for Love have shared similar organization skills across social media platforms and through their offerings for those looking to organize their homes and lives. In this Instagram post, she discusses the importance of scheduled decluttering as well as having a routine to clean.
Have you tried the closing shift cleaning hack for your daily routine, or are you team "get somebody else to do it" with a weekly housekeeper? Please sound off in the comments, and let's get to cleaning.
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