In our super-successful and too rich world it is a shame to have at least one drawback: you will be dishonored for anybody, and in public. It is shameful to be fat, infantile to be ashamed, lazy to be ashamed, but the worst thing these days is to be poor. Everyone who is not lazy will be disgraced by the poor: they say that you yourself are to blame for not earning money, go earn money, otherwise you will not buy yourself a killer whale, you will not become a space tourist, you will not look barefoot for the sake of children, and in general. But it’s all just a little too much. In fact, poverty, as well as impudence, is not a vice, especially if it lasts for a short time and then is replaced by a more favorable economic situation. In other words, every dude’s life must have a period of poverty. Arguments ahead!

You’ll learn how to manage your budget

The most obvious reason, which is ridiculous to name and not to name at the same time. The beggars learn to manage their own financial flows on their own mistakes, and over time they achieve unrivalled mastery in this art. With experience, they get vitally important knowledge: how to distribute two coins so that you can pay for housing, buy food, shoes and put aside at least a pitiful thousand on a rainy day. They know exactly what they can and cannot save money on, and they can even sacrifice the purchase of strategically important new clothes in order to cure a tooth, because they know that if he doesn’t have a shirt for another month, nothing will change, but if he doesn’t cure the annoying hole in the tooth, it will cause a local apocalypse in his mouth.

You’ll be able to tell the difference between a need and a whim

What modern people lack is the most important knowledge about the nature of things – how the need differs from the whim and why it is so important not to confuse them. There is such an unfortunate phenomenon as the substitution of values. For example, in fact, you do not need much: shelter, food, clothing – the bare minimum. And you also need society and recognition in it, which is sometimes achieved by status things – for example, iPhone, sneakers of a certain brand, hanging out in certain places. When you’re a beggar, you have to separate the grains from the chaff and give up six thousand sneakers in order to eat two weeks’ worth of money, because, to be honest, who needs these fancy sneakers?

You’ll see how you can enjoy the little things

And you’re gonna start doing it. To please a poor bastard, you don’t need much. A small increase in salary? Champagne for everyone! Have you found a place where something of high quality is sold at an unprecedented low price? The mood will be as if he dug out a treasure chest. Did you find 10 bucks? Fanfare! Bought yourself a cake? It’s just a holiday! A person with money won’t be happy with such simple things as cake.

You’re gonna be incredibly resourceful and handy

As a rule, two types of people show ingenuity: lazy people and those who have no money. Lazybones are in every possible hurry to facilitate and speed up the work process, and the poor are forced to constantly look for budget options for everything in the world. Nothing teaches you how to sew up your clothes, glue your shoes, fix your kettle and stove like you don’t have the money: you can’t buy a new one anyway. I’m sure it’s the poor bastards, not the ecologists with a burning heart, who came up with a way to give things a second life and taught the world how to make cars and computers with a plastic bottle and a yellow capsule from Kinder surprise.

You’re gonna be a man who knows the places

Because you’re not gonna have any other choice. You’ll find out about all the cheap markets and the best sellers, because you’re always looking for a cheaper and tastier place. You’ll learn all about seasonal sales schedules and tell your friends about them. You will know where and when the best price-quality ratio is observed: for example, when tomatoes or fish are brought to which stall. Why? Because you’re interested in making the most of your wooden stalls, that’s why!

Girls will like you

It’s not obvious, is it? I agree. But nevertheless, it is. The connection is this: being unable to take her to an opera or a five-star restaurant, you will charm her in non-standard romantic ways. What are they like? Long walks, field flowers, picnics, and even serenades with a guitar under her window. She’ll think that you’re an incorrigible romantic, that you’re always trying to come up with something special to please her – though in fact you don’t have any money for standard ways. Then you’ll taste it yourself and enjoy this pastoral aesthetic.

You’re gonna work better than anyone else.

Because you’re gonna have a great motivation: hunger. It won’t get you steak, won’t make your tea, but it will stand over you with a whip, chasing you and making sure you don’t fail. This is a good thing. Who does not work, he still does not eat, and who works, sooner or later he will spread his piece of bread with butter, and then put the caviar on top – at least three eggs, but the red ones.

In years to come, you’ll have the moral authority to teach

You won’t appreciate it now, but then… it’ll be fun at least. When I imagine myself as a grandfather, I immediately see a grumpy old man who knows everything better than anyone else, corrects everyone, tells everyone how he should live, and immensely loves the phrase: “Here I am at your age…” If you’ve been a poor bastard when you were young, you’ll have plenty of ways to finish this sentence. You will tell us about how you were moving from bread to caviar, how you were in trouble, and then you took control of the situation and went to your dreams with confidence and became what you were at that moment. If, of course, something good comes out of you.

But seriously, poverty is a school of life. To harden yourself, you have to go through a lot of tests and check what’s your worth. Even if life was quiet and smooth, sometimes it would still be worth worrying about – even on purpose – in order to be able to show and test yourself. Poverty – another test of strength, quest, life complexity, which you turn into a game, and then stop complaining and start to enthusiastically pass the levels.