35 Habits People Developed Because They Are Poor That Others Might Not Have Thought About

To find out how this conversation started in the first place, we reached out to Reddit user Gotwire, who posed the question: "What is something that poor people do that rich people are oblivious to?" They were kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda and explain why this thread began.

"With the disparity between the haves and have nots coming more into public light recently, I thought about how disconnected the rich must be from the rest of us," they shared. "But how exactly? What’s the reality - how little do the rich not understand the plight of the poor? How so?"

We also asked the author about some things they do that rich people don't have to worry about "Thinking about the price before doing/ordering/buying anything," they noted. "Price being a factor in activities, meals, purchases."

But Gotwire says that they wouldn't necessarily live any differently even if they had more money. "Personally, I wouldn’t be able to shake my habits if I were to become rich. And that’s what separates some of the rich out there from others," they shared. "Those who didn’t come from money, I suppose."

As far as what the OP thought of the replies to their post, Gotwire said they were overwhelming and eye opening. "I was most surprised to see how many people have trouble meeting regular bills on a monthly basis - shuffling around whatever they could," they told Bored Panda. "But most of all, how many people's eating is impacted by poverty. Grocery shopping. Meals. Basic nutrition."

"I cannot fathom being rich and not wanting to elevate and help those with less," the author continued. "Greed, the need for more and more, is just astounding. How much wealth does one really need at the end of the day?"

Finally, Gotwire added that the definition of poor has changed. "While there are truly poor people, even middle class can feel poor now. Due to the high cost of living, and stagnant wages."

To gain even more insight into this topic, we also got in touch with Johnny "FD" Jen, an entrepreneur and blogger who has experienced life on multiple points across the financial spectrum. First, we wanted to know how his lifestyle was different when he was struggling to make ends meet.

"I started living as a minimalist, keeping my expenses low," he shared with Bored Panda. "I moved into a small 35sqm/375sqm apartment, started to cook at home and ate local food, and started to take public transport, walk, or scooter everywhere instead of owning a car. I still do all of those things today, but now enjoy the luxury of eating at nice restaurants, taking Uber, etc on occasion."

So would Johnny recommend changing your habits if you find yourself with more money? "It's best to slowly increase your lifestyle budget as you earn more money, it's a reward," he noted.

"However, you should keep the percentage of earned income low. For an example, when I was earning $1,000 a month living in Thailand, I only spent $250 a month on rent," he explained. "When I started an online business that started earning $10,000 a month, I upgraded to a much nicer condo, which increased my rent to $450 a month, but it was still a small percentage of my income."

"Now that I'm financially secure, I should allow myself to spend more and stop being so frugal," Johnny continued. "As after having $1M invested, it can just grow on its own, even if you don't ever penny pinch to add to the pot each month."