In a previous article, I shared the story of the 80-year-old pensioner in America who was forced to go back to work as a school janitor so that he could afford to pay the increase in rent.
That story had a happy ending thanks to the pupils of the school organising a fundraiser which raised nearly $90,000 for the man so that he could stop working and enjoy his retirement.
Not all stories have a happy ending.
As I’m sure you are aware, there is a cost-of-living crisis happening around the world and it is biting hard here in the UK.
The BBC have a show on their iPlayer called Evicted which follows the real life stories of youngsters who were about to be evicted (filmed winter 2022) through no fault of their own other than they cannot afford the increased rent costs.
One young woman named Thai, who was living in the tiniest cramped bedsit in Bristol, was fighting a 66.6% increase in rent from £450 per month, to £750.
£750 per month is more than half of her £1,400 per month wage.
Her flat was tiny… my office is bigger than her whole home.
She worked as a sales and marketing manager for a local entertainment venue and even before the letter arrived informing her of the impending rent increase, she was struggling to survive.
To save on costs, she was eating less and making decisions whether to cook food or have the heating on. She wasn’t doing both.
Thai was struggling to find other affordable properties in the city. Rents were going up across the board.
The area she lived in was one of the cheapest in the city and was an area with a high crime rate and a lot of poverty.
She was emotionally struggling with the idea that she couldn’t afford to live in the cheapest and worst area of Bristol.
She had no hope of affording anything in a better area of the city.
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Thai’s mother suggested that she move back to Cornwall, the county she was originally from, but that would only cause more problems.
Firstly, she would have to move in with her parents because the rents in Cornwall were no cheaper, and secondly, if she left Bristol, she would have to leave her job and have no income coming in.
The fact that you could become homeless and then jobless because you cannot afford to live, is quite a depressing thought.
The programme highlighted that 4 in 10 youngsters were paying more than 30% of their income on rent alone.
That is a big chunk of income.
Whatever the solutions are to the current rental housing crisis and whoever’s job it is to implement them is a discussion for another day.
What I feel is important here is that those people who are struggling to afford to pay their rents, need to find a way to make more money, and they need to act fast.
A change in government may help, but there isn’t a UK general election scheduled until January 2025.
That may change, but there is no guarantee that a new government will be elected and if there is, there is no guarantee that they will address the housing crisis…and even if they did… nothing will happen overnight.
The responsibility of not being able to afford rent is solely in the hands of the tenant.
That’s not me passing the buck; it’s just a sensible realisation that the only options available are in the hands of the renter.
If they waste their time expecting help from the state or hoping that the landlord who was forced to put up the rent because of increased mortgage and service costs will lower the rent out of kindness, they are in for a big shock… and a long wait.
The only person you can really rely on is yourself.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you make enough money to survive.
I understand that time is a factor too and that people don’t want to spend all of their hours working.
In one scene the narrator said Thai had just finished a 12 hour shift. I don’t know if this was a one-off or whether she regularly worked long hours, but that doesn’t leave her with a lot of time.
Another person that was interviewed in the programme was a single mother with two young children to care for.
So I fully appreciate that people are not all blessed with a lot of free time at the end of the day.
However…
They need to address the issue of not earning enough money, and if they cannot work more hours or get a pay rise through their paid job, they need to figure out a way to make some more money so that they are safe from eviction.
It is for these reasons that I recommend people consider publishing digital products.
Digital products are great because:
- You make them once and can profit from them many times for many years.
- A digital product can be made in a few hours.
- They sit online 24 hours of every day waiting to be bought.
- They can be bought from anyone from anywhere at any time.
- Payment and delivery of a digital product is processed automatically.
- Money is deposited into your bank account automatically.
Digital products can be sold online on many platforms such as Etsy, Gumroad, and Amazon as well as from your own website.
Digital products can be as little as one page.
Checklists, cheat sheets and printable posters can be one sheet, eBooks and reports can be as little as a few pages long.
They are all very simple to create.
There are thousands of people making thousands of pounds selling their own digital products.
And you can be one of them.
Discover more by clicking on the link below:
www.The30DayTo30KChallenge.com
Kind Regards
John Harrison
PS… EBooks are not hard to create and there are no limits to how many you can create (have created) and sell.
The more eBooks you have listed on your website means you have a greater opportunity to earn more.
Here’s that link again: