This morning I watched a short video telling the extraordinary story of Mr James, 80, who was forced out of his retirement to work as a caretaker at Callisburg High, USA, so that he could afford to pay his rent which had been increased by $400 (£331 at time of writing) per month.
The story is a heart-warming one because the students of the school didn’t think that it was right that a retired man in his 80s should be forced back to work just so that he could afford to pay for his rent, and so they set up a fundraising page online to collect donations to help him.
The story spread online and apparently the students had raised $60,000 (£49,644 atow) within 45 minutes.
The total has surpassed $90,000 (£74,466).
This is a great story about compassion and empathy, but it also highlights how bad people, life and the world can be.
I don’t know the reasons that forced a £331 per month rent increase, I know times are hard currently on both sides of the pond, but a rent increase that high is a bit severe… many have called it criminal.
Many of the comments below the video were not happy that in America, an 80-year-old should be forced back to work just so that they could afford to pay their rent.
One commenter called it a ‘Dystopian nightmare rebranded as a heartwarming story’.
Another said: ‘This isn’t happy. America is sick. Resorting to crowd funding so an 80year old doesn’t have to do janitorial work???’.
One commenter said: ‘Everything what’s wrong with America. I hope people realize that this is the job of the government not students.’
It’s fair to say that even though it was a happy ending and a great example of social conscience, the majority of people were not happy with what had initially happened.
This echoes what I have been saying for a while now.
And that is…
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- You have no idea what is around the corner waiting for you.
- You should never rely on other people, you can only trust yourself.
- NEVER rely on the government to look after you!
I would love to say that you should be able to rely on other people and your government, but the truth is… other people and governments are… how do I put this? … they are ‘people’ and people can be selfish, greedy and nasty.
We have a history that is littered with the stories of harm and destruction that ‘other people’ have inflicted onto innocent people.
Sadly, you can only truly rely on yourself… and that means making sure that you cannot have the rug firmly pulled from under your feet like Mr James did when his rent was suddenly increased by £331.
It is sad that we have to think like that, but when it comes to money, people will even throw close friends and family under a bus if they have no other option… some will sadly do it out of pure greed.
To protect yourself from the actions of other people… or as in the case of the US government with Mr James, the lack of action… you need to ensure that you either have enough money in the pot to cover all eventualities or have a decent amount coming in which can help to smoothly ride any future storms.
Mr James might well have had enough in his pot to cover his living costs up to the point his rent was increased.
He might have been relatively happy and content with life… but the £331 per month rent increase could have pushed him right over the edge.
That is an extra £3,972 a year in rent he needs to find.
To the average 80-year-old, £3,972 isn’t pocket money.
Everyone has different needs and wants, but I believe that people should find a way to ‘double’ the amount of money they need to live comfortably.
So for example, if you could live comfortably each month on £1,500, you should find a way to earn an extra £1,500 so that you have at least £3,000 per month to play with.
If you needed £2,500 per month to live comfortably, then you should try and earn £5,000 per month.
That extra money becomes a protection fund that grows until the day you need it.
I can’t comment on Mr James’ finances before the rent increase, but the fact that he had to go back to work tells me that he had insufficient in his pot or pensions to cover the increase.
£331 is a lot of money… but at the same time, it’s not a lot of money.
Over a four-week period, £331 works out at £11.82 per day.
£11.82 is not a lot to earn each day no matter what age you are.
There are many different ways to make money, many of them can be done from home using nothing more than a smartphone or laptop… and they all have the potential to make more than £11.82 a day.
Take The Bullseye System for instance; you can earn £50+ a day by simply leaving specific apps running in the background.
You put your phone on a shelf or table somewhere in your home, switch the apps on and leave it to make money for you while you go and enjoy a brew in front of the television.
The app owners pay you to run the apps.
Had Mr James known about this specific way of making money, he wouldn’t have needed to go pushing mops around school corridors. He could have sat at home enjoying his retirement and earn money.
To learn more, go to:
The Bullseye System
Kind regards
John Harrison
PS… With the potential to make £50 or more per day, anyone should be able to earn more than enough money to cover any rent or mortgage increases… if not the whole monthly rent and mortgage costs.
Here’s that link again: