The Desperation of Poverty

Poverty. It drove me nuts.

Hello. My name is Juan de Pobreza. I have been an employee of the Philippine Government for nine years now. I have two kids, the eldest, 23, graduated from college in 2005. The youngest, 16, is a high school senior.

Being a government employee in the Philippines is not a guarantee of financial security. Workload is heavy, work hours often require travel without allowances and overtime without pay, and the salary is meager. In August, 2007, I was just earning roughly $15/day working at my office job. If my parents had not left me with a little farmland and a city house and lot, my kids and I would be living in the slums. I was literally living on borrowed money. Bills were piling up faster than money could come in. Due to the low salary scale, I had to contract loans from virtually every available source: employees’ cooperatives connected with our office, the home development mutual fund, the government service insurance system, and even colleagues. The loan amortizations left me with a net take home pay of roughly $78/month. This forced me to renew my loans every six to twelve months. It was a vicious cycle with no end in sight.

Retirement pay prospects were also dismal. An employee who had served for thirty years in Philippine government service stood to receive barely $20,000 in retirement pay.

I fell victim, too, to private loan sharks charging a shocking 10% to 20% interest a month. It’s a thriving underground industry that the Philippine government is helpless to put a stop to. Drug lords would launder their dirty money through money lending at usurious rates. Nobody, especially the borrowers, is interested in providing information on this racket because they would be left with no alternative source of borrowing.

I was worried stiff. My daughter would be entering college in June, 2008 and she would be having her debut in 2009. I could not foresee any improvement in my finances. I would spend countless sleepless nights pondering the problem over and over in my mind.

In addition, the pressure of performing well in my job required me to be at work most of my waking hours. That left me with little or no quality time with my children. I constantly felt pangs of remorse and guilt at not being with my kids when they needed me most.

In September, 2007, I made a resolution that would turn around my life for the best. I am already 46 years old and I resolved to achieve financial stability and freedom before I reach 50.

That’s when I turned to the Internet to put an end to my poverty …