How to Be Happy When You Are Poor

This article is for rich and poor alike. I have learned from my own experiences and some study that you can be happy when you are poor or rich. In this blog post I use the terms rich and poor referring to financial status (as opposed to spiritual or emotional riches, etc). Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Rich or Poor

Money is not evil.  It is a blessing.  I think the purpose of money is to bless us and others and to further God’s work.  “Poor” is a relative term based on who you compare yourself to.  I am rich compared to most people in the world and seem poor compared to most people in the United States because I live on a low-income.

In my life some could say I have been rich and poor. I was raised in a family that I would consider upper-middle-class in the Unites States. We had everything we needed and much, much more.  As a young adult I traveled and received an education. But, after I had my first of five children 13 years ago I was categorized as “low-income”. But, we have always had what we needed and are able to save. I also consider myself the richest person on earth because of my family, faith, and peace.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both poverty and affluence.  Being “rich” allowed me to develop talents and have money to bless others.  With a “low-income” I matured through extra work.  For instance, I do more cooking and cleaning than I’d have to if I were to purchase pre-made food and a dishwasher.  I also find it easier to focus on what’s really important in life.  It’s helped humble me and I have learned to identify with all types of people in a way that I didn’t before.

To be happy when you are poor (or rich) I have found it helpful to:

1. Accept God’s will and be grateful for what you have.
2. Hope for prosperity and financial peace in God’s timing.
3. Realize where true happiness comes from.
4. Make true happiness your priority.
5. Meet basic needs through budgeting, saving, and increasing income or receiving from others.

Because of prayerfully doing these five things I don’t feel poor anymore and our income is increasing.

1. Accept God’s Will and Be Grateful For What You Have

I used to think I made myself rich or poor.  This resulted in pride or shame.  However, God is in charge of everything; what talents we have, our level of influence, etc.  It is true and important to remember that much of our circumstances are the natural consequence of our actions.  But, God’s will is the final deciding factor. Our actions and efforts are fruitful if He allows them to be.

To be happy when you are poor, accept your poverty as God’s will with faith that life is happening for you and not to you.  God works in mysterious ways and it takes all kinds of people to do His work.  I am grateful for the things I have learned from being on a “low-income”.

With that same attitude, if you have little you can be grateful for the little you have.  Focusing on what you do have will help you enjoy it.  Even in our most difficult times we have much to be grateful for. I am reminded of the story of a woman who walked from East Prussia to Germany during WWII. She lost each of her family members and was starving when she arrived in Germany, but she said “of all the ailing people in her saddened land, she was one of the happiest because she knew that God lived, that Jesus is the Christ, and that He died and was resurrected so that we might live again.” (I have included her full story at the end of this post.)

2. Hope For Prosperity and Financial Peace in God’s Timing

Positive thoughts of the future lead to a positive future.  The reverse is also true.  This is called the law of attraction.  I think it is closely related to the law of the harvest: you reap what you sow.  I love the book by James Allen As a Man Thinketh. It is part of the public domain and you can listen to it on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEq0dMu9vpk .  In the book he explains that we attract to ourselves what we are.

The Jackrabbit Factor by Leslie Householder goes into detail on how to use the law of attraction for financial freedom. She has made it available as a free e-book.

You can dispute, or contest, negative thoughts associated with poverty and mentally free yourself so that you are happy when you are poor. I once thought, “I can’t eat healthy because I am poor.” And then, I listed all the ways I could eat healthy. True, I couldn’t afford organic food or special ingredients, but I was able to make unprocessed meals and eat fruits and vegetables.

3. Realize Where True Happiness Comes From

Happiness doesn’t come from fancy cars, houses, lots of possessions, etc.  It really doesn’t.  From my meger 38 years on earth, it seems to me that happiness comes from nourishing our spirits with love and light.  That sums up everything I have learned in religion and secular studies. Let me expound as understanding this is key to being happy when you are poor.

Love

We experience love by connecting with God, others, and His creations.  I have noticed that at the end of the day the things that are most meaningful to me are conversations and interactions with others- building relationships.

God shows us His love through the natural world around us.  When we take the time to appreciate nature we can receive that love and connect with Him. Appreciating what we do have instead of what we don’t is another way to receive His love and be happy when you are poor.

One way we experience love in our relationships with family and friends is when we have healthy boundaries. (see How to have Unity With Your Spouse and Children.) Part of that is fulfilling our responsibilities and duties to others. This shows our love for them and brings us closer.  Keeping the commandments helps us love God.  Doing our responsibilities helps us love those we serve, including our responsibilities to ourselves. Doing our duty out of love gives peace of conscience and is a powerful way to be happy when you are poor.

Light

I find that when I am full of light everything seems ok in life, even when I am going without things I would like.  How do we fill our lives with light? Growth and learning are great ways. Love is light. Knowledge is light. Anything good is light.

Knowledge and wisdom can help you be happy when you are poor if your motive is not to put yourselves above others, but to learn more for the glory of God.  I have found that learning is possible through reading, audio resources, visual media, and experiences.

Another way to increase light is to mature in different areas of life.  As we mature our capacity for happiness increases.  You can work with what you have to develop socially, cognitively, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually, and physically.  Most of my life I have been strong in certain areas and weak in others.  Working to progress in my weak areas has brought light into my life.

4. Make True Happiness Your Priority

Once you have identified that true happiness comes from love and light, base your daily activities around that. Spend time connecting with people, building relationships, serving God, learning, meditating, taking care of your body. Even at work or doing daily chores you can continually talk to God and be mindful of His blessings around you.

I have found that a lot of entertainment blocks me from love and light. It is hard for me to perceive and feel the light around me when I am wrapped up in a movie or show.  Entertainment is fine sometimes, but I try to limit myself and my children’s time on screens.  On the other hand, some media and music are very powerful at conveying love and light.

One of the biggest things that helps me to be happy when I am poor (and focus on what’s important) is minimalism.  I watched Minimalism: a Documentary About the Important Things. (It is included on Netflix.) The documentary revolutionized my life. Also, Courtney Carver has a 21-day declutter challenge on YouTube that I did. All of a sudden I changed from consumer mindedness to minimalist. Consumerism is the default mentally of the American culture and it has spread over the globe due to the worldwide economy. 

Consumerism and poverty are a very disheartening combination; a sure formula for unhappiness.  I remember I would long for more, more, more. Then, all of a sudden, I was glad I had a small house and few things.  I got rid of as much as I could.  It totally freed me and saves a lot of money for things that truly matter.

Now instead of spending money on a lot of toys and stuff we spent it on activities, like a membership at our local museum.

5. Meet Basic Needs Through Budgeting, Saving, and Increasing Income or Receiving from others

As long as you have food, clothing and shelter to sustain life you can be happy when you are poor. (Victor Frankl shows in his book Man’s Search for Meaning (audio) that even those things are not necessary for peace. He was starving in a nazi concentration camp.)

I have never had to go without food, clothing or shelter.  I don’t know if this is because we make that much money or because of the way we manage it. But, I know I have been brought to tears of gratitude because my earthly father taught me how to manage money and it has blessed my family so much.

Budget, Save, and Stay out of Debt

Budgeting allows you to tell your money where to go.  It puts you in charge so that you are not controlled by money.  You know exactly what is going on in your accounts and aren’t surprised when the money is out.

Having a reserve from savings will give you peace of mind that you can meet your basic needs (food, clothing, shelter).  Besides saving money, it is a good idea to save food and water, clothing, and emergency items like a tent, bedding, and first aide things.

When you budget and save you will be able to avoid debt.  If you are in debt, make it your whole goal to get out of it.  Being debt-free allows you to progress and have peace of mind.  I can’t overstate the importance of this.

Here are some resources that I have found helpful for learning to budget, save, and get or stay out of debt. They teach to 1. Pay your tithing; 2. Live within your means; and 3. Save for a rainy day.

• Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University– I listened to a set of CDs I borrowed from a friend. Your local library may have it. It is very comprehensive and worth the investment to purchase it if you can’t borrow it.
• One For The Money- Guide to Family Finance– This is a free  booklet
• Personal Finance for Self-Reliance-This is a free manual.

Increase Income

Dave Ramsey talks about ways to increase income in Financial Peace University. I liked a book he recommended called 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller.

After all my recent efforts to increase our income, God blessed my husband with an increase in his income.

Receive From Others

It has been my experience that when I am kind and friendly people tend to give our family clothes, food, and gifts.  It must be part of the law of attraction.  Many times over the years we have received exactly what we needed, when we needed it and much more.  Their kindness has helped us feel love and enriched our lives.

If you need food, clothing, or shelter please do not despair as this will attract poverty to you.  Turn to the Lord in faith and do what you can for Him without thought of a reward.  “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” Matthew 6:28.

To conclude, you can be happy when you are poor as you focus on what really matters. Doing that has helped me to not see myself as poor and to prosper financially. Thanks for reading.

BONUS: The full account of the grateful woman who lost everything but her faith. Taken from “Be of Good Cheer” by Thomas S. Monsoon

“In about March 1946, less than a year after the end of the war, Ezra Taft Benson, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, accompanied by Frederick W. Babbel, was assigned a special postwar tour of Europe for the express purpose of meeting with the Saints, assessing their needs, and providing assistance to them. Elder Benson and Brother Babbel later recounted, from a testimony they heard, the experience of a Church member who found herself in an area no longer controlled by the government under which she had resided.

She and her husband had lived an idyllic life in East Prussia. Then had come the second great world war within their lifetimes. Her beloved young husband was killed during the final days of the frightful battles in their homeland, leaving her alone to care for their four children.

The occupying forces determined that the Germans in East Prussia must go to Western Germany to seek a new home. The woman was German, and so it was necessary for her to go. The journey was over a thousand miles (1,600 km), and she had no way to accomplish it but on foot. She was allowed to take only such bare necessities as she could load into her small wooden-wheeled wagon. Besides her children and these meager possessions, she took with her a strong faith in God and in the gospel as revealed to the latter-day prophet Joseph Smith.

She and the children began the journey in late summer. Having neither food nor money among her few possessions, she was forced to gather a daily subsistence from the fields and forests along the way. She was constantly faced with dangers from panic-stricken refugees and plundering troops.

As the days turned into weeks and the weeks to months, the temperatures dropped below freezing. Each day, she stumbled over the frozen ground, her smallest child—a baby—in her arms. Her three other children struggled along behind her, with the oldest—seven years old—pulling the tiny wooden wagon containing their belongings. Ragged and torn burlap was wrapped around their feet, providing the only protection for them, since their shoes had long since disintegrated. Their thin, tattered jackets covered their thin, tattered clothing, providing their only protection against the cold.

Soon the snows came, and the days and nights became a nightmare. In the evenings she and the children would try to find some kind of shelter—a barn or a shed—and would huddle together for warmth, with a few thin blankets from the wagon on top of them.

She constantly struggled to force from her mind overwhelming fears that they would perish before reaching their destination.

And then one morning the unthinkable happened. As she awakened, she felt a chill in her heart. The tiny form of her three-year-old daughter was cold and still, and she realized that death had claimed the child. Though overwhelmed with grief, she knew that she must take the other children and travel on. First, however, she used the only implement she had—a tablespoon—to dig a grave in the frozen ground for her tiny, precious child.

Death, however, was to be her companion again and again on the journey. Her seven-year-old son died, either from starvation or from freezing or both. Again her only shovel was the tablespoon, and again she dug hour after hour to lay his mortal remains gently into the earth. Next, her five-year-old son died, and again she used her tablespoon as a shovel.

Her despair was all consuming. She had only her tiny baby daughter left, and the poor thing was failing. Finally, as she was reaching the end of her journey, the baby died in her arms. The spoon was gone now, so hour after hour she dug a grave in the frozen earth with her bare fingers. Her grief became unbearable. How could she possibly be kneeling in the snow at the graveside of her last child? She had lost her husband and all her children. She had given up her earthly goods, her home, and even her homeland.

In this moment of overwhelming sorrow and complete bewilderment, she felt her heart would literally break. In despair she contemplated how she might end her own life, as so many of her fellow countrymen were doing. How easy it would be to jump off a nearby bridge, she thought, or to throw herself in front of an oncoming train.

And then, as these thoughts assailed her, something within her said, “Get down on your knees and pray.” She ignored the prompting until she could resist it no longer. She knelt and prayed more fervently than she had in her entire life:

“Dear Heavenly Father, I do not know how I can go on. I have nothing left—except my faith in Thee. I feel, Father, amidst the desolation of my soul, an overwhelming gratitude for the atoning sacrifice of Thy Son, Jesus Christ. I cannot express adequately my love for Him. I know that because He suffered and died, I shall live again with my family; that because He broke the chains of death, I shall see my children again and will have the joy of raising them. Though I do not at this moment wish to live, I will do so, that we may be reunited as a family and return—together—to Thee.”

When she finally reached her destination of Karlsruhe, Germany, she was emaciated. Brother Babbel said that her face was a purple-gray, her eyes red and swollen, her joints protruding. She was literally in the advanced stages of starvation. In a Church meeting shortly thereafter, she bore a glorious testimony, stating that of all the ailing people in her saddened land, she was one of the happiest because she knew that God lived, that Jesus is the Christ, and that He died and was resurrected so that we might live again. She testified that she knew if she continued faithful and true to the end, she would be reunited with those she had lost and would be saved in the celestial kingdom of God.” (From personal conversations and from Frederick W. Babbel, On Wings of Faith (1972), 40–42.)