Recently, I wrote about how I got my first apartment, but what I didn't share was what led me to it. I've posted before about the grifters and parasites in my family, and how I do my best to protect the Matriarch from their financial predations.
I had a similar issue with my mother, who as a single parent raising five kids, would spend her scarce resources buying lottery tickets. Day after day, week after week, she'd do what she called her "workouts" in order to decide what numbers to play.
Her lottery bag was filled with notebooks packed with numbers, tips, and all manner of numerology texts to help give her that perceived winning edge. Her spending was $3000 a year at a minimum. On average she "won" just enough to raise her hopes, and she was always chasing losses.
The winnings equaled about one third of the amount she played with. When she got paid, you'd think she paid her bills first and then gamble with what was left over right? WRONG! The lottery always had pride of place in her life, even over the well-being of her children.
We knew to save receipts from the store as she was superstitious about the numbers on them, and would spend hours incorporating them into her workout books. And if you bothered her while she was doing this, it had better be important, or your ass was grass.
Here in my state, lottery proceeds go to support senior citizens. So many people who play, console themselves that at least they're contributing to something good. However, the money they blow on the Powerball and Mega Millions drawings, hollows out their homes, and the future for their children, and the cycle continues over and over again.
I was in my teens before me and my older sibling realized mom had a gambling problem. With no husband around, and no desire to get married, she started demanding more and more money from us to feed her addiction.
It led to constant arguments from me, as I'd pay my share of the rent and bills, only to find out months later that she'd spent it all on the lottery, at bingo halls, or entering contests. She hid the bills from us warning the the utilities were going to be turned off due to a lack of payment, even though we'd been giving her the money for months.
Only when a shutoff was imminent (or had just occurred while I was out), would she then come to me in a panic asking for the full amount in order to get the service turned back on. We argued constantly about it, and when things got too tense, I'd go stay with my grandmother for awhile.
Drained
Since I was the responsible one in the family, she drained me of my resources, knowing I wouldn't let the little kids in the house get cold or go hungry. So I had to take on adult responsibilities early in life, and never got to have a childhood. It's one of the reasons I understood Michael Jackson so much, as I could relate to what he went through.
The sweepstakes were the last straw for me, after the family had warned her that she was spending away my future. She entered drawings such as the Publishers Clearinghouse, which require no payment to enter. They offer magazine subscriptions, and I found out that she'd subscribed to over THIRTY DIFFERENT MAGAZINES using my name.
I couldn't get many of them canceled, and it was ruining my credit score as I refused to pay for them after spending hours on the phone with customer service. We had a big blowup argument, and she promised to stop using my name - then continued subscribing... AS MY SPOUSE!!
She ordered under "Mrs, my first name, and my last name" So the bills for magazines I'd never ordered, continued coming to me, only now as a woman with a man's name.
Just imagine that.
After that, with my credit now destroyed, I was done, and moved out shortly thereafter.
Growing up, I'd often see some of the poorest people wasting their precious dollars on the lottery. Day after day, we'd see the same faces in long lines at the lottery terminal. I can understand spending a buck when there's a big lottery jackpot just for fun.
But gambling with the rent, food, or utilities money is absurd, when you can barely keep food on the table or a roof over your head. We figure, over a 20-year period, mom spent well over $50,000 on lottery tickets alone.
That's NOT counting what was pissed away playing bingo, trips to the Atlantic City casinos, and entering sweepstakes.
It got me to thinking.
What if she'd taken that $10 or $20 a day, and put it into Hive's HBD Savings instead? With her earnings compounding every month, she'd be sitting on a nice little nest egg, and be participating in what I believe will be a bright future for Hive. I'll take the 20% HBD APR over the lottery any day. Wouldn't you?