>be me
>was kinda popular in HS
>our friend group had an orbiter and we all stuck around after graduation
>now in college
>orbiter has gotten closer with some members of the friend group I guess
>he gets on my nerves because he can't just find his own group
>last week he texts me
>"hey man do you wanna grab lunch together? I'm buying"
>think he's just trying to suck up to me
>say sure but blow him off
>he texts me again a couple days later
>"we can just grab a beer if you want, I just wanna catch up"
>why wont this guy take the hint
>just leave him on read
>ffw like two weeks
>find out from my friends that he asked each of us individually if we wanted to grab dinner
>everybody else said yes
>find out he got a big inheritance and gave each of them around $1000
>his "best friend" he bought a new phone and gave him $4000 for tuition
guys i fucked up bad. 1000 dollars would unironically change my life right now
AITA for thinking most people who say "$1000 would change my life" would certainly not have their lives changed by that money? In this example, with the new phone being pointed out (4000 for tuition aside), I cant help but imagining he'd just buy a new computer or a pile of games.
Realistically what can $1000 buy (in the US) that actually changes a life?
Honestly just the mental stability of having $1,000 in a saving account would probably change my life. Having a sub 20k income probably gives me a unique perspective, though
They might have about $1000 debt at that moment and they know they have no chance of getting out of it with their current finances. So this would eliminate the debt in one go.
But thats pretty specific of course.
That would be indeed life changing. Thanks for the perspective.
Even then it doesn't really change anything. He might be back to 0 debt for a moment, but one bad event (broken phone, medical emergency, car accident...) is all it takes for the debt to pile back up.
It gives them a fighting chance to build an emergency fund before the next emergency versus ending up drowning in interest on the current debt.
Car repair, hot water heater repair, house repair of some kind that you can’t afford, any random 1000 thing you can’t afford but need, a doctors appt and medicine, etc.
You’re not an asshole but you might be out of touch.
All important things for sure. But life changing implies that this $1000 single handedly turn their life around.
When you are poor the $1000 might be quite a bit of money, and very useful to have, but afterwards you're still poor. That's my issue with that kind of statement.
When used to prevent a life and death situation it sure saved your life, but did it turn it around?
The cheap car purchase as one scenario could in fact change someone’s life.
1000 bucks for a PO Box so you have a physical address so you can receive benefits, or use it to apply for jobs, etc.
A haircut, a suit, some shoes, now you can get a job hopefully as you’re interview ready.
Putting a down payment down on an apartment providing a stable home so you are safe and can start to rebuild your life.
You’re lucky that you can’t imagine a scenario where that amount of money could change your life.
1000 bucks wouldn’t change my life, 10000 wouldn’t, but I’ve been in a place where 100 bucks could change my life
A bit yeah. When you're riding that razor's edge of living check to check it can buy a lot of peace of mind
Paying rent is pretty life changing to me
That's like almost 2 mortgage payments. If you were on the verge of eviction it might be life changing I guess.
$1000 is also just enough to buy a probably very shitty used car. That could change someone's life if it helped them get a job.
That could also buy groceries for several months if you were waiting for a new job to start
Probably none of this would apply to Anon of course, since he has never had a job and lives in the basement at his elderly mothers house...
A handful of therapy sessions
a fully upgraded retro ThinkPad