Coming from Nothing

I'll never forget when we were in the market for our first house back in the early 1990's.  I'll never forget the condescending attitude by our broker, banker,  and the housing tract developer when we modestly scraped together a few thousand bucks for a down payment. 

What???? Is that ALL???????  Cash poor Americans.  Won't your parents front you a few thousand more? 

That was what we heard over and over again.

Sorry, but neither one of us came from money.  We both worked full-time jobs and I was also a student with a kid in diapers.  We were trying to better ourselves.  No government handouts.  No whining to charity.  No parental subsidies.  I remember when applying to financial loans for my college education how I had to answer over and over again that I had been living on my own for quite some time and my parents were not contributing ONE DIME for my education.  It was all on me.  Again, I was asked over and over how much my parents were contributing.  Nobody believed me at first when I said I was receiving zero financial support from my parents.  They raised their eyebrows, tilted their heads, and asked over and over again if I understood the question.  I got sick of saying of saying I was receiving NOTHING and my parents could not claim me as a dependent on their taxes.  yup.  I'm an anomaly. 

What they didn't see was my sheer determination and the stellar credit I had established at a young age.  Sure, I had not no fancy titles, schools, or whatever to promote my cause.  The perfect credit score total assets weren't much, but what we had was ROCK SOLID. 

This is not a pity party for myself.  It's a reminder for those who are going to school on a quasi-subsidy from their parents or the government how lucky they are.   Any assistance they are receiving is a god send.  The rest of us plebes were too rich (and too white and/or dumb) to receive grants and are just enough above the poverty level where we didn't not qualify for anything.  Giving away scholarships to young moms three steps away from poverty just wasn't sexy.  I was not the athlete nor the scholar.  I was just trying to better my life and that of my young family.  There would be no feel good news story and film at 11:00 nor the associated press and publicly investing in me.  Ignored.  Completely on my own. 

Because of my credit the bank took a chance on us.  Now, years later, because of my continued relationship with the bank I moved my work accounts to the bank that took the chance on me.  The bank now has more than 5 million in cash I parked with them.  I'll never forgot the chance they took on me.  I repaid the kindness investing excess cash with them.