living near poverty

i hope i'm not revealing too much information about my colleague here, but i've never met anyone quite like him.

some background on "mike": a couple months ago, when i posted an ad on craigslist looking for a sales guy, mike was one of probably 10 email responses i got. but he was the only one who was proactive - he found my number on our website and called me. since i was looking for a sales guy, i thought this was a good thing. when i met him i sort of knew he was out of a job, but i didn't know that he was on verge of being hungry.

so i "hired" him and we started working together. initially, it was just commission only, but later we realized that the sales process would take a little longer than expected. and during the first month i lent him about $1600 anyway cos he said he was "out of gas." we then agreed on a base salary of about $1600 a month. he said that this would be able to cover his basic expenses and he was working hard and "adding value," so it seemed like the right thing to do.

but yesterday he came to me and said he needed to borrow another $800 cos he wanted to prepay his rent a bit and get current on cable bills... given i didn't want him to make a habit of coming to me for money (i'm not his dad...) i asked him how he was spending his money, and why he was coming up short. and what he said shocked me.

so right now, he makes $1600 a month. of that his rent is $500 - pretty cheap. but his cable bill is $130 - he has cinemax AND hbo. I have neither! subway card is about $100/month. he smokes, and spends about $250/month on cigarettes (an $8 pack a day). so of his $1000 disposable income (after rent and subway pass): he spends $250 on cigarettes - 25%. wow. i was floored. partly by his decision to do that, and partly by the whole addiction thing. his phone bill is probably $50. so for food and everything else - he has about $570/month. he also has a girlfriend - being the gentleman that he is, he'll buy her flowers sometimes. i think they go dutch for dinner though. he said he borrowed $20 from her a few days ago, and she wasn't too happy about it.

about his cable bill, he said that he wouldn't know what to do without the premium movie channels, and how watching tv saves money cos then he doesn't go out. and that between 8pm - 1am, he is basically watching tv. he also said that he's been watching cinemax and gotten into some of the shows there... i heard before that cable is one of the last things an american family cuts (especially low income) - and now i'm seeing a real life example. i mean when i left my job earlier this year, i downgraded my cable, but i guess outside of yao ming games, i only watch a couple hours of tv a week (prison break and 60 minutes!).

so now in his second month here, sales has been picking up for mike (the first month was mostly learning). he's signed up a couple clients, and we've sent out the invoices. however, the checks haven't come in yet. we expect both to come in - probably sometime this month, and then his commission will be $4000.

what's kind of interesting is how he had already made intricate plans to spend that money. he wants badly to move out of his current apt and upgrade to about $800/month. so earlier this week he was already on craigslist and setting up appointments to see the new apts... (he said that one he saw was probably a sex lair...but that's for another day) and then he said he wanted to spend about $400 on new suits and shoes. there's certainly no dress code here, i'm often in pyjamas... and he also wanted to upgrade to a verizon plan that is 800 anytime minutes. i think i only have 450 minutes a month (ok, so they rollover.....). and true, i've also been thinking about upgrading apt and getting a new suit too. but i haven't gone to any open houses or the tailors yet...

so i kinda talked him out of upgrading his apt just yet. and also convinced him that he doesn't need to buy new suits right now - we'll maintain our casual dress code....

and even though i knew i'd lend him the $800, i didn't want to make it too easy for him. i asked him, "if i lend you this $800, how are you going to change the way you live so we don't end up in this situation next week?" i was really happy with his suggestion. he said he'd leave his cigarettes at home for mon-wed next week. and if he can get through mon-wed - 3 days, then he'd be able to get through thu-fri too - just 2 more days. then that'd be a whole week. one step at a time.

i know quitting isn't easy at all, but he really really should do it. outside of the fact that it's bad for him, and he can't afford it - his girlfriend was diagnosed with lung cancer last month. so i hope i can help him with that. i was thinking about buying patches or gum for him - but he said that actually the city provides patches for free. oh, he prefers patches because he doesn't like chewing gum! funny guy.