Instead of paying off my debts and securing my future, I decided to keep on with my downward financial trend. I now have far less than $0.
Tanzanians do not believe this. White people have money, right?
I am solidly in debt. I have no co-signers. I have nearly no worldly possessions (by Western standards). My bank accounts are empty. I have no long-term employment. My expenditures exceed my income. Yet with my credit line, credit cards, loans, and contacts, I can easily gather $20,000 cash within minutes.
How did I achieve that $20,000 potential? I was born into a club: a worldwide network of mathematics which statistically rewards trustworthiness and punishes misbehaviour.
Bank machines exist in Tanzania. They give me money I do not have while serving luckier Tanzanians money they worked hard to earn. Credit cards exist here, too; but Tanzanians cannot get them. And my credit card has a lower interest rate than Tanzanian bank loans.
If I spent that $20,000 and declared bankruptcy, I would not be poor.