Homeless: Can you build a life from $25?

In a test of the American Dream, Adam Shepard started life from scratch with the clothes on his back and twenty-five dollars. Ten months later, he had an apartment, a car, and a small savings.

Homeless: Can you build a life from $25?

I really liked this article. Adam Shepard decided to see if the American Dream was still alive and well. Turns out, it is.


The only thing that I disagree with is when he said that his background was not to his advantage - and in fact his previous life lessons were a disadvantage.

But surely your background – you're privileged; you have an education and a family – made it much easier for you to achieve.

I didn't use my college education, credit history, or contacts [while in South Carolina]. But in real life, I had these lessons that I had learned. I don't think that played to my advantage. How much of a college education do you need to budget your money to a point that you're not spending frivolously, but you're instead putting your money in the bank?

Do you need a college education? I don't think so. To be honest with you, I think I was disadvantaged, because my thinking was inside of a box. I have the way that I lived [in North Carolina] – and to enter into this totally new world and acclimate to a different lifestyle, that was the challenge for me.

I couldn't disagree more. Poverty is a mindset that is hard to break out of. If you see your parents making bad financial decisions you are more likely to make the same decisions, unless you make a conscious decision not to. Not everyone has the ability to make that decision.

He does say that he came up with the idea for his 'experiment' after reading Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, a book I read and disliked immensely.