I made about 22,000 a year when I quit my full time job in retail, went back to school, and now I make far more. It's hard being poor, but much of the struggle is brought on by a lack of awareness. I know this because a huge portion of my sample were people that worked alongside me. There is a lot out there to help people get from the bottom up, they just have to look for it in the right places. With an income as low as mine, I paid essentially nothing for college and qualified for all sorts of assistance and tax breaks. It can be done, you just have to be willing to work hard at it and get the help that's already there.