Tell me about "being broke"

[Bearsy]

Where did the phrase come from? What does something being broken have to do with having no money?

[guitarboy]

Chuck Norris breaks you and takes all your money. /end thread. Actually, I don't know

[Jeff777]

From what I was taught...being broke is temporary...being poor is much longer. When people say "I'm broke" it implies that they were once "whole" or in this context "had money." To be poor however implies that one is just flat out lacking in some area(s) of their life. That's why I was taught never to say such things as "I am poor" or "I am broke" seeing as there is also a "poor mentality" associated to that word. Being poor isn't just a state, it's also a state of mind. Poor mentalities (or "lack" mentality's) seem to be evidenced in people who always complain about what they don't have, are very selfish, slightly bitter, and (to stay true to the context of this thread) they have negative feelings about money (probably unbeknown to them) Interestingly enough though...people are more readily to say "I am broke" than "I am poor" because being poor is associated with the image of having absolutely nothing whereas the phrase "I am broke" implies that one is just down on his/her luck at that point in time. Earlier, I mentioned that one can be poor and financially well off at the same time. Since being poor is a state not exclusive to finances, that means one can be poor in other areas of their life. A man who has money yet shuns his family is a poor man in my eyes. Subjective as the term may be, I don't think there's any argument there.

[Clairity]

Jeff, very insightful post! .

[Amethyst Star]

I tried to find the etymology of the idiom but could come up with a solid origin. I also looked for similar phrases such as "break the bank" and "going for broke" (most likely coming from gambling terms), but there didn't seem to be anything concrete. Web www.phrases.org.uk Re: Break even, still. Posted by R. Berg on September 01, 2004 Definitions of phrases like "break even" often, perhaps almost always, neglect to show the connection between the normal use of the key words and this particular use. What does "break" mean in this case? The OED, which gives the standard definition, is not of much use in finding this connection. My own theory, which is worth as much as most "folk-etymologies," is that asking the question, Which way did it break? might be helpful. Perhaps there's no simple analogy to breaking an array of billiard balls, but we often hear that something broke to the right or to the left, or that the break came in such and such a place. Which way do the accounts break, towards credits or debits? I've never heard that, of course, but someone imaginative might see how things might break in such a fashion as to leave the bettor, the entrepreneur, the investor, exactly where he started.

[Xaqaria]

According to http://www.westegg.com/etymology/; Broke (In the sense of having no money) Many banks in post-Renaissance Europe issued small, porcelain "borrower's tiles" to their creditworthy customers. Like credit cards, these tiles were imprinted with the owner's name, his credit limit, and the name of the bank. Each time the customer wanted to borrow money, he had to present the tile to the bank teller, who would compare the imprinted credit limit with how much the customer had already borrowed. If the borrower were past the limit, the teller "broke" the tile on the spot.

[Amethyst Star]

Ah, thank you.

[JET73L]

@Jeff777: So what you're saying is, if one is broke, they can be "repaired" to their normal state of wealth, but if oe is "poor," that is their normal state of wealth, and there's nothing to fix, just to keep building and hoping? If so, that's deep. @Xaqaria: I'd heard that before, but never from a valid source, and so expected it was apocryphal. This westegg, however, sounds interesting, and this one intends to look into their accuracy rate, general reliability, etc. It's always nice to find a new source of word origins.

[Jeff777]

@Jeff777: So what you're saying is, if one is broke, they can be "repaired" to their normal state of wealth, but if oe is "poor," that is their normal state of wealth, and there's nothing to fix, just to keep building and hoping? If so, that's deep. Sort of. Essentially, from my point of view...being broke is temporary, being poor is constant and associated with having a "poverty mindset". To illustrate it further in the context of finances: A rich person's sales quota might have come up short for the past few quarters and therefore is forced to file a chapter 13 (heaven forbid). Most of the time (not all, but most) the person will find a way to regain his wealth because his mindset is not one of lack and poverty. Whereas the person might be temporarily broke, s/he has programmed their mindset for prosperity and therefore has a wealthy mindset. Now let's look at fairly common stat regarding people who win great sums of money but have not "conditioned" themselves properly to not only grow it, but to keep it. Roughly one-third of lottery winners find themselves in serious financial trouble or bankrupt within five years of turning in their lucky numbers, according to Chelmsford wealth counselor Szifra Birke. http://www.eagletribune.com/punews/l...301015837.html People who are not programmed for wealth are either programmed for comfort or poverty. And by programmed I mean their minds. I have long heard about the majority of lotto winners getting into worse shape than they were before winning the lottery. My uncle used to harp this to me. This is because they have poverty mindsets and if their bank account exceeds the mental "financial blueprint" they've set for themselves, it (their money) will almost always swiftly drop to meet the blueprint the person has set up. I read an interesting book a few years ago called "The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind." in it, the book teaches you why your mind can be your greatest wealth generating asset, or your coldest crippler of wealth. Use this basic formula... P.T.F.E.A.R Programming -> Thoughts -> Feelings -> Emotions -> Actions -> Results What you allow to enter your eye gates (t.v. etc.) and ear gates (people's advice, opinions etc.) will become your thoughts, your thoughts will become your feelings, your feelings will become your emotions, you (being a human which is a creature of emotion, not logic) will act on your emotions (most of the time) and those actions will produce the results you are getting in life, not necessarily the results you want...but the results you have mentally set yourself up to receive. This is why you should be careful who you choose to associate yourself around. Poverty mindsets, however, aren't set in stone. They can be changed. But...just like if you had an apple tree that was producing bad fruit...the solution wouldn't be to get mad at the fruit and pick them off, the fruit merely serves to show the direct result of what's going on INSIDE the tree. The problem therefore is inside and thus the solution lies there as well. Instead of griping about the bad fruit the tree produces, try planting another tree (programming) and nourish it better (thoughts), taking proper care of it will ultimately yield you better fruit (results). You can change the results you're getting merely by changing what you feed your mind. And even those with extreme poverty mindsets can do that. I have the privilege of being taught by a few millionaire's. Some of them are in my family. Watching and studying how they think/act/talk was a great honor for me because they (millionaire's) live in a world all of their own. Most of them (the ones I know) spend little time sleeping, see life as something they must take full advantage of EVERY day, spend little time with little people, carry a demeanor and swagger (posture/walk) of "I"m going places, hop on board or you're getting left." They're big on action and have little room for excuses. Hope this helps.