Recipient: Katrina Spisey Occupation: Massage and Physical Therapy Student; Works with Disabled Adults at Non-profit Organization Responded On: January 30, 2005 Bill Received At: Old Fashioned Donuts 11248 South Michigan Avenue Chicago Originally Dropped At: Old Fashioned Donuts 11248 South Michigan Avenue Chicago On: January 27, 2005

 

Katrina Spisey's Comments

In the United States, if people start out in a very low paying job, can they still become quite wealthy if they work hard enough?
Well, if there’s advancement in the company where you’re at you have to go after it to make it. I mean, I’m sorry, you know nothing is given to you. You do have to strive to go make whatever you want to make. But if there’s advancements and nothing there to hold you back, then yeah, you can get up the corporate ladder to make money.

What is the cheapest thing you have ever seen somebody do?
Back in the day, they didn’t really have a thing for recycling. I think my mother invented recycling (laughs). I mean, as far as aluminum foil, you use it, she rinsed it off. Baggies, you know, she used it, she rinsed it off (laughs). And you know, I catch myself to this day doing it. And people say, “Why are you doing that when you can spend a dollar and get you a hundred more bags?” But it’s just the fact of being thrifty. Okay, I only had a piece of fruit in there. I can rinse it off and reuse it.

What is the worst thing you've ever had to do in your life to obtain money, and what is the best?
I love pets, but I was in a pet store and I had to clean out the reptile cages and I am petrified of reptiles (laughs). One cage had a boa constrictor, a white boa constrictor. I’m like, “Oh, you expect me to clean that?” Oh no, I’m sorry, I love pets dearly, I’ll go back to the puppies (laughs).

And I think the best way, and a fun way of earning money is, I love to cook. So I had a chance to work with a friend in her restaurant.

In our society, do people choose a husband or a wife or a life-time mate, partly based on consideration of money…and if so, is that ok?
Well, I can speak for my generation and some of my friends … A main topic when it comes to them finding a mate is … their whole focus is finding out if that person has money. So I think it all depends on the generation that you come from. I can say, from my parents’ generation, their main thing—it was for love. But see now my generation is for money. It is.

Is that ok? Is that just a practical reality that your generation is dealing with? Or do you feel it would be better if it was more based on romance?
Well, me personally. I have the old-fashioned views. So I have the views of what my parents had distilled in me. I feel that whoever you choose as a soul-mate, it should be a basis of love, rather than financial. But, like I said, for my generation, as a whole, finance does play a whole part of it. Most of the time couples that I’ve seen in my generation, the marriage fails after a couple of years because of the finances. You get involved with someone and you’re already in debt before you even get to the altar. And then you make more debt when you’re together and then the next thing you know, it’s always fighting about money.

Do you play the lottery sometimes?
Only twice. And that’s when it got up to the major, major million powerball. To me, if I’m going to give you my dollar, even though the odds can be very high against me, but I’d rather strive for something big than something small, so, it has to be in the hundreds of millions before I will play.