I would like to share a story with you - Joanne "Jo" Murray, a British woman, who write under the pen name of J.K. Rowling (does Harry Potter ring a bell). Anyway the story I heard was that she got pregnant by a man who left her alone to raise the child, and she ended up on public assistance. From there she would take a notebook and pen and go on daily walks with the baby in a stroller in the downtown streets frequently stopping at coffee shops along the way to write sections of her first book.
The whole moral of this story is that even though many people don't have lots of money (and there are many of us in that situation) - they all have plenty of untapped potential. Every year, low wage workers with children should receive a rather large income tax return (from a low income tax credit called an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The income tax refund gets considerably larger with each dependent child. The low wage worker needs to intentionally set his/her self-pity aside, plan to really budget wisely and when they figure out what they want to invest that refund money in. The investment plan could be a down-payment on property, or investing in the stock market, or starting a new business.
Most people have come from meager means - even our President Mr. Obama.