Homeless Man Lives Off Frequent Flier Points
Was it a queen of France who advised her subjects to eat cake when they could not afford bread?
How about staying in a hotel if you cannot afford a house?
Well, Jim Kennedy does exactly that.
Jim is not the average homeless person though; his past as an executive helps him maintain a reasonably good lifestyle even when he is down and out. He lives from hotel to hotel subsidizing the cost with over one million frequent flyer miles he stockpiled through the years as a corporate development manager.
Earlier this year in the middle of January, Kennedy was forced out of his Newport Beach condo. He does not blame the system for losing his home via foreclosure. It was just a matter of not being able to make the payments because, of course, he lost his job.
Kennedy salvaged what he could and stacked them at a mini U-Storage; items such as his golf clubs, an HDTV and a 375-bottle wine collection among other miscellaneous objects. The storage container is a stark reminder of the good old days when he worked in IT and finance.
Kennedy still has one lavish item from his past, his BMW. He cut corners in other ways, including saving on food by sticking to a daily $5 budget and taking advantage of the free breakfast offered by the hotels.
His daily routine includes checking job banks and contacting recruiters, just like thousands of others who have become a victim of the bad economy. Thus he is frugal and makes every attempt to stretch his dollar as far as it can go.
Kennedy realizes that his daily routine is a hard grind but hopes to get it back in shape again. One thing that keeps him going is his optimism, something that could easily plagued him and countless others who are in his same predicament.
