Hillary Clinton, former US First Lady, two-term Senator and former Secretary of State, says she and husband Bill Clinton were broke when they left the White House back in 2001. She says that the family struggled to pay off the mortgages on their two multi-million dollar houses. It could be true; after all there have been many stories of people we thought were living comfortably only to be told that was far from the truth. 

Hillary writes in her book, Hard Choices, that the Clintons were not rich when her husband became president and things got more complicated with all the legal bills they had to take care of following Bill’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. 

That said, I find it hard to believe that one of America’s most famous families had financial troubles. If I didn’t have to pay rent for eight years, I’d be rich. You also wonder why people who were supposedly struggling would buy two homes when they have just one child. I have a lot of respect for Hillary but I don’t think she really has any idea what it means to struggle. So I’ll try to break it down for her:

Being broke is when you don’t have any money on your account because you withdrew your entire month’s salary and it wasn’t even enough to cover your bills. Struggling is settling for that two-roomed house in a slum because it’s the best you can afford. You don’t want it to rain because the roof leaks. 

There’s no running water and you have to pay someone to fill a couple of jerrycans every other day. Sometimes, you return home to a dark house because you didn’t buy cash power. Struggling is praying your friends and close family don’t sleep over because you don’t have an extra mattress or sheets, not to mention food. 

Speaking of which, people who are dead broke will be lucky to have one meal a day, usually lunch. Breakfast? Luxury and the few times you can have it, it’s probably only a cup of black tea or coffee with a bun, chapatti or mandazi. 

Struggling is hoping you won’t fall sick because your employer doesn’t provide health insurance and there is no other way you can pay for it yourself. When you get cavities, you stock up on painkillers and learn to live with the pain because a tooth extraction is simply too expensive. Being dead broke is never knowing the comfort of flying to Kenya, Burundi or wherever you need to go. Say you want to check on relatives in Uganda, you have to endure a 9-hour bus trip because you don’t have $150 for a flight which would get you there in 45 minutes. 

Being broke is resigning yourself to the fact that you’re mostly going to wear second-hand clothes and shoes because brand new ones cost a fortune. Struggling is when your children are sent home from school because you haven’t yet paid the fees and two weeks later, you’re still looking around for the money. So Hillary dear, you have not struggled.