Larry,
what do you earn for the privledge to apease the poor? I'd also like to know. I still have a hard time believing you're talking poor & not middle class. Unless you're handing out handouts & feeding free breakfasts & lunches if you're trying to convince the poor to manage money they don't have to manage, I don't see how your listeners could be poor.
A family of 4. lets say the average lower middle class family pays.

$125 weekly for food = $6,000
$500 monthly for a roof over their heads = $6,000
$100 monthly co-pays for meds & visits = $1,200
$50 monthly for transportation (Disabled, can't drive because of meds, rural areas don't provide much, if any, free transportation)= $600
$6,000 yearly water, sewer, elec, heating, tel(s), taxes
$2,200 yearly car + expences + taxes + gas

I don't think these numbers are to out of line. There are no education costs in here because the best a poor person is able to get are some scholorships & grants to a public system that will still charge. So if some one makes enough to be able to afford the above then they are not going to recieve much in the way of assistence if any. What's the now poverty level down for yearly income? They're in the red before they can ever see black. The above I'd consider to for a family of 4 making $30,000 a year pretty close to the belt but not poor. OH SHIT, I didn't cover the cost of health
coverage! OH SHIT, I didn't cover the costs of child care. OH SHIT, I didn't cover the costs to hear some guy tell me how to manage my left overs. What the hell are you spending food money on some guy telling us how to manage our money, you jerk. ALICE, UP TO THE MOON!!!!
You hang out with the THAW. I'm in AWE! You must feel good when you shake their smooth clean hands. You rub elbows with those that provide low income services. Are we having a good time yet? Are we making money yet? You're a 2 bit hustler thats does well as long as there are "Lower Income People". You help lots of lower income people, please you don't even know what a poor person looks like, just some bastard that's to lazy to work or some scummy vet bum who left his marbles in Viet Nam & can't deal. You should be washing Janie's feet. You should've walked in the shoes of those that I grew up with, most had young dreams of doing better than what they were born into. Few did, most didn't, alot of poor die. Not from stavation but from watching the backs of their fathers break when they were to young. Watching the hearts of their mothers break when they couldn't afford anyting but an emergency visit with no chance of follow through. Watching the heart of a kid binging ripped open because his best buddy was shot in the head because someone needed money for ??? It's heart breaking to watch a kid see every one around them get beaten bloody every time they take a step forward & end up SOME HOW 2 steps back, just a case of bad luck, YOU THINK? That is the life of the poor & that's only the cloudy side. You should live it when it pours & believe me it mostly pours there. some times you forget that there's a sun & forget God, he lives down the block. You haven't a clew what the poor suffer. Get off that high horse of yours & at least open your eyes. I'm calling it as I see it.   
Barry who climb out but remembers well & is still surviving