Thursday, November 15, 2007

Living Life or Penny Pinching?

I was recently asked on the personal finance blog on my towns newspapers website:


POT your blogs are depressing. It makes me sad for you to know that instead of living life you are squeezing every penny, pining for a wife, and wishing to go from grocery store guy to billionaire guy. My mom teaches us financial responsibility but your blog is financial slavery.

I guess if you didn't have huge dreams you too would be depressed. You might even turn down one of the free meals you hyped in your earlier blog.

I'm 13 and I would hate it if being an adult meant living the way you do.


Below is my response to him/her.


Pine for a girlfriend? Sure I would like to find a girlfriend, but I am not sure how any of my writings would be considered pining. In my regular blog, I have written about going out with someone, after 2 years of not dating, but it didn't work out. Probably for the best. Whoever, God has for me is out there, and as they say we will meet when I am not looking, so I am content.

As for financial slavery, no what I am talking about is NOT financial slavery, but freedom. The world uses credit cards and credit and become slaves to the lender. As Proverbs 22:7 says
"The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender's slave."

If a person lives with in their means (spends less then they make) and saves, then in the long run they will be ahead. In order to win, we as a society must get rid of the attitude of, I want it and I want it Now.

Look at it now, I am sure you have heard the story of the rabbit and the tortuous. What happens in that illustration? The rabbit thinks he will win, because he is faster. So he mess around and the tortuous wins.

The same is true with credit and cash. Oh sure a person my appear to be living the good life with credit. They are buying nice things faster then the person who saves up. But then they are hit with interest, and they end up paying more (some times like a car or home as much as 2-3 times more) then the person who saved and paid cash. So in the long run, who really is the winner? The one who paid with credit or the one who paid with cash?

It should be easy to see that the one who saved (like our grandparents or a great-grandparent for someone your age) ends up the winner, because in the long run, since they didn't have to pay all the interest charges, they can afford to buy more stuff.

So it is the one who uses credit that would be depressed and be in financial slavery.

I hope this clears it up for you. But, please, if you have any more questions, feel free to ask.


Something I should have added to the girlfriend bit was:

I am always hopeful, and often wonder what if, about someone or other. In fact, you might say I very timid when it comes to trying to get a date. Oh sure I may flirt a little, especially online, but I have to build up a lot of nerve to actually ask that special girl out.


As I said, I left that part out (but should have included it). I was more focused on trying to get him/her understand the dangers of credit and why s/he should save money rather then "living life." It is my hope that s/he will realize (as with all my readers) that saving is much better and thus is really living life over what most Americans do.

4 comments:

  1. I think for a 13 yr old, that kid made a pretty good observation of your writings.

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  2. maybe that kid thinks money grows on trees. anyone who criticizes squeezing pennies is a fool. there is such a thing as penny-wise and pound-foolish, but that's different. i earn $50/hr and i still love saving a dollar on my daily cup of coffee. guess i'm a slave, too! (and i'd like a girlfriend! and i'd like to be a billionaire!) i don't feel like a slave when my prudence lets me take a few months off, kid.

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  3. Perhaps the comments were aimed at the tendency you seem to have to fixate on what you don't have instead of what you do. And the tendency to way overestimate how much you can earn with various side schemes and underestimate how long it takes to pay debts off. You seem to have a scarcity mentality instead of an abundance one. That has nothing to do with using credit versus cash.

    I would love to see you focus more on what you are doing to achieve that dream of owning your own grocery store/chain. It's all good to wish for something, but if you aren't taking steps to achieve it, then it's just wishful thinking (which I think the original poster was reacting to).

    Anyway, I think anytime you put yourself out on the web, there will be critics. Take what is useful to you and ignore the rest.

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  4. I don't think he/she is 13 at all. When is the last time you heard a 13 year old use the word "pining". It's too well-written to be that young.

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