Money Talks

"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.

You cannot establish security on borrowed money.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's 

initiative and independence.

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves." 

- Rev. William J. H. Boetcker (often attributed to Abraham Lincoln)

Christmas Memories, 2011

     Some people may be forgiven for thinking that Christmas time is a poor time to bring up a discussion about money, but there is no time like the "present"!  I happen to think it is a good time to face reality.  In fact, the present is the only time we have to do anything, so it is the best time to start.  (My reality is that I don't like being miserable, so I think hard to change something quickly when that happens.)  If we are planning to spend money on gifts or travel, we should have been saving for it all year long, even the type of person who waits until Christmas Eve to get excited, like my husband.  Because I learned that, come December 24, at 6 p.m., he was going to suddenly want to buy gifts, I decided to plan for the sudden but expected event.

My husband and I were raised differently.  My family was fairly comfortable financially.  My dad was a logger and seemed to enjoy the hectic life of planning and executing logging jobs, but not thinking he had to do it all, he hired men to do the work. I learned later it is called leveraging your time.  Since we all have limited time, it is a great strategy.  Jerry's family, on the other hand, didn't have a bread winner.  His dad was killed in an airplane accident when he was very young, and their main source of income was a social security check and about $1000 in life insurance.  Even in 1956 that didn't go far.

    When we married, I had been in the habit of spending every couple of dollars I made on fabric for clothes, both fun and classic styles, shoes, (everyone should know that sales make money go farther, so it just makes sense to take advantage of them), as few necessities as possible, and a new car.  The week I managed to set aside the first $100 in a savings account was the week before he invited me to fly to Montana to see him.  There went the savings, but $99 for a Northwest Airlines flight was a deal, even 33 years ago.

   I had a lot to learn about working together as a team.  My husband, the saver, had a brand new car, $10,000 in the bank, and no confidence in a smooth road ahead.  He started in right away "badgering" me about a budget.  I had been keeping track of my checkbook in my head, and was within seven dollars of spending everything I had on our wedding.  From very early in our marriage, I was the bookkeeper in charge of our main expenditures; rent, food, utilities and any shopping trip I could finagle. I was not very concerned about budgeting, but we soon had a child and it became clear very quickly that agreeing to his request for a budget was a negotiation factor I needed.  

    As the kids got older I kept the books for our business to save money and help with our plumbing business.  We bought a house with a rental next door, and soon I had three checking accounts to watch.  I took an evening class to get a solid grip on the basic accounting I already knew, and off I went.  

    We took other classes. Since we knew Social Security Insurance was a shaky business, real estate and rentals started to look like a very good way to plan for retirement.  We worked hard and had two more kids.  The kids played beside us, and later worked with us, learning some great lessons, while I continued to shop carefully, sew whatever I could and recover my own furniture.  We were saving 10 percent of what we made but I was holding Jerry back from his plan to save 15 to 20 percent because of basic family needs.  Funny how things change when there are swimming lessons, school pictures, outgrown tennis shoes, school supplies, and birthday parties, on top of tires, insurance, utilities, groceries, savings and a house payment.  A trip to Costco became an adventure; we could buy the kids a treat, an enormous box of their favorite sort-of-healthy cereal.

My budget became my friend and I pushed the limits.  Setting an amount for groceries for the month, we found that $400 for our family and entertaining wasn't quite enough in those days.  Just to see if I could, I stuck to the budget.  That's when I learned to make savory soup and stretch a chicken out for three meals.  Beans and rice were a staple of my pantry and on our table.  We had friends who went through college saving money by eating a lot of popcorn, so popcorn became a great standby for after school snacks.  If the only thing I had left in the house was milk, butter, flour, and a box of pudding mix I didn't deprive my family of enjoyment or special occasions because I could treat them to cream puffs.    

When things were getting easier financially and I was buying by the brand or label instead of the price, one of the kids called me on it.  "Look at the store brand tomato paste, Mom!"  Sure enough, there was another couple of cents savings!  

A few years ago I decided the most important thing I could do was spend five weeks in Europe with my 18 year old daughter.  I had not planned for the trip, but my concern for her traveling alone was a motivation I could not ignore, so off I went with only a free miles airline ticket to Madrid, Spain, purchased using our credit card rewards.  Over the five weeks, between four of us, because he and Duane joined us for two weeks, we managed to rack up a credit card bill of $10,000.  My husband was aghast.  I assured him I would pay it off in 10 months.  More than a year later he asked me about it, assuming we were still paying that bill.  No, I said, I paid it off several months ago, just like I said I would, ten months after our trip.  Hurrah and yay.  

How do you pay off $10,000 in ten months with out someone noticing?  I had some previous experience with budgeting. That budget I had hated, fought, and resisted became the vehicle to victory.  Okay, he was right about a budget.  That doesn't mean he's always right.  Sometimes I give in because I have not been able to figure out how to present my case effectively. Sometimes the differences between his vision and mine seem insurmountable and something has to give, but I have learned a lot by giving in, so what's the next lesson?

 "To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukemia with leeches" 

- Margaret Thatcher

      

   19th century French economist Frédéric Bastiat observed, “The bad economist pursues a small present good, which will be followed by a great evil to come, while the true economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil.”

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities 

and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. 

Harry S. Truman 

Common sense is instinct, 

and enough of it is genius. 

Josh Billings 

Toyland

Forget about being world famous, it's hard enough just getting the automatic doors at the supermarket to acknowledge our existence. 

Doug Coupland