Today is as yesterday. Trash was tossed from truck windows and whipped on the wind to settle into grassy roadsides. In 1976 I was 7 years old. Before the Don't Mess With Texas campaign broadcasted across billboards, we lived in the land of plenty. Our small house nested along a quiet, windswept road. Discarded glass bottles were collected as I wandered to The Corner Store one mile away. I was a child, but once I shimmied those clear, green and brown empties onto the counter for tabulation I was independent, an entrepreneur actually. I needn't parents for such transactions, just flippant frivolity within our community. My ingenuity and the clerks tally, sent me down the penny-candy aisle to carefully pick individually wrapped O'Henry's and Bazooka Bubblegum and Jolly Ranchers from the open bins. I then moving to the cold case for a chilly Sprite or A&W Root Beer. In those days, I created cash from mere trash.
Throughout my childhood we had a large clear-glass jug, a carboy meant for brewers fermentation, in our house. Its mouth stood as tall as my child belly. Instead of hops we filled it with coins. When someone in the family happened to have extra change in their pocket it was tossed into the mouth of that jar. The bright tings and pings of the first coins bounced about in the glass bottom. In time, dense, succinct clinks emanated as the sediment of coins grew deeper and deeper. My mother would ask for coin roll wrappers at the bank drive-thru. They arrived in the pneumatic canister along with a lollipop for me. This was long before the invention of the modern coin shaker machines. We were the coin shaker machines. My siblings and I would tip the jug and pour a mound of money onto the floor to be sorted by denomination. We then carefully stacked the coins into the appropriate paper tubes like alloy Sweet Tarts. Those heavy, monetary ingots could be passed across the counter at The Corner Store as well.
As it turns out, we were fairly poor, but that is all relative to what one counts as wealth. I was busy indulging in the freedoms of swimming in the creek and playing with animals and insects and friends and sleeping under the stars. Our modest home was no more than a weigh station, a pitstop for fuel and rest before returning to the riches of the land. I was a child, with child cares. But my mother ever tried to imbue her practicalities into our financial reserves as my father's charisma promptly pulled them into the undertow of his dreams. There were business ventures and investments in acreage that drifted away from profit margins. Even so, my parents always managed to keep us afloat with the businesses they owed. Self-employment is generational in my family. Be it genepool or familial culture, many of our lineage only briefly skim the prospect of being employees. We are a tenacious lot and perhaps a bit eccentric.
My brother Michael had a strong discipline for saving his money. He got a job and set out to earn his own paycheck when he was 17. Though we all had jobs periodically, my sister Noemi, my brother Luis and I were OK savers by comparison. Eventually, any given fattening nest-egg would begin to whisper in our ears of things we did not have. Michael seemed unfazed by such whispers. There was a fondness for the familiar weight and mass of coinage originating from our carboy days. The coins themselves held importance but the need to spend them varied amongst us. In any event we all seemed to glean to some extent, that left to grow, a coin would do so.
In 1987 I went away to get my education at a small, private university in Upstate New York. The cost to attend was entirely footed on student loans. Lots of them as you can imagine. I didn't even know the total of the loans combined. In fact, I knew nothing of the loan details or what I would owe monthly to pay them back. I only knew that if I signed here, signed here, signed here and here I would meet adventure a world away from Texas. I was right, adventure awaited me in spades. The moment I walked across the graduation stage to start my life, the credit card companies where there to 'help' with what they knew was getting ready to happen. In those days, I amassed debt as I tried to make ends meet.
I had become a single mom with three small children by 2004. We barely scraped by on our own. My oldest son, Nando, was five years old. One day he spotted a toy at the store he wanted with all of his heart. I told him he could not have the toy, so he did what most children would do. He threw a fit in the aisle. I got down in front of him and pulled a $20 bill from my pocket. I showed it to him, and sternly said 'Nando, I have $20 to get food today. If I get you that toy, how do you expect us to eat?!' He miraculously understood and stopped his fit. This may have been a harsh reality to bestow on a child. But as an adult, Nando has become a reliable manager of his finances.
Life ebbs and flows like a tide. Eventually I remarried. My husband, Brent, and I have a happy marriage and that is because we are best friends. We love to sit and talk about our day, our observations, our ideas or how we feel. We can wile away so much time over a cup of coffee in conversation. Except when what is on my mind has to do with management of our finances. Moments into broaching the subject, I see Brent's eyes have glazed. He will be staring right through me, I presume climbing a mountain in some far off land. Is this man too poor to pay attention? No, it's just not his thing. Whatever the reason, I can assure you that dog won't hunt. And, that's OK. I am overcome with the same stupor when it's time to crawl under the house for a plumbing problem or dismantle a tree with a chainsaw. Brent and I balance each other out. As long as one person in a union volunteers to manage the finances, and both agreed upon the guidelines, all is good. Now and again, I call a brief 'State of the Financial Union' at the Wise house, and that works for us. These days, I aim to create security through direct action.
You may already know, I am not a fan of winging it, especially where finances are concerned. Money management must be mapped and navigated for the best odds of success in the future. For most, the subject of money management is as dry as spitting cotton, I know. But left to chance, you may find yourself with only one oar in the water. We can all guess, where you end up when that happens.
Here are a few ideas to direct that ship and chart a course towards security.
Stay Above Water - Stay Out Of Debt
Pay cash for the things you desire. If you can't afford to pay cash, leave it on the shelf. Instead: price the item, save for the item, then go back and pay for the item in full. Credit cards should be used only as a means to carefully build a credit score. Charging a high-definition, smart television to a Visa will build credit just as surely as a single tank of gas per month. Either way, it should be paid in full at the time of statement. Debt can turn into a messy, long-term commitment. True wealth is not built on credit. True wealth is built on ownership in assets. As a rule, take loans only to purchase a home, car or reasonable education.
Batten Down The Hatches - Live Below Your Means
Spend less money than you make. The opposite of going into debt is saving. It is predestined that we will all experience rough seas from time to time. How can you save yourself without a life raft on board? If you make $45K per year, do not live a life that costs $45K per year. For Pete's sake, definitely don't live a life that costs $50K per year when you net $5K less! Simple, but most of America has missed that memo.
Divide Labor And Conquer - Open More Than One Bank Account
This is important - open several accounts titled for specific eventualities. There will definitely be an 'everyday' account for your weekly expenses. This is where your pay checks will go. As soon as a check is deposited, it is time to 'Divide Labor and Conquer'. Transfer some of those funds into each of the other accounts right away. This can even be done on auto-drawal: savings, college fund, taxes, emergency fund and vacation. They can be titled and designated to your liking such as, 'Belgian beer' or 'tango lessons' or 'prize racing snail'. Perhaps only $5 will be transferred into those accounts per month, but do so and DO NOT touch it.
Voyages Start Somewhere - Begin Today And Do Your Best
Yes the world may end tomorrow, but what if it doesn't? Will your kids get to go to college? Will you get the care you need when you are old? Will you get to travel the world or replace your car when it breaks down? If your employer offers a 401K, begin contributing now. Start a low risk investment account in your 20's and you will amass more wealth by contributing smaller amounts over a longer period of time: less pain/more gain. If you have a baby, start a college fund on the way home from the hospital. You never know if you have just given birth to an engineer with hopes of attending Yale University. Worst comes to worst, and you die too soon, that ship you were directing can sail along to your children or your mom or a charity of your choosing.
Directing a ship like this takes some effort at first, but once the wind catches the sails navigation is intuitive. Simplicity is born of effort. I don't have it completely figured out and there are no guarantees in life. I plan for my financial future much in the way I plan for my future health. I simply do my best. Could I get cancer tomorrow and wipe out all of my savings on medical bills? Of course, but I will have tried and thus have no regrets. If savings are possible then the problem as to what manner we save, and how much we save, are first world problems. Directing one's ship is a privilege. It is a declaration of hope in one's future.
Managing finances is important to countering chaos. Drifting aimlessly won't contribute to an emergency or recovery plan. Almost everyone can incrementally direct themselves. Even if those increments are tiny, as a rule they will add up with consistency. Perhaps living in stark poverty is the only exception to this rule. How can anything be saved when one is trying to save oneself? Our basic needs must be met before a hope for the future can take hold. Under the appropriate management-skills, lower incomes can amass wealth just as any high income. Wealth may be nice, but not necessary to happiness. I would rather be a kind school teacher than am unkind mogel. Manage what you have as best you can. Live a life you find fulfilling. The goal is not to be blind rich. The goal is to seek a rich life through simplicity.
The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J. Stanley https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
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