re: #143 ArchangelMichael

Crap, getting tired and seeing what I want to see I guess. But “dont buy things you cant afford” (unless its an emergency) is self-evident to me. It should go without saying. Apparently it doesn’t though. I swear I think I’m the only person who actually saved any money during the past few years and I still can’t afford a house even with the prices falling off a cliff.

Now Teh Zero wants to create an artificial floor on that. Should I just give in and stick to a nice Party-Approved Commie Domicile Unit with multiple families under one roof, a small carbon footprint, a thermostat stuck at 50 in the winter and 85 in the summer and complete dependence on the state for everything?

I was wondering if you were reading the same post I was!
;)

I am proud to live in a fully paid-for house! Sure, there are still taxes, utilities and so on, but no mortgage! (It’s amazing what just a down payment from a house in California would buy in Las Vegas back at the turn of the century!)

I also save money everytime I get paid. I’ve spent the first 6 years of living in Vegas with people laughing at me for my “simplistic” financial decisions.

The financial crisis hits, and all of the sudden, I’m an economic genius. I’ve actually been asked if and/or how I knew this financial crisis was coming. Guys - if you handle your money in the age-old basic ways, then you don’t have to know what’s going to happen, because you know you can handle it!

Saving for Greatness

A fellow freethinker who works for World Financial Group shared this document with me. Their sales representatives regularly give this flyer to prospects. The flyer names no original author of this fine dissertation, but it certainly resonates with the Objectivist ethics of financial management.

Your savings, believe it or not, affect the way you stand, the way you walk, the tone of your voice — in short, your physical well-being and self-confidence. A man without savings is always running. He must. He must take the first job offered, or nearly so. He sits nervously on life’s chairs because any small emergency throws him into the hands of others.

Without savings, a man must be too grateful. Gratitude is a fine thing in its place. But a constant state of gratitude is a horrible place in which to live. A man with savings can walk tall. He may appraise opportunities in a relaxed way, have time for judicious estimates and not be rushed by economic necessity.

A man with savings can afford to resign from his job if his principles so dictate — and for this reason he will never need to do so. A man who can afford to quit is much more useful to his company and therefore more readily promoted. He can afford to give his company the benefit of his most candid judgments.

A man with savings can afford the wonderful privilege of being generous in family or neighborhood emergencies. He can take the level stare of any man … friend, stranger or enemy. That ability shapes his personality and character.

The ability to save has nothing to do with the size of income. Many high-income people spend it all. They are on a treadmill, darting through life like minnows.

The dean of American bankers, J.P. Morgan, once advised a young broker: “Take waste out of your spending; you’ll drive the haste out of your life.”

If you do not need money for college, a home or retirement, then save for self-confidence. The state of your savings does have a lot to do with how tall you walk.