To some folks, a big handbag of money seems like an infinite amount. Avoid being one of those folks. In a previous publishing about homelessness, I noted how when the indigent receive huge sums of money (lottery winnings, or whatever) they burn through it very quickly. Is there a connection?
As a youngster, I thought these things, too. A thousand – that got to depend to permanently! And yes, as an adult even, I’ve done this – most of us do, you know. As being a self-employed person, I could go for weeks with not getting paid. Then I get a check for tens of thousands of dollars. It seems like big money!
- 2015 Capital Loss Deduction
- 7 years ago from Melbourne, Australia
- ► Sep 02 (1)
- Certificates of deposit released by banks
- Intuitive LIVE trading system and research tools
- How PROPERTY Crowdfunding is Changing the Industry
- 5 DCR or better
- No capture & release
But I’ve learned to squirrel away money, as it is tempting, when you bank account is in the five digits, to believe you are “rich” and then be lured to spend. The nagging problem is, few expenditures and buys accumulate, and before very long, you are broke again.
Pay your taxes – because of this year, and next. Pay off your financial situation. Pay all of your bills – in advance, when possible. Spend the amount of money on fixed expenditures and put away a large chunk into savings. If you are all done, well, you understand you really don’t have very much money to invest.
Sadly, even this degree of financial self-discipline is rare among the poor. 100,000, the very first thing on his agenda is to party – in the end, that is “big money”, and he can always save tomorrow, right? The night time to commemorate Tonight is! That, the bottom line is, is exactly what keeps the indigent, poor.
And it is exactly what keeps the middle class, middle class, and sinking towards poverty slowly. In the not-too-distant past, a person could go to work for a large company – IBM, GM, Xerox, or whatever. Whether you were salaried or hourly, it didn’t matter. You have a regular salary, that you divided up among the monthly payments you were making on your Oldsmobile, your cracker-box system home, your resources, and the buyer loan for your television set. Your health care was provided from your employer, and your pension was also funded by them. Corporate Socialism, I called it, and it existed in a huge way back then.
Our ancestors were not always better paid or smarter than we are today, they were just managed more and prevented from squandering their retirement on ill-advised investments and schemes. These were not “forced” to buy health insurance through Obamacare, because their employers provided it to them. And they got a lot less “stuff” in their lives. One, two cars maybe, one television, one phone (maybe one expansion, if you were “rich”). No video gaming, computers, flat-screen televisions, snowmobiles, aircraft skis – at least not much of this sort of thing. In the event that you wanted to conserve your money really, you might be in a position to buy a 14′ “runabout” with a 35 HP Evinrude. That might be shown!
Today, we have choices about how to invest our money and we also have a lot more horrific choices to make. I keep harping with this, as it is one of those “obvious” things right out there in the open, that nobody about talks. We didn’t have student loans that cannot be discharged through bankruptcy. Indeed, then back, all debts were discharged through personal bankruptcy nearly. Today, they may be “worked out” – even your credit card debt!
Today, we’ve financial instruments that can ruin the buyer and the only thing protecting the buyer is their willpower to make the right choices. The indigent and the homeless are recognized by their utter lack of willpower. And the middle class is shrinking for the same reason. Unfettered from the leash of Big Corporate America using its defined-benefit pensions and cradle-to-grave health care, middle-class people have to choose to save and choose to buy health care. And surprisingly, most are choosing to do neither, even though they face fines for not doing the second option!
What is going on here? Are people dumber than previously? Well, I think the answer is, NO. It really is just in the past, we coddled people by controlling their lives more. Obviously, in some instances, the companies failed to fund these plans properly. Nevertheless, an entire generation retired with defined-benefit pensions and never worried about healthcare bills. So what does this all mean? 100,000 to a homeless man, blow your brains out and do it then.