Lessons Well Learned
Thursday, September 25th, 2008When I was sixteen, my father set up an account for me in the Credit Union that he founded. Handing me a passbook, he told me to save my babysitting money and any other money gifts. I did not receive many of the latter, but I did have a doting aunt who faithfully sent one dollar in a birthday card to every niece and nephew she had, yearly, without fail.
Well, I found that I did not make much babysitting money because I lived in a small, farming community where folks usually retired with the chickens. Some of the city slickers who decided to move to our quiet town presented the possibility of watching their unruly offspring. In one instance, I had the opportunity to babysit two demons. Between the menacing Siamese cat making threatening noises, from any point she could reach that was higher than my head, (mainly, the stairwell), and the boys “finding” a (fake) snake in their bed, the event was topped only by a drunken father who insisted on driving me home. In fact, I believe that is the last time I ever agreed to babysit. Yet, I digress.
I am most thankful to my father for the financial lessons he taught me. The first lesson is to not abuse credit. Never spend more than you can pay back in a month. Of course, the credit card companies frown on that practice. The game is to entrap people into spending more and more, to the point that consumers may never be able to pay off the debt.
With hard work and frugality and yes, self-denial, when it came to expensive vacations, we are ok. Self-sufficient talents assist the cause of financial independence. The government is not doing so well. One would think that Americans would never forget the lessons of the Great Depression – “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without,” being one of them. I remember meeting a woman who would take the collars off of her husband’s shirts so that she could sew them on the other way to give the shirt longer life.
I have thought about the ramifications of the current, national, fiscal crisis. I suspect that the enormity of the problem is actually being minimized. I do not own any investments. My father tried the stock market once and lost money. He said, “Never again.” The rule of thumb is never to invest more than you can afford to lose. I’ve always had my eye on the bottom line, and have never had any discretionary income that I would be happy losing.
“Save for a rainy day,” was a Credit Union/Cuna Mutual Insurance Co. logo that involved the depiction of a little man with an umbrella stamped on various pieces of ephemera. I took the image seriously.
I am sure I don’t understand “big business” and I am equally sure that I don’t care to try. I don’t know if it is just a matter of convenience to blame the current situation on “Republican” greed, cronyism, and corruption.
I just have one question, why hasn’t anyone been “watching the store?” I mean, this didn’t happen overnight, so where has the oversight been up to the present? We have a fine way of getting ourselves in a pickle. I’d rather eat a pickle, a homemade one, if you please, a little tart and a little salty. As for the rest of this “mess,” I simply don’t get it. That said, I’m off to tend to my own knittin’ in hopes that those who know more about financial matters will get this straightened out. So, “Amen & Amen!”
Patricia Cummings
