Something Unexciting, and Probably Not Completely Different

As a principle, I don’t keep up with current events/trends/politics/etc.  I find most of it inflammatory and depressing, and since my husband keeps up with it all, I figure the next time there is a serial killer or another world war begins, he’ll be sure to let me know.  So my mom, who knows this, occassionally sends me articles she thinks will interest me.

Today’s article, The Great Seduction, from the New York Times, is a lovely little opinion column about the deterioration of financial mores.  Reading it, and knowing that I am not one of the masses of people it discusses, makes me appreciate even more the way I was brought up.  When I was very young, my dad gave me a loan so that I could buy some roller skates.  I defaulted on my loan, and he repossessed my roller skates.  It’s a great story really, and people who hear it usually give my dad a hard time about it while laughing.  But it was one of the truly shaping experiences of my life; since then I have understood the value of money *very* well, and always saved enough for what I wanted, or had the credit (and understood correct use of credit) to get it.

I have friends who live with, what would be to me, an astounding amount of debt, much of it consumer debt.  Sometimes we talk about money and their attitude about it really just blows me away.  It is not a state of mind that I can comprehend.  It’s not really my place to say anything, so I don’t, but I wonder what these friends are going to do if they every have kids, or when they get old enough to retire and don’t have any savings.  I suppose,  I’ll help pay for it with my taxes.

On the other hand, now that I have had a job for a number of years, I am watching my own frugality slip away.  I don’t have any consumer debt to speak of, and I pull quite a bit of savings out of my paycheck each month, but I find myself frequently saying, “I work for a living; I can buy this and I deserve to be able to buy it”.  So far, I don’t exceed my paycheck but I frequently get very close.

How does one back-pedal?  Budgets are all good and everything, but when you truly have to cut back, where do you do it?  My personal weakness is clothing.  I have a very nice closet, and I donate annually to Goodwill and take some of it off of my taxes.  But if I find anything in my favorite store, I find at least 250$ worth, and of course I take it all home.  For over a year, I’ve said I’ll start exercising restraint (and so far, that’s only come in the form of not going to the store at all).  But the best way would be to go to the store, and exercise restraint there. 

How do you teach an entire society to back-pedal?  How do you educate them?  I remember growing up, there was a lady my mom hired to help clean house.  She had applied for a catalog credit card and bought a number of things for her home on a no payments, no interest plan on it.  She had no idea of how credit worked, and didn’t read the fine print, and had a hefty charge at the end of the period because she didn’t realize she had to pay the balance before that date.  My mom spent time explaining to her how credit worked, and hours on the phone with the company trying to come up with a way for the lady to pay it off.

I’ve talked to students who have four cards maxed out, and pay only the minimum each month because… well they are poor students aren’t they?  There’s no comprehension of what they are costing themselves by leaving those balances there.

Personnally, I think the companies that make the money need to be responsible, in part, for educating the public.  They are the same people who target the sector of the public that isn’t educated, to take advantage of them.  Now, I’m all about making money, and I even agree with how the credit card companies and payday loans do it.  But I beleive that they should explain their business practices to their clientelle beforehand; then they are not taking advantage of anyone but making that money (reasonably) honestly.

Frugality, on the other hand, is something that is taught in a culture – either at home or in a community.  How do you build that?  How do you build a community that is *really* interested and involved in educating its children?  I sure as heck don’t know, but I think it’s going to have to be a grassroots thing to be effective.  Maybe next time it’s not my place to say anything, I’ll open my mouth anyway.