Buck
12-15-2008, 10:16 AM
I know this is preaching to the choir here, but I just read an op-ed piece in my local newspaper about frugality, among other things. It seems that the notion of not running up huge credit card debt is starting to get some traction in the US.
Do you think our society is changing in that direction? Or are we just holding back for the next slurge? I'm curious as to how such a development will affect the US as a society. I keep thinking you'll eventually see more curmudgeons riding around on bicycles, for one thing? Another thing is that credit cards will become something like bell-bottom pants.
How else will we be affected?
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/art...4/1036/Opinion
Basu: The value of living within our means
My late father used to tell a story about frugality that would have my sister and me rolling our eyes. As a cash-strapped college student who had made his way from Calcutta to London, he walked seven miles every morning instead of riding the bus, to save money to buy a tie.
The story always ended with how that tie was more precious because of the effort and sacrifice invested in getting it. My father's stories, with their tidy morals, had a way of coming up when my sister or I were clamoring for something.
"Businesses, individuals, households do it," said Hira. "We all do it. Now its [cost] has been proven."
About 60 percent of credit-card holders carry a balance, which is on average $9,000 to $10,000 per household, according to Tom Coates of Consumer Credit of Des Moines. Total credit-card debt has shot up from $100 billion to nearly $1 trillion in about 20 years. According to one estimate, a $1,000 charge will take almost 22 years to pay off, and cost more than $2,300 in interest if only minimum payments are made.
We shop for recreation, to make ourselves feel better, to plug in the holes in our lives, to demonstrate our love for each other. Many who didn't grow up with a lot of money, and now have some, shower things on the next generation because they can.
The ads, the game shows, the Internet, all entice us to buy.
So did the Chicago Tribune in an editorial excerpted in the Register last Monday. It urged people to avoid the "doomsayer" scenarios, and go shopping, as a patriotic duty. I think it missed the point.
"If you don't have the money to buy gifts," urges Hira, "please don't do it."
The Tribune Company, by the way, declared bankruptcy later in the week.
Financial advisor Suze Orman may have gone a little far when, by her account, she approached a woman buying lavish Halloween decorations in a store, and asked if she was carrying a credit-card balance. When the shopper replied yes, Orman said she had no business spending like that on non-essentials.
But you get Orman's point. The idea that by deferring payments, we could live beyond our means, helped lead to the foreclosure crisis. We've passed on to our children the sense that money has no value.
Not only does that encourage them to spend frivolously, but when lean times come, they haven't learned resilience.
I don't carry a credit-card balance, but I love shopping. It doesn't matter whether it's the department store, the drug store or a yard sale, whether I need the thing or not. I love a good deal. My closets are crammed embarrassingly full of clothes I never wear.
Whatever happened to window shopping? asks Hira. The term has been wiped from our vocabulary.
"We sit overnight in the parking lot to buy something which next day we will wait in line to return," she says.
When it comes to holiday gift giving, people like me say we spend because we don't have time to make, bake, or provide a service. Yet we always seem to make time to shop.
The corrosive effect of all this on values became shockingly apparent on Black Friday, when a stampede of shoppers waiting to get into a sale at an upstate New York Wal-Mart trampled a store clerk to death. Then customers got mad that the store was closing because of it.
Money is the No. 1 issue couples fight over, studies show. Yet studies also show our happiness level has little to do with how much we own.
This isn't to suggest we cut out holiday spending, just that we be more purposeful about it. Think about books instead of the latest electronic gizmo for kids. (And when you're shopping or eating out, support local stores and restaurants that are struggling to stay afloat.)
If you're giving to someone who has plenty, think about making a donation in his or her honor, as a friend did on my birthday to the food pantry operated by the Des Moines Area Religious Council.
Some friends hosting a holiday party first distributed a wish list from the Youth Emergency Services & Shelter, so guests could bring something on it.
Being purposeful is what Michelle Obama is also doing by making plans to shield her kids from the sense of entitlement that being raised in the White House could bring. She will insist they continue to make their own beds and clean their own rooms.
Many religious and spiritual leaders make the point that Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., does. The author of "The Purpose Driven Life," and "The Meaning of Christmas," says the best thing to do for one's own soul is something for people who have it worse.
The generous couple who swooped by the Ankeny Village Inn anonymously, plucked every gift suggestion off the tree, and returned with 40 presents, did it in memory of their daughter who died in infancy.
There are wonderful, meaningful ways to approach the holidays that demonstrate our interconnectedness without spending a fortune. Parties are just as much fun when they're potlucks. For clothes, consider a "clothing exchange" with friends.
This year, my friends and I drew names so we would each give a gift to one other person rather than to everyone at our Christmas dinner.
And I'm resurrecting an old tradition of my mother's: making rum balls to share with friends. They don't even require cooking (see accompanying recipe).
As tough as these economic times are, Hira says there may actually be a silver lining. They may force us to be honest about our means and the need to live within them. And they could help us shift our priorities, to value what's really important, like relationships.
Sounds like something my father would have said.
Do you think our society is changing in that direction? Or are we just holding back for the next slurge? I'm curious as to how such a development will affect the US as a society. I keep thinking you'll eventually see more curmudgeons riding around on bicycles, for one thing? Another thing is that credit cards will become something like bell-bottom pants.
How else will we be affected?
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/art...4/1036/Opinion
Basu: The value of living within our means
My late father used to tell a story about frugality that would have my sister and me rolling our eyes. As a cash-strapped college student who had made his way from Calcutta to London, he walked seven miles every morning instead of riding the bus, to save money to buy a tie.
The story always ended with how that tie was more precious because of the effort and sacrifice invested in getting it. My father's stories, with their tidy morals, had a way of coming up when my sister or I were clamoring for something.
"Businesses, individuals, households do it," said Hira. "We all do it. Now its [cost] has been proven."
About 60 percent of credit-card holders carry a balance, which is on average $9,000 to $10,000 per household, according to Tom Coates of Consumer Credit of Des Moines. Total credit-card debt has shot up from $100 billion to nearly $1 trillion in about 20 years. According to one estimate, a $1,000 charge will take almost 22 years to pay off, and cost more than $2,300 in interest if only minimum payments are made.
We shop for recreation, to make ourselves feel better, to plug in the holes in our lives, to demonstrate our love for each other. Many who didn't grow up with a lot of money, and now have some, shower things on the next generation because they can.
The ads, the game shows, the Internet, all entice us to buy.
So did the Chicago Tribune in an editorial excerpted in the Register last Monday. It urged people to avoid the "doomsayer" scenarios, and go shopping, as a patriotic duty. I think it missed the point.
"If you don't have the money to buy gifts," urges Hira, "please don't do it."
The Tribune Company, by the way, declared bankruptcy later in the week.
Financial advisor Suze Orman may have gone a little far when, by her account, she approached a woman buying lavish Halloween decorations in a store, and asked if she was carrying a credit-card balance. When the shopper replied yes, Orman said she had no business spending like that on non-essentials.
But you get Orman's point. The idea that by deferring payments, we could live beyond our means, helped lead to the foreclosure crisis. We've passed on to our children the sense that money has no value.
Not only does that encourage them to spend frivolously, but when lean times come, they haven't learned resilience.
I don't carry a credit-card balance, but I love shopping. It doesn't matter whether it's the department store, the drug store or a yard sale, whether I need the thing or not. I love a good deal. My closets are crammed embarrassingly full of clothes I never wear.
Whatever happened to window shopping? asks Hira. The term has been wiped from our vocabulary.
"We sit overnight in the parking lot to buy something which next day we will wait in line to return," she says.
When it comes to holiday gift giving, people like me say we spend because we don't have time to make, bake, or provide a service. Yet we always seem to make time to shop.
The corrosive effect of all this on values became shockingly apparent on Black Friday, when a stampede of shoppers waiting to get into a sale at an upstate New York Wal-Mart trampled a store clerk to death. Then customers got mad that the store was closing because of it.
Money is the No. 1 issue couples fight over, studies show. Yet studies also show our happiness level has little to do with how much we own.
This isn't to suggest we cut out holiday spending, just that we be more purposeful about it. Think about books instead of the latest electronic gizmo for kids. (And when you're shopping or eating out, support local stores and restaurants that are struggling to stay afloat.)
If you're giving to someone who has plenty, think about making a donation in his or her honor, as a friend did on my birthday to the food pantry operated by the Des Moines Area Religious Council.
Some friends hosting a holiday party first distributed a wish list from the Youth Emergency Services & Shelter, so guests could bring something on it.
Being purposeful is what Michelle Obama is also doing by making plans to shield her kids from the sense of entitlement that being raised in the White House could bring. She will insist they continue to make their own beds and clean their own rooms.
Many religious and spiritual leaders make the point that Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., does. The author of "The Purpose Driven Life," and "The Meaning of Christmas," says the best thing to do for one's own soul is something for people who have it worse.
The generous couple who swooped by the Ankeny Village Inn anonymously, plucked every gift suggestion off the tree, and returned with 40 presents, did it in memory of their daughter who died in infancy.
There are wonderful, meaningful ways to approach the holidays that demonstrate our interconnectedness without spending a fortune. Parties are just as much fun when they're potlucks. For clothes, consider a "clothing exchange" with friends.
This year, my friends and I drew names so we would each give a gift to one other person rather than to everyone at our Christmas dinner.
And I'm resurrecting an old tradition of my mother's: making rum balls to share with friends. They don't even require cooking (see accompanying recipe).
As tough as these economic times are, Hira says there may actually be a silver lining. They may force us to be honest about our means and the need to live within them. And they could help us shift our priorities, to value what's really important, like relationships.
Sounds like something my father would have said.