Blog 3205 – 08.11.2024

Looking For A Bargain

It is said that the secret to great riches is spending other people’s money and not your own. That always sounded a bit unfair and disingenuous if not dishonest to me. Therefore I prefer to propose a kinder gentler two step method of building and maintaining riches.

Here goes: First the most sure fire way to obtain financial independence and true wealth that is at no one else’s expense but your own is to save a portion of every dollar that passes through your hands. Many people mistake the true purpose of saving, they save for a rainy day or for some large expense like a new car, a boat, a home, college for the kids, or that dream vacation to Paris or some other exciting vacation spot. There is nothing wrong with putting aside money for designated purposes, but the primary reason for saving should be financial independence.

In the nineteen eighties I worked for Mercedes Benz of America and they had a wonderful employee benefits program. I still get a small check each from a pension plan they had in addition to a 401K plan they had where they matched employee contributions up to ten percent of your salary. Sadly, I had to get out of the 401K plan to pay my third wife her half. Her lawyer in the divorce who was working an a contingency plan talked her into threatening to sue Mercedes Benz for half of any retirement I would get. The folks at the Mercedes Benz of North America told me to tell them to go ahead and sue that Mercedes had a whole floor of lawyer who would happily keep that suit tied up in court till both my wife and I were dead and that they would never get a penny from them. Her lawyer wisely dropped the suit after wasting a year she got half of my 401K, six months spousal support, and child care for our seven year old daughter that I never contested and faithfully paid till her eighteenth birthday and there after helped her with her college and bought her a car. I started to explain that the wise folks at Mercedes Benz were self insured and their Benefits Department was wholly funded and run by their own in-house employees.

Pardon that long aside. Some almost ten years ago I met a wise woman who taught me how to save my money. I was ready to listen and following most of her advice, I soon had a cash stash. And was well on my way to paying off all my debts and becoming financially independent. When Covid came along after two years without work my savings we depleted and my wife and I were forced to refinance our house to pay off all our credit card debt so we could live on our Social Security checks and two small retirement checks that I receive monthly.

In May of 2021 I took one last six months away from home work assignment to Nebraska for the purpose of rebuilding our cash stash and savings so that my we would be financially secure again and so that I could finally retire at seventy-one. I was able to reach that goal and I still save a little each month so that no matter what comes I can make interest free loans to myself if need be but never again will we be forced to use other people’s money at high interest rates. I cannot tell you how liberating it is to have more than enough – that is the true definition of rich.

The second step in maintaining riches is to ever be looking for a bargain. Someone has said rather wisely that only fools play the sticker price. This lesson has been an even harder one for me to learn that saving was. My wise friend warned me that I wasted a lot of money and she was right. Though she had a successful business she had side business that brought in even more money but above even that she was a bargain shopper and got the most for her money. As an example she likes expensive clothing and shops at a very exclusive department store where she has befriended a sales lady who informs her when any of the items she has picked out are out on sale. She rarely if ever pays full price for anything.

The Scots have a reputation for frugality, of not letting go of their money easily. There is a legend of how the thistle became the symbol of Scotland. A council of elders decided that they wanted a symbol of their nation so they raised a tidy amount and appoint the treasurer to secure an appropriate symbol. The treasurer was a a frugal Scot and so he took the more than ample purse to the market place to buy something that would reflect the national pride. Everything was so expensive. He has just about given up the search when he noticed one vendor had a large bag of thistles on the ground next to the table on which he had his produce and craft work on display. The treasurer ask the vendor, “How much for the bag of thistles?” The seller replied, “Oh, they are worthless, you can have them for free.” Realizing a bargain when he saw one, that is how the thistle came to be the symbol of Scotland.

Keep your purse closed and your eyes open for a bargain and you will surely find them everywhere.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White