Ink Blots, Aching Finances

 

 

Phillip Hong
July 7, 2010

 

It's not about how you earn your money, it's how you spend it.

 

This is the sort of snooty little comment that I have referred to time and time again whenever I speak about money to a dear friend of mine. What really strikes me is the fact that she has worked all her life, and has nothing to show for it.

 

That doesn't mean you're a better person if you were richer. But it also shows in comparison, my situation - I am of a similar age but have only worked a combined two years of my life so far. Yet, I have a budget without borrowed money until 2013. "I want to be like you," the aforementioned friend once said in a recent conversation.

 

No, you wouldn't. As a growing young adult, I am quite the lonesome person. Personal preferences keep me home and from the malls of the suburbs, and my wallet proves my social life: I don't get out enough.

 

But this is the sort of thrifty lifestyle that society needs to develop in order to avoid the red ink. At the same time, our schizophrenic twin (the economy) needs to suck on the nipple of a spent, usually borrowed, dollar in order to survive.

 

The choice for many of us is: Spend and owe for the rest of our lives, or save and eventually spend because any drop in spending directly affects major elements like jobs.

 

Believe it or not, Canada's existence as a country is thanks to spending, from public spending on the Canadian Pacific Railway, to private spending to build factories that manufacture goods we spend money on. That's how capitalism works, but that's our major problem.

 

Four words: We have no money.

 

The recession only started because people declared bankruptcy over what they couldn't afford and what they owed. This economy works when everyone holds a mortgage and spends the balance of each paycheque. "Economic growth" has to come from somewhere.

 

John Tesh, the American radio personality, once quoted a suggestion in his self-titled show: "Spend like your grandparents would".

 

The thought of the above quote should be puzzling, but the rationale behind it makes sense in the end. Does everyone need a poodle, pairs of several hundred dollar shoes and a trip to the Dominican Republic every six months?

 

Back to that dear friend of mine. She seems to realise how materialistic her spending is, and everyone seems to have similar stories. But in an earlier argument, she implied that the lack of cash, borrowed or otherwise, constitutes a hinderence of her "freedom".

 

However stifling a tight wallet feels, freedom comes from knowing you can rely on yourself and not on a credit card, or credit line, or government pogey. How snotty sounding!

 

Phillip Hong, a resident within suburban Toronto, is a constant tourist. Check out the interesting experiences of his journeys on The Travelling Briefcase.