A number of bloggers have chosen words that represent what they want the year to bring.
Here’s my word: Permission.
Here’s why.
values
Practice stealthy acts of kindness.
At this time of year everyone wakes up to the fact that need exists in the United States. Everywhere you look are food drives, gift drives, coat drives.
Here’s a news flash: Need exists all year long, not just in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Don’t get me wrong: I love it when people do nice things. I just wish it weren’t so holiday-specific. Pardon my grinchiness, but I think some of these once-a-year volunteers aren’t doing it for the homeless, the seniors or the kids. They’re doing it to make themselves feel good.
We wish you a debt-free Christmas.
An old friend of mine – call him “Frugalbert Humperdinck” – once riffed on the song “Lonely is a man without love.” Unfamiliar with that late 1960s hit? Sit patiently through this video of Engelbert Humperdinck singing the first verse, in order to get to the chorus that’s about to be parodied:
Christmas bills are scare-ful,
But one can be careful.
Lovely is a man without loans.
Celebrate the season,
Keeping things in reason.
Lovely is a man without loans.
Go in debt, you peasants,
Buying toddlers presents.
Lovely is a man without loans.
Why impugn your credit
When they’ll soon forget it?
Lovely is a man without loans.
(Half-step up for the big finale)
Ere to shops I dart off,
First I pay the card off.
Lovely is a man without loans.
I’ll assuage my cravings
With January savings.
Lovely is a maaaan without loans.
Christmas stress: Wrap up guilt and simplify.
One harried late-October evening, I rushed through a store’s costume section in a frenzy of last-minute preparations. To my horror, the reds and greens of Christmas cards and wrapping paper beckoned from a nearby aisle.
“Oh, spare me,” I said aloud. “I haven’t finished feeling guilty about Halloween yet.”
Let me eat cake.
The Entertainment Book is replete with coupons for discounted oil changes, theater tickets, comedy clubs, hardware, symphony concerts, driving school, carpet cleaning, and a dizzying array of other goods and services.
Me? I went straight to the cupcakes BOGO.
Choosing what — and whether — to buy.
While visiting my dad recently I enjoyed a whole bunch of regional delicacies. Although I get irritated with those who claim it’s my job to uphold the economy by spending lots of money, I do believe in supporting small local businesses.
Or so I said every time I visited a South Jersey custard stand. Rationalization is a wonderful thing.
I’ll show you my salary if you’ll show me yours.
Over at CBS MoneyWatch, Stacey Bradford describes hearing a stranger boast that he has too much money and not enough time to spend it.
Anyone besides me want to smack that guy two or three times?
Think you’re broke? You probably aren’t.
Recently I linked to Laura Rowley’s excellent column, “Why the rich don’t feel rich,” in which she wrote about University of Chicago law professor Todd Henderson’s struggle to survive on a combined family income of more than $250,000. The column was a stark contrast to something that happened while I was in New Jersey last month.
I frequently stopped by to see my Aunt Dot, who’s 87 and very frail due to several medical issues. She and her son live on Social Security and disability plus her small pension. One evening I discovered that they had exactly one dollar in the house. Her check was due the next day and she planned to walk to the bank to cash it.
The bank is at least a mile from where Dot lives. And did I mention that she’s on oxygen?
Blog roundup: Poor little rich prof edition.
The blogosphere sizzled, both pro and con, over a post in which University of Chicago law professor Todd Henderson claimed he and his physician wife are not rich.
Sure, they have a 4,700-square-foot home, two cars, a gardener, several kids in private school, a full-time nanny for their new baby and someone who comes in to clean a few times a month.
Wonder what that particular brand of poverty feels like? (Also, why two cars if he lives within walking distance of the university?)
Laura Rowley did a swell blog post called Why the rich don’t feel rich at Yahoo! Finance. You need to read it. You should also follow this link within her piece and enjoy economist J. Bradford DeLong as he scores points off Henderson, whom he designates an “unreliable narrator.”
Ain’t no schadenfreude like scholarly schadenfreude.
But do find time also to look at:
Is the TV-free life for you?
That’s the question I ask in my current Living With Less column over at MSN Money. “Can your life be richer without TV?” refers to wealth both actual and abstract.
Non-watchers told me they save money (sometimes a lot of money) on cable costs and tend to spend less (sometimes a lot less) because they and their kids aren’t bombarded with ads and product placement. They find their lives are richer in other ways, too.
And they get more sleep.