Tuesday, November 18, 2008

"What matters is what you do with what you have"

I just glanced at this quote the other day when I tore it out of my quote-a-day calendar on my desk and I wish I could find it now.
I remember a couple many years ago. They drove a suburban and a civic. The licenses were CMMM on the suburban and CJSMM on the civic. They stood for see Mike make money and see Jane spend Mike's money. I remember that they had to be pointed out to me by our "new girl" Laurie in the office where I worked on computers. She said that they were millionaires with investments worldwide. I would have been about 18. That seems so long ago.
The time that I observed them was right after Laurie mentioned it to me. The gal got out of her car right across the street to walk a brown paper bag and a 7up to the driver's side of a rusty old blue suburban.
It seems that the really wealthy just don't live crazy or lavish lives. They don't "live it up." They are sensible and caring. They get things that last; good investments. I remember hearing (I don't know if this is true) that Warren Buffett owned a simple Honda Civic until just a few years ago when he "splurged" on a Buick or Caddy. How many old caddies do you see still running around?
I have a friend that spends so much time thinking about how she can save more and more of her pathetic paychecks. She has investments, savings, NO debt and probably spends something like 8k/year. Most of her spending goes to living expenses and trips to see her friends and family.
At the bottom end of the spectrum, I know people who live on the interest rates. By that I mean that if the market takes a tumble, their home is repossessed. They live off of credit. They live larger than life, literally. They spend so much of their credit that to make bigger than the min would cause them to miss a payment on something else. Going on a vacation means that they get a new credit card to finance it. They don't know what it is like to KEEP money in a savings, because they have never had one.
Which end of the spectrum are you at? (This Q is just for you, not me.)

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