It is amazing how little people in our day know about the real world. There is a reason for this situation, it is the public education system. This system is an artificial world and its curriculum is based on an artificial world. The graduates and dropouts of this system find themselves unable to cope with the real world. Things have not gotten better, but have progressively degenerated year by year. One wonders what the final result will be.
One thing that we can be assured of is that man will always seek to cheat. Our government cheats us everyday with our unbacked money. If the government cheats, is it any great wonder that other men cheat also? Cheating at the top will also be done at the lower levels. One can cheat themselves and this occurs often. Not saving money is a way of cheating yourself. Not living on a budget is also a way of cheating yourself. It is living beyond your means.
We live in a personal world even if man attempts to make it impersonal. This personal world will make itself more than apparent. We are living in difficult financial times. Prices are continuously on the rise without any seeming relief in sight. I have been in a state of denial that somehow prices will decrease. Once prices hit a certain level, they are inflexible downward. This is because of our inflated money.
People have no idea what is causing all these rising prices. All that they know is that their money does not purchase as much as it used to and they were caught off guard by it because they spent money without any thought. In other words, they did not realize that we live in a world of scarcity. When someone goes to a store and sees all those goods on the shelves, they think that there is an unlimited supply. Such is not the real world. It requires much effort to get products on those shelves. Man creates nothing ex nihlo. He is not creative, but inventive.
When you have to borrow money to pay for everyday needs, you are living in a fantasy world. This situation is the ultimate in not understanding finance. This is poor financial management and can only be the result of having no financial plan in place. An Associated Press Survey found that six in ten baby boomers were finding it difficult to pay for essentials and utilities and that they were having to cut back on entertainment and dining out.
What should be apparent is that the baby boomers basic theology is relativity. They have been taught that there are no absolutes and this would hold true in the financial arena. The absolutes of finance are now making themselves known and these baby boomers are finding themselves unable to function in the world of absolutes i.e., the real world. The spiritual always precedes behavior. Their behavior is just a reflection of their theological state of relativity.
Ellen Simon, AP Business Writer writes, "Compared with older people, a greater percentage of younger baby boomers, those 45 to 54, said they were cutting back on medications, prematurely withdrawing retirement funds and postponing paying bills." Beliefs have consequences. These baby boomers are acting upon their beliefs. They falsely believed in no absolutes and now they are having to take drastic actions to make ends meet. They are having to finance their present with future funds, their savings.
In the same article, a forty eight year old hospital finance worker named Debra Koziol has made some worthwhile adjustments with this new financial reality. She is carpooling with her sister and she takes her lunch every day. While these are admirable changes, they were only prompted by circumstances. It is better to have foresight and not have circumstances dictate your actions. The frugal have been brown bagging from the beginning. Eating out everyday for lunch is an expensive proposition. Being frugal teaches us to live within our means and to avoid unnecessary expenses.
Koziol says about taking her lunch to work, "The food is better. Some of this is creating better habits, not so much waste." Yes, frugality is an efficient system as she has discovered. Eating better food will also help with her health, thus saving her more money in the future. What is disconcerting though is that it took her to age forty eight before she realized the benefit of frugality. Think of all the years that have been wasted on relativity. Frugality is always a virtue.
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