American Dreamin'

I was a smart kid. Even in my late teens I knew the math. In fact, I could even derive the formulas. I knew if I put money into a savings account—and back then, a savings account could earn on the order of 5% annually—it would build, due to the magic of compound interest, and double in about fourteen years. Put that money into a CD at 10%—again, the typical rate at the time—and you get double your money in just 7 years. Feed that account on a weekly or even monthly basis and it grows even faster. I knew, even at the tender age of 18 that I could be a millionaire long before retirement age.

For instance, if I started with $1000 and invested it in a mutual fund, and if every month I put another $500 into that mutual fund and if that mutual fund netted 10% over a period of 29 years [not unreasonable], at the end of that 29 years I would have over one million dollars! If I could manage to up that monthly amount to $1000, I would have my million in 23 years!! So, before the age of fifty (or, even, by the age of 41), I could have been a millionaire, were I a bit more frugal with my money.

But, even with all that keen mathematical acuity, I wasn't smart enough to avoid the pitfall of debt. The luster of “things” melted my resolve and vaporized all my visions of future prosperity. As soon as that first savings account reached a few hundred dollars I did another kind of math—the math of consumerism. Suddenly I could actually have all those things I had pined for. Suddenly I could afford to buy that computer and all that “science nerd” stuff I had longed for since I was a teenybopper pouring over an Edmond Scientific Catalog while sitting on the can [I was a weird kid].

Then, a few years later, I discovered the Credit Card. “You mean I can buy even more stuff, now, and only have to pay a tiny little amount each month? Sign me up!!”

Thus began my tumble into debtor's hell. With my first card maxed out at around $6000, I applied for another, and got it, and maxed it out. Before I was finished I was in for around $15000, with a minimum monthly payment of over $300. Add to that, rent, groceries, and a car payment, car insurance, utilities, and a penchant for dining out, and you have a life of living paycheck-to-paycheck with no savings going on.

But, even then, it wasn't so hellish. Reality hadn't quite set in. At that point, my only “hardship” was the lack of the kind of purchasing power that made me so happy back in the days of fresh credit. My stuff was getting old, and I had a new list of “wanna-buys”.

It wasn't until my first layoff that the severity of my “condition” came crashing down on me. Life suddenly became nightmarish. Unemployment insurance helped, but didn't cover all my expenses. The crush of desperation colored, in dark shades, my scramble to find another job. Searing worry about how I was going to pay my bills and keep food on the table, and the chilling specter of homelessness, all skewed my composure and sullied my demeanor during one interview after another.

My comprehensive knowledge of electronics placed me above most candidates during my early career as an electronic technician but the world of electronics changed, and I needed to change with it, but with no savings, and a debt load the size of Detroit, school would have to parallel the job which seemed impossible. I did take a night class, and once again, by some lovely grace, I launched a software career, leveraged off that one class, and managed to make a living for another couple of decades. During that time, I was “downsized” out of a job several times and each time it was just as nightmarish.

I'm coming up on my 60th birthday and when I look back on my life, I see how the whole thing could have been so much easier, so much more joyful and full of adventure and light. Grace saved me from the deepest of pits, which suggests that God helped me despite my inability to help myself. But, had I taken that “Road less traveled” and delayed gratification just enough to get ahead of the game, it would have been a far happier and far more rewarding youth. If I had put aside some money for emergencies, then each of those layoffs could have been a door opening into new adventure, rather than a scramble for survival. With enough money set aside to cover my living costs for, say, six months, I could have taken a more leisurely pace in my job hunts and not settled for pay below my worth. And with higher paying jobs I could have more rapidly built that nest egg and, perhaps, by my mid thirties, begin to actually think about “retiring”.

Imagine being able to throw caution to the wind and do the things that you actually would rather be doing—those things you avoided because it “won't make you a living”. Artists don't really have to starve, if they, first, establish a financial foundation. Wouldn't that be worth a little sacrifice up front?

Tighten your belt early in life so you can live on your own terms later in life. And, if you take it far enough, you get to do one of the most satisfying of things in life: help others. Imagine being able to give to others. What if you could just hand someone $100 without trepidation. What if, while standing in line at the grocery store, you could just pay for someone's groceries if they forgot their wallet? What if you could walk up to someone panhandling by the side of the road, and restart their life? Wouldn't that just be the bee's knees?!?

What was missing from my youthful calculus was the kind of couching that occurs in Dave Ramsey's book “The Total Money Makeover”. What was missing was the clear hammer of insight into the true value of delaying gratification and the inspiration of accounts from people that actually did it. Most people take the road I took, the road that is considered “normal” and “proper”. A life in debt is the American way, and by most accounts, the only way. WRONG!! Stay out of debt, live below your means, save money until you can invest it, so it works for you – oh, and forget about the Joneses, it ain't worth it!

Do this until “below your means” is above most peoples “above their means”. That's the path to a [mostly] worry free life! That's how you become rich. Not quick riches. Earned riches, solid riches, DOABLE riches! This is how to live a life stress free and full of joy.

The metaphysical crowd talks of manifestation and how thoughts are things. If you fret about money and maintain a mind full of lack and despair, the Universe registers those feelings and manifests situations that assist you in maintaining “lack” and “despair”. If you want to manifest prosperity, it's necessary to generate that feeling. Fake it until you make it. It's really hard to do that if you're under the load of debt and living paycheck-to-paycheck. Getting free of debt makes opening a prosperity consciousness far easier.

Along with Dave Ramsey's book [or instead of it], there is another book called “How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously” by David Mundis that is quite effective. Also, on the subject of delaying gratification and living in a way more conducive to prosperity, I recommend “The Road Less Traveled” by M. Scott Peck.