(FYI--Patriot Dawn-The Resistance Rises a fictional prepper book is available for FREE Sat Nov 23 and (I think) Sunday Nov 24 as a download via your kindle/kindle app reader. Hyperlink will take you there).
In case you've ever wondered, it's $99,272.98.
Rather a specific number, don't you think?
As you may be aware, DH has been out of work since February. We received notice today that "even though he has a (positive $) unemployment benefit balance, unemployment payments will end on December 28 of this year due to federal regulations."
That just made me mad. Solely because YOU, the government, have stolen a minimum of $300 out of my DH's check every month for the 20 years we have been married. "To cover his unemployment benefits should he ever become unemployed." So now that he actually needs to lay claim to those benefits: too bad, so sad for us--our stolen wealth has been previously redistributed to people who...well...I'll end there.
I won't even "go there" with how much was pulled out of my accounts in the 25 years before I stopped working outside the home.
But annoyance aside, it made me wonder: just how much would we have in the bank if we had been "allowed" to take that $300 a month, put it into just a regular passbook savings account, you know, the kind that barely pay you 3 percent a year, and not been allowed to touch it unless we were unemployed?
Just on DH's 20 years, that would have amounted to $99,272.98.
Now the reality is that there are a lot of good reasons why we haven't amassed a small fortune, most of them having to do with my scum of an ex-husband. But the other side of the coin is, I'm pretty sure we have frittered away $300 a month over the past 20 years, (even without my ex) on take out food, first day movies, stoneware I've rarely (if ever) used, books I am now donating, etc. This on top of the money we have wasted on credit card debt.
All because we were unwilling to live like no one else then, so we could live like no one else now. It's not like we haven't saved anything. Thankfully, we had, which is what we've lived on the past 9 months, but that pretty much ran out a month or so ago.
DS13 is studying personal finance this year in high school. So far, we have covered paychecks, taxes (SS, UI, DI etc.), banking, credit card debt, mortgage debt. One of the vendor sites he investigated talked about "how awful it was for poor people, they are such victims, etc." One of the scenarios was: you are barely making ends meet, and someone gives your child $10 for his birthday. Do you give your child the money or do you keep it? The meta message of course, is that poor people (adults) are justified in taking what doesn't belong to them.
It was a good teaching moment, because frankly, I have a 17yo son whose part time job right now pays for our car gas. DS13's response was, if he was the kid, even if he got the $10, he would contribute it towards the household. I said, that's a generous response, but what do you think about the parent giving the child the birthday money, then encouraging him/her to pay 10% ($1) in say, tithing, $1 in long term-no touch savings, $3 in short term savings, and he/she would be free to spend the rest as they saw fit?
DS13 thought about it for a while. Then he said, "yeah, that would be better. If he learned how to handle money that early, then he wouldn't be in a bad financial situation in the future."
Yep. That pretty much says it all.
But it's still not too late for old dogs to learn new tricks, unless your name is Rovernment.
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