Unusual Financial Perspectives

[tsukikage]

Listening to the Money Girl podcast and talking to people lately... I'm being reminded of just how... unusual... my financial perspectives are.
What is the purpose of saving? For me, it's to be prepared for a rainy day, put away money for your children's college, and to prepare for the age when you can't work anymore (i.e, retirement). There's also saving for shorter-term goals, such as wanting to buy a new TV or study abroad for a year, that sort of thing. Not to mention when one works towards saving, it aids in the whole living within your means thing. But the idea of saving to "build wealth"? Seems kinda pointless to me. Not buying one DVD now and one in ten years just so I can instead buy three DVDs in ten years, especially when DVDs go out of print? Not buying a $100 bookhself now and a $200 bookshelf in ten years just so I can instead buy a $500 bookshelf in ten years? I mean, yeah, I might in ten years like to spend $300 more on that bookshelf, but not enough to wish I had gone with the $5 bookshelf ten years ago. Money, for me, is something to spend, not grow.
And the concept of "sheltering money from taxes" is quite foreign to me as well, and honestly distasteful on top. If it weren't for the fact that deliberately avoiding all deductions feels like I'm doing the taxes wrong, I totally would. I'd tell my tax preparer to just ignore all the loopholes he's found for me. Sort of like a reverse form of consciencious objection?
Yes, I want to educate myself so I can make a decent income so I can support my children (no more than around $60,000 by retirement age, I think - any more would make me feel uncomfortable), but the very concept of trying to attain wealth makes me uncomfortable. And that must put me in a very, very small minority.

[EDIT: I suppose I should provide the disclaimer that no matter how much money I make, I always think everything would be financially happy if I just made twice what I did "now". Imagine what my $5/week allowance me would think about my current $325/week. Then again, $5/week me didn't have tuition to pay.
In any case, feel free to point out how much of a hypocrite I am, considering my level of materialism which must be financially funded.]

[EDIT 2: I will now predict the future. On the NHK news tomorrow morning, they'll report on the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and how mayors are getting together to work towards a nuclear-free world. And how a moment of silence was held. Am I missing anything?]

[EDIT 3: Aaaand, Money Girl refers to taxes and inflation as "evil twins" (specifically when trying to create wealth, so that context might moderate the statement), and inflation as the "more sinister" of the two, implying that taxes are still "sinister". Yeah... sometimes this podcast really bothers me.]

Comments

[jadeejf.livejournal.com]

That is an interesting way of looking at things. I don't have much desire to spend, so saving tends to work for me; right now, we're working towards buying a house, but that doesn't really affect my spending. I rarely buy things for myself, so I don't worry too much about when I do. And your thoughts on a decent income, well- it would significantly vary if you lived elsewhere in the country. $60,000 here would be enough to live on, but just slightly above comfort level, imho. I make less than that here, and can't imagine what kind of adjustments I'd have to make if there weren't a second salary involved. I would definitely have to move and/or get roommates, and saving for a house would be completely out of the picture (considering houses here are $350-400k for a starter home, trying to save for a 10% down payment would take forever on a $60k salary). One last thought- in terms of building wealth- I'm happy to put my money in savings accounts/investments/etc. that earn good returns; the more wealth I build, the more I will have to give away later. So there's that as a motivation for wealth-building, too :)

[kelglitter.livejournal.com]

I suspect the notion of "creating wealth" violates the first law of thermodynamics. :P

I have this really silly thing that goes through my head and drives me to save aggressively... namely, "working's for suckers." Being productive isn't the issue... it's being forced to do specific things with my time that I didn't pick out myself based on my mood/goals/activity levels, etc., for that day. So I'm not game on "creating wealth" so much as amassing it such that I am free from that particular rat race. I'm am currently saving as if I'm going to retire by age 40.

[carve037.livejournal.com]

I think you're too optimistic here. You don't buy that $100 DVD now because you might need it for food or medicine someday if you lose your job. Other people talk about saving like you're going to amass a huge pile of money and retire. For many of our generation "retiring" just isn't going to happen. You make the money so you can use it later, yeah, but that doesn't mean you're using it on DVDs later. You're probably using it to keep the creditors from repossessing your car, or kicking you out of your house, or preventing the U from withholding your credits. It's your lack of economic fear that worries me.