Persuasion Tuesday #1

From a tiny acorn the mighty oak tree grows...

Our very first Persuasion Tuesday post. It seems kind of odd doing a political post without trashing someone. Could it be that politics has become such a bloodsport that one reflexively associates one's position with just how stupid your opponents are? Hmm. Oh well, on with the show.

I was raised by Depression-era parents. Money was always tight for them and debt was something to be avoided for everything but your house. As I manage my own finances, I find myself still guided by their teaching and when I listen to or watch financial shows, it's never about which stocks to pick it's always about how to save money and retire debt. Dave Ramsey is my hero. I bought one of his books. At a used bookstore, of course. :-)

I was thinking about this first post and what's always been a big deal for me is how we as a nation don't seem to be able to live within our means. We're not involved in a war on the scale of WWII or the Civil War and yet we borrow money like crazy. We leach off of Social Security and then borrow still more money to spend, spend, spend. Imagine doing that in your own life. How well would you sleep at night if you borrowed against your 401K and then kept spending with your credit cards? America does that all the time.

I'm not going to make this a long post, but I want to leave you with this thought. How does it make you feel to be taking from retirement and burdening your kids with debt at the same time? It's like asking your parents for an allowance and then hitting up your kids for their lunch money. If you saw a story like that in the newspaper you'd think the person was some kind of addict, wouldn't you?

Don't you want that to change?

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