I have a lot of favorite movies (maybe because I’m indecisive and can’t just pick one favorite) and Fiddler On the Roof is definitely there in my top … 50. Yes, it is old, and some of it a little silly, but it is a classic and teaches some good lessons, all the while maintaining a good balance of comedy with serious issues. We recently watched it for the first time after several years, and now that we are personal finance bloggers, we couldn’t help but appreciate the money lessons (or maybe they’re more like jokes) to be had in this movie.
Tevye: Again with the rich! What’s wrong with being rich?
Perchik: It’s no reason to marry. Money is the world’s curse.
Tevye: May the Lord smite me with it. And may I never recover!
If I Were a Rich Man
One of my favorite songs in this movie is If I Were a Rich Man, wherin Tevye fantasizes of the (sometimes imprudent) ways in which he would live his life and spend his money were he a wealthy man. Play the video below to watch it performed as can be done by none other than the great Topol. (You can watch the whole movie here, too, if you’d like.)
There is a difference between simple living and forced poverty.
Not everyone enjoys the rat race.
It’s a choice.
It’s a form of retirement.
Some live the frugal life because they have no other choice.
Frugal does not mean “easy,” but instead takes work and ambition.
It’s the means to an end.
I thought I’d add my own opinion to this and go more into why we live the way we do - sort of a continuation/elaboration on Our Family Financial History which tells how we came to be where we are today. The answer to this question, as evidenced above, is different for everyone depending on your station in life - age, personal goals and lifestyle preferences.
For us, the last answer, “It’s the means to an end,” is closest to our view of “simple living” or “frugal living.” For me, simple living is not just another terms for “giving up.” I like to think of it as “saving up” and making it possible to “live it up” in future years.
Though, I think this has much to do with where we are agewise in our lives. Madoline and I are in our late twenties and we have many years ahead of us. But for someone at midlife, retirement or late-life, it would probably be different.
Our Reasons for Frugal Living are:
To pay off our house as soon as possible
To save up to attend graduate school
To save up for a replacement car when the time comes
To make sure we and our pets have enough (or more) to live on in later life
To be able to live as comfortably and healthily as possible in later life
To be able to help extended family who may need assistance
To be able to travel and see the all the places we’ve been wanting to see
To own a small farm on which to keep horses, sheep and dogs
To be free of debt and worry
To be able to have the things we want be they large or small
To be able to pay our taxes - sad, but true
Frugal Living as a Choice
At this time in our lives, we cannot really afford to not live frugally. Our business is still in its development stages, and we are still considering other career paths. Because we prefer to avoid debt and our business is small, we have been using our cash to invest in sewing machines and materials for the business.
So for us, frugal or simple living is a choice because our present lifestyle is also a choice. At this time, we’d like to have a shot at making our business work because we prefer to work for ourselves and be able to work from home so we can be with our dogs who are our closest family. This is the reason we bought our house where the closest city is 40 miles away. We could move to a large city and get full-time jobs if we really wanted or needed to, but for now, we want to try to make our business work.
Frugal Living as a Means to an End
One of the ways in which we hope to make our fortunes is by investing. This also requires some capital other than regular savings and and emergency fund. So that is another reason we live frugally - to save as much money as possible to invest.
How about you? Do you live frugally? If yes, what are your reasons? And if no, why not?
To celebrate our new Money Tree blog theme (if you’re reading this post in a reader, come and check it out!), I thought I would post a facetious poem that Madoline wrote a while back. The quote in our new header comes from the first line of this poem titled ‘Tis Not a Crime to Pinch a Penny.
‘Tis Not a Crime to Pinch a Penny
by Madoline Hatter
‘Tis not a crime to pinch a penny
A single cent’s as good as any
Of the hundred that’s a dollar
A hundred being only taller
A cent to none is surely better
For you are that much less a debtor.
For anyone who is curious, the images in our new theme were also designed by Madoline. The Money Tree graphics in varying stages of leaf and bloom, are available on a variety of merchandise such as mugs, cards, t-shirts and more in Our Fourpence Worth Store.
If this is your first time here, please consider subscribing to our RSS Feed to receive tips on frugal living, personal finance and saving money in everyday life. (We have just begun publishing a new series of Monopoly Financial Education Game Expansions for teaching players about personal finance, money management and investing principles and will be posting several in the coming weeks!)
¡Bienvenidos a la tercera edición de la Fiesta de Finanza!
Welcome to the 3rd edition of the Finance Fiesta. I’ve always enjoyed proverbs, and since Spanish is one of my favorite languages, our theme for this week’s fiesta is Spanish Money Proverbs. The following proverbs all come from A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs for anyone who wants to know. Hope you enjoy them.
Editor’s Picks
“El dinero hace lo malo bueno.” Money turns bad into good.
Editor’s Comment:A nice simple guide for preventing identitity theft and what to do if you fall victim.
♦ Anand presents How to Master Money & Wealth: Intro posted at Anand Dhillon.com, saying, “A complete series that covers how to master money and wealth. The topics include increasing financial awareness, developing the right mindset, saving and money management.”
♦ Erica Douglass presents When Should You Buy Real Estate — And When Is It Better to Rent? posted at erica.biz, saying, “By the time you’re done reading this, you’ll have an excellent idea of exactly when higher-priced houses will fall in price, and you’ll have an armload of data to assist you in determining when a house is priced correctly — no matter where it is or what its price.”
Editor’s Comment:Includes some good advice on investment options in lieu of real estate that might work better for you.
As kids, Madoline and I loved playing Monopoly. We enjoyed accumulating property, building hotels and watching the money roll in. We used to play to the extent of having to use calculators to keep track of our individual wealth after exhausting the bank’s supply of cash. When our cousin Mabel arrived in April for her 3-month sampling of the American life, we pulled our Monopoly game back out as part of her introduction to American culture.
Mabel seemed to have born with more than usual bad luck. Since childhood, she has been prone to little (and sometimes not so little) mishaps and accidents of all sorts as well as general ill fortune in all aspects of life – family, personal, professional, etc. Her ill luck also obviously carries over to pretend life, Monopoly included.
During our first Monopoly game with Mabel, Madoline got so tired of Mabel landing on her hotels and unable to afford rent that she devised a lottery system for the game in the hopes that Mabel would win a few jackpots and be able to pay her way. (We don’t like to end the game when someone runs out of money because otherwise it would end too soon.)
Lottopoly, as we call it, was an instant success – for Madoline and me that is. Despite purchasing 3 tickets per lottery that first day, Mabel didn’t win a single lottery. Madoline and I, on the other hand, grew richer and richer, and the Lottopoly became the highlight of the game.
We have since invented more expansions to add some spice to our Monopoly games. All of our expansions have to do with making, saving and investing money, and are a fun way to teach children, and even grown-ups, basic money management and investment principles. Players have to learn how to budget their cash and not over-invest or face penalties for early withdrawal of invested funds.
We have decided to begin publishing a series of Monopoly Expansions here at Our Fourpence Worth. Each game expansion comes with forms that you can download and print for free in PDF or JPG format and detailed instructions for playing with your friends and family. We will begin posting Monopoly Expansions for different money management principles, Certificates of Deposit (CDs), Foreign Currency Investments, Lottopoly and more starting this week.
Monopoly is a fun and fairly inexpensive way to teach kids basic money management skills. I would definitely recommend it to parents who are looking for frugal and beneficial diversions for keeping kids entertained during hot summer days.
Check back tomorrow for the first Monopoly Game Expansion!
Whenever I used to hear this quote, my reaction would be something like “Yeah, okay.” I’d figure that it was probably true but never really gave it much thought, and it pretty much went in one ear and out the other. But now that I’m getting a little on in years (the big 3-0 inching eerily closer), I’m beginning to see why this quote is so-oft quoted.
Some of you may have noticed that my posting has been a little inconsistent lately. As I explained in my recent roundup of personal finance articles, our cousin has been visiting us since April (and will be here until July 8th). Because most of our relatives live overseas, when we do see each other, it is usually after a span of several years. Despite the physical distance between us, we have always been very close to most of our cousins, and consequently, there have been a lot of late nights of catching up on the last half decade or so - chatting about other family members (there are a lot of us), reminiscing and laughing about our childhoods and complaining about the “grown-ups” who still treat us like children even though most of us are now in our late twenties and early thirties.
While these late night chats have been priceless, they have also taken a toll. We often all stay up together till about midnight, and after the others turn in for the night, I usually spend several hours catching up on work (for our other businesses or this blog), and it isn’t unusual for me to go to bed at sunrise. While it’s great to have these quiet and uninterrupted hours in which to work, there is also a price.
