Some Strong Money Saving “Dad Advice”
John’s dad’s nickname is El Cheapo and he truly is one of our money management role models. It is not like he wears shoes with holes in them or lives without creature comforts- he simply saves for what is truly essential to him (like a family-sized vehicle and even a vacation home for us to gather) and forgoes things that do not mean as much to him (like fancy meals on the town and a room-sized flat screen TV). Of course deciding what matters to you and being frugal in other areas is truly a personal decision (so if a flat screen TV will give you more joy than a minivan you should certainly follow your heart and save up for that!).
But the point is that Tom literally squirrels away moolah for years to put towards a new car, buys it after extensive research, and then drives it until it has record breaking amounts of mileage (which averages much less cost per year or per mile than most people would ever think possible). True story: he still drives a fully functional 1998 Nissan Quest with over 300,000 miles on it (!) while his wife drives a new Honda Pilot (they saved up for that but the Nissan still works so his thoughts are “why not drive it until it dies?”). In short, the man knows what he wants to save money on and he knows what he wants to spend it on. And he’s not afraid to divert funds from one area to attain something that will bring him and his family strong joy- which is consistently an honorable quality.
In fact we referenced both him and my father when we answered the big “how do you budget and afford so many Hands-on projects?” question a few months back (see more on that subject right here).
And after reading that post, he sent us an inspiring and memorable email that we simply had to share (note: we are consistently astounded when our relatives email us to say that they read our journal). So without further ado, the wise words of Tom Petersik:
“Enjoyed your frugal journal post! Funny thing: I was simply “admiring” that puffy painted tie from John yesterday. But onward to the main point: too frequently frugality is incorrectly viewed as “giving up,” when the real point of frugality is “getting what you truly truly want.” Many times I think the main point of frugality is not in “not buying;” the main point of frugality- and perhaps life- is to recognize what brings you the greatest rewards and to go enthusiastically for those things. When Kathy and I got married, buying our first home was a biiig stretch, all $27,500, but we enjoyed every minute of it. And buying our current home was a bigger stretch, but it has been a strong blessing. And they were both “frugal” decisions. The point is, if you as a person truly derive strong pleasure from something, the frugal behavior is to “go for it” – enthusiastically and whole hog. Who cares if you are not going out to dinner if the money you are saving can afford you the things you truly want? What is given up means little compared with the pleasure of the better choices.” -Enjoy, Tom/Dad
So we thought we’d share those inspiring words with you folks since they meant so much to us- and because so many of you seemed to relate to that original money management post that he’s referring to. And while we are on the subject of strong parental advice, have you folks ever been taught something by your parents (or another wise-beyond-their-years family member) that you’d like to share? We’d enjoy to hear what legacy your relatives are passing down and inspiring in your household.
