In 1935 my Grandfather Keeton took out a note from a bank for $1000. This was only done once in his life and I happen to have the paid slip for that note taken out from the bank. A bank in Kansas City, MO.
From my understanding:
This money was for paying off medical bills and burying my Grandmother Keeton. She died young, in pain and of cancer. She was 37 when she died and my Dad who was the baby of the family had to grow up fast, hard and tough. My dad was the youngest of seven kids…
Grandpa, a boiler maker as his profession, was raising seven kids all alone and the eldest sisters of the siblings took over mothers spot…
$1000 is like $18,000 right now:
To borrow this kind of money must have been a terrible thing for my grandfather to have to do? My dad said it hung over his dad like a demon for the year it took him to pay it off. It seems that grandpa did not like to borrow money and felt that owing someone, was slavery until paid…
That is how we thought in the old days…
He paid that $1000 off in exactly one year. That is like paying $18,000 back nowadays, having seven kids to feed, house and take care of, then paying everything else that life throws at you. Could you do that? right now and still raise seven kids…. No I mean you, that person who brings home 45,000 a year in gross pay. Taxes and whatnot’s take half and then remove $18,000 for debt and live in the rest for a year…
Give or take according to your situation, that would be from $4000 to $5000 to survive, feed the family and pay the bills…
My dad told about how the whole family all did what they could to help pay it back. Every penny went to pay the debt back, a debt that was imposed upon them because they lost a mother to cancer…
Debt:
Somehow we have lost that fear of debt. We live in a debt society or I should say, the west lives in a very debt society and I now live in a cash or do or buy it society. Russians and that extends to the government try really hard to keep from taking out debt…
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan doth oft lose both itself and friend.” – -William Shakespeare
I watch Russians give money to others. I very rarely see a Russian hand out money and ever expect it back. Everyone in Russia has that person who has to have a ruble to survive and it is handed over without recourse. It is the Russian way and no we do not care to talk about mafia types. That is a whole another world and a very small part of this world. Same as in America. Playing with the devil is the path you take selling your soul…
A huge portion of the populace gives to those who do not have, for one day, you may need that ruble back and someone will pay it forward. It is a “circle of life” in a country like Russia…
I have learned to become part of that circle and it simply works…
Who really eats?
In the real world life is like this…
One man has a dollar, the other man has just borrowed 10 dollars from the bank. The man who borrowed the money just bought his dream toy that morning and the man who has a dollar, does not have that toy…
But later that night when dinner comes around; the man who spent $10 on a toy, does not have any money to buy food. His belly is growling and he is hungry. The toy is not edible…. He actually borrowed money to buy that toy, money he did not have in the first place…. Money he now owes on top of everything else…
The man with the toy looks out his window and across the street sitting at the dinner table is a man with his family eating dinner. That dollar bought dinner and the man with the toy sees boiled potatoes, salad, pot roast and even wine to drink…
The man with the toy looks at his family and sees a hungry family, but he has his toy!
What this means?
Very simply, it means you have two ways to look at things and two ways to take care of life. One you buy toys and owe, owe and owe some more. You never have enough and you never get out of debt. To eat you even borrow money. To live just basics of life, you have to borrow money. Money is that 800# Gorilla sitting in the corner…
Or! You buy what you need with what you have and feed your family and yourself. You belly is full, you do not have an 800# Gorilla staring at you and your family goes to bed at night in peace…
You either live within your means or you do not…
We have misconceptions:
We associate countries like we do people around us, people with who are rich and who are not. Who is third world and who is not. Who has massive GDP and who has small GDP. This misconception is not real world and that is the crux of the matter…
The man with a dollar and no debt is rich in all truthfulness. The man with $10 debt and a toy is dirt poor, until he pays that debt back…
We must pay our debts and when our family looks at us and their bellies growl from hunger, then we might learn to not go into debt for toys…
WtR