I was reading an an article on NPR about the Amish and loans and came away not sure what to think...
A line from the article that really got my attention was "O'Brien says the Amish are less risky debtors than people with access to all the tools of modern banking. The Amish live well within their means — no splurging on iPods or HDTVs, no dinners out that they really can't afford. The Amish think that missing a payment brings shame — not just on them, but on their whole family, their whole community."
Its a strange phenomenon in a day and age where people routinely spend beyond their means. I am currently working through a budgeting debacle that I inherited from the previous management where it seems that they spent over 40+% of a three year budget... in 8 months; times like this remind me that even one who is "fiscally disciplined" can be subject to the fiscal faux pas of others.
I am still quite proud of my family and the way i have been brought up in terms of living in a fiscally realistic manner. Again and again i find the world looks at me like i am some sort of scrooge (though i have never been accused of being a mooch) because i live what i believe to be, responsibly. Its odd to me because it is not only the spending-money-like-water (sometimes via credit, though usually by just spending all month-to-month) westerners but also the poor as dirt developing countries, they think i have "tons of money" and can live like a king (rarely saving properly for the future) but i find that in many of these countries life gets rough when they get older and they become heavily dependent on their children, children who sometimes don't look out for their parents later in life.
ah well...
No comments:
Post a Comment