Letter

I don’t know if this is true, but I have read that many fathers write letters to their unborn children professing unbounded love and promising unbridled joy and fulfilment. I hope that our children (and grandchildren) know of my unbounded love for them and find unbridled joy and fulfilment in all they do. Though I am sure I haven’t told them enough how much I love them, I hope they know. Though I haven’t told them enough how much I wish for them, I hope they know.

I majored in economics in college because I wanted people to think I was an intellectual (and one of the worst teachers I ever had convinced me that I was not smart enough to be an language major and my mother convinced me that people would think I was dumb if I became a professional ski instructor). Turns out this was a good major for me—lots of theories that were easy to memorize, lots of numbers that I was good at mastering. Turns out this was not a good major for someone needing a job. At the time, “economist” was not a booming job market and “economists” from the London School of Economics and other prestigious halls were hired before even the brilliant ones with degrees from lesser liberal arts schools. Economics is for dreamers, there is no science there and I am glad to have let it go. What I would share about economics in a letter to my full-grown children and grandchildren is simple stuff they may be able to use to combat half-truths and lies of those who would take your money.

Economics Simplified

Limited Inventory = Jacked Up Price

Don’t Buy More Than You Can Afford

Providing Is Not Selling for Profit

Stealing Is Selling for Profit

Affording Is Not Searching for Profit

Promoting Is Searching for Profit

Getting Money Is One Thing, Keeping It Is Another

Make Money by Holding Not Spending It

Inflation High Price High Demand

No Demand No Price Too High or Too Low

Low Demand Low Price Approach

Frugality and Efficiency Pay More Than Folly and Excess

Value What You Need and Have, Not What You Want and Lack

High Demand High Price Avoid

Don’t Wait for a Reason to Save

Spending and Saving are Under Your Control

Flexibility is Better than Necessity

Extreme Demand Gives People What They Want at a Fair Price

Things Cost More When Everybody Wants Them

Stuff Costs More When Everybody Wants It and There Is Not Much of It

Things Cost Less When Nobody Wants Them

Stuff Costs Less When Nobody Wants It and There Is a Lot of It

Spending Money to Show People You Have Money Is a Sure Way to Have Less Money

Not Spending to Show People You Don’t Have Money Is a Sure Way to Have More Money

Spend Money on Things and You Will Have Things and Not Money

Spending Money You Don’t Have Is the Best Way to Have Less Money

Rich is What You Have Not What You Spend

Wealth is What You Have and Save is Not What You Spend

You Don’t Save Money by Spending It

You Don’t Save Money by Paying Off a Loan with Another Loan

Take a Different Path If the Path Forward Looks Bleak

Secret of Dieting-Stop Eating

Secret to Saving-Stop Spending