WHY SAVE
"Buy gold! Buy bitcoin! Invest in Real Estate! The Printer is Coming!"
It's all so tiresome... I grow weary of my past prostelyzing self. I don't want to be anyone's financial advisor or <INSERT_COLOR>-piller. Half the stuff I write is for myself anyway. I do want to help the inquisitive pleb who happens upon this blogpath, if I can, however...
So I got to thinking. Instead of asking, "How can I get the poors to pump my bags?", perhaps we should better ask "Why would a pleb want to buy my bags, or anyone's bags, really?"...
And underlying that question, in a sort of "Directed Acyclic Graph" (Read: Timechain-y) fashion, we can derive the base question...
Why would Mr. Pleb want to save money at all? Much less invest...
Because if we don't understand the factors leading to Mr. Pleb actually wanting to save money, we are unlikely to 'strike it rich' trying to pitch him our fat books, ain't we?
Let's ask Mr. Pleb himself...
Dear John Pleb,
What brought you to the decision or the desire to save money? Why not spend it all on hookas and fake snow? (Or was is alpacas and flow?)
Are you some kind of over-emotional psychopath? Why would you keep dollars around? Don't you know they'll melt away? Turn to dust under your mattress after 30 days?
Do you have some kind of plan for the future?
Why not just toss it out the window if you don't need it right away? Surely someone else can use it, right?
Oh, you're into Behavioral Finance now are you?
Just wait: Next you'll be quoting from Mises and claiming that Capital is the result of abstaining from present consumption for the sake of future use or something...!
No. You wouldn't go that far.
Surely you still prefer immediate gratification, don't you?
At this point I'm afraid to ask, but did someone Nudge You? Did you get peer pressured into setting up some kind of savings plan?
Better use them resources before they get all gobbled up!
Impatiently Awaiting Your Reply,
~ Hyperbolic Discounter
In reality, individuals in modern society are constantly bombarded by naggardly questions of this nature all the time. Why not just live in the moment? Keep up with the Jones'es. Have fun! Forget your worries.
It is relatively rare to see people exercising restraint, much less talking about it publicly.
Whether through a "nudge" or "positive peer pressure" to save for retirement via a 401K or pension plan... Or whether influenced by a friend or family member to put some away for a rainy day... Despite all the negative pressures and baser drives, Mr. Pleb may work up the conviction to be disciplined and save.
The most helpful thing to do, not knowing Mr. Pleb and his circumstances, is to just encourage him to keep going. Whatever the savings vehicle he has chosen.
Maybe try to steer him away from the more insidious and risky forms of investment. i.e. don't buy ETH or SOL or Far OTM Calls on QQQ. Don't use leverage. Those things are gambling, not savings. They are a kind of anti-savings.
If you want to gamble on the margin, for the entertainment value, and importantly assuming you don't have an addictive personality, then maybe you can warrant spending 0.1% to 1.0% of your income on such speculative endeavors. And I wish you good luck, I do.
But moreso, I wish you good fortune. You will have to compromise to keep it up, that I can tell you for certain.
I don't know how many times I've started and rescinded a savings plan. But I keep setting up new ones as soon as I can.
Just do it. Just save it.
Your future self and future family are worth it.
Take encouragement from the fact that there are whole communities out there dedicated to getting higher incomes legitimately, budgeting, investing wisely, and on and on.
This is a good thing.
To criticize someone tirelessly growing their capital through savings and investment, because you simply don't like their choice of vehicle, is like trying to run other drivers off the road because you don't like the trim on their Ford Focussettes. Lame.
Be glad that people are acting in their own best interests.
Be grateful if you have even a brief chance to ask them about it, and what they are saving for.
People can surprise you. If you give them a chance.