Savings

I have lost a few hours of sleep in the past couple of weeks due to having to work and some to stupidity. It just makes waking up in the morning more difficult as the weeks move on.

I just heard on the radio that having savings is a good idea. It appears that if some unexpected costs come up like automobile breakdown, flooded basement, medical expenses or just that spur of the moment vacation to Maui, it is handy to have cash on hand. It is much easier to dip into savings than having to cash in bonds, get a short term loan, sell a kidney or prostitute yourself down at the bus depot. All are valid ways to get cash, but generally not quickly enough.

I believe it was some conservative think tank or government sponsored survey that came up with that result. I would imagine that it cost well into the millions of dollars to find this out. They didn’t need to spend any money really; they could have just asked me. I have done most of those things to raise fast cash and I agree that having a large amount of cash in a savings account is a much better idea.

Come to think about it, I bet if they took a survey, 99.9% of the people would think that having a million dollars would smooth out life’s little speed bumps. It would sure help me get through the tough times.

I have come to the conclusion that the people who do these surveys have no idea how a large number of the population live. There are a lot of us that live paycheque to paycheque and often rely on family allowance for the “extras”. We would all like to put some money away for that rainy day, but having extra money just isn’t an option. I’d like to make these dickwads live on an income that is slightly above the poverty line for a couple of years and see if their ideas about savings would change.

We are pretty lucky here in Canada because for the most part our past governments have put some social safety nets in place so that no citizen goes without basic medical aid because they lack the money. We have social assistance that will generally put a roof over your head and food in your belly. There are many that will fall through the cracks, but the vast majority of the really poor don’t starve to death.

The well healed believe that the poor are just lazy, and if they would only show some initiative, they could take three vacations a year and live in a suburban mansion. If only it were that simple. Very few of the poor choose to have no money. Some have had a series of unfortunate things happen in their lives. Some have medical conditions that keep them from working at a lucrative occupation. Some either don’t have the temperament or the intellect to get and keep a good job.

Sometimes life just isn’t fair. Sometimes life is fairer for some than for others. Sometimes you can put money into a savings account, and sometimes you put your money into living day to day.