Sunday, July 4, 2010

Interesting money quote from founding father





Thomas Jefferson, on living within your means:
"But I know nothing more important to inculcate into the minds of young people than the wisdom, the honor, and the blessed comfort of living within their income, to calculate in good time how much less pain will cost them the plainest stile of living which keeps them out of debt, than after a few years of splendor above their income, to have their property taken away for debt when they have a family growing up to maintain and provide for."
-- From a letter to Martha Jefferson Randolph in 1808


When I saw this quote on MSN this morning I had to laugh. In case you're wondering why I'm laughing it's because I never take advice from people who don't practice what they preach. Like when I was working at the copy center at school and my supervisor (who had a Masters and couldn't get a job elsewhere) would give me tips on job hunting after I graduated from college. I'd listen to what he had to say then think "I will follow exactly opposite that" since it was obvious these tips weren't working for him. Same logic applies for our dear founding father, Thomas Jefferson. He had a huge amount of debt (granted a lot from his own father) but also had a huge amount of his own creditors and he lived well above his own means, thus racking up more debt. The only reason he didn't file for bankruptcy was because it wasn't available at the time. So I'm sure Martha Jefferson Randolph read that letter and thought to herself, I wonder when he's going to pay me that fifty bucks he owes me and sighed. 


Happy 4th!