Frugality Can Be Acquired, but It Can’t Be Bought

[jeffrey]

Consumers, long held up as the saviors of the American economy as it rose, are taking some of the blame for its fall. Consumers, their critics now say, were too eager to buy big, expensive houses and to fill them with the latest electronic gadgets. Consumers used their houses as piggy banks, these critics go on, to pay for their profligate ways. The question is, How do consumers learn how to deal with their finances? How do they learn how to save, invest and manage their money?

While some life skills, like learning to drive or how to roast a chicken, seem pretty straightforward, a lot of people remain in the dark when it comes to managing their personal finances.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/business/yourmoney/01money.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

[rob62521]

This is an interesting article, but I think that besides frugality being taught, the person has to want to do it and see a benefit by looking at the big picture. So many people want stuff right now and won't save up for it. Society condones that attitude big time.

[Aleta]

I think that frugality is taught and learned especially by children being in the home of a frugal parent.

My husband was not brought up by frugal parents and he is not frugal today even though I am. He has watched me over the years at the different ways I have acquired more money but he still hasn't gotten it. It is as the poster above says; it has to be a position of the person to want to be frugal or maybe for a light bulb to come on.

Frugality can mean the difference between a decent retirement or one with a lousy retirement if the money saved from frugality was invested and not spent again.

Some people are frugal but then reinvest the money into other household items calling that a savings.