Pat Fish's Blog

02/18/2004 5:30 PM

The Idea Behind Money

Kaitlyn, the whole notion of handling money is a simple matter. Likely they won’t be teaching this sort of thing in schools in your day in favor of those all-important lessons of diversity. But it’s no big secret, Kaitlyn. The idea is for you to get as much of the other guy’s money as you can while allowing him to get as little of your money as possible.

Those “guys” and “him” references alluding to all sexes of our species though such writing will likely be outlawed by the time you read this.

There’s a whole bevy of laws, Kaitlyn, that provide a framework about how money is to pass from person-to-person, depending upon the circumstances and who is doing what to who. A lease is a contract between a landlord and a tenant delineating monthly rent. The idea is that the monthly amount in the lease is how much of YOUR money you give to the landlord.

There’s a whole world of nuances out there, Kaitlyn, as regards how much we give the other guy for service or product rendered. Such as leases are fairly cut and dried is what I’m saying here, Kaitlyn, but in almost every financial transaction into which we enter there is some leeway. This is when the notion of giving that other guy as little of your money as possible goes into effect.

Take the supermarket. Assuming they have supermarkets when you read this, Kaitlyn. For all I know all food might be delivered flash to your front door after a quick cut and paste on the market’s internet web site. So let me explain, just in case, that a supermarket is a large building filled with shelves and freezers. On and within these things are food items that are purchased on a per item basis by a shopper cruising the aisles pushing a cart in front.

Many years back our congress critters passed a law stipulating that all items sold in the grocery must have a cost per unit-of- measurement plainly in view of the consumer. Thus if I, the customer, am perusing the shelves for instant hot cocoa, for instance, there should be a tag in easy sight that indicates how much each brand and package size sells per pound. “Per Pound” because that is the unit of measurement for cocoa. The unit of measurement could be “per foot” I suppose but I don’t know many grocery items that are sold per foot.

I regard the Swiss Miss cocoa which sells, even at its vaunted sale price, at 3.59 per pound. I view the other options and note that most of the instant cocoa was selling from 2.00 per pound to around 5.00 per pound. Quite a bit of difference per pound, almost three dollars. Still there is a quality factor, Kaitlyn, and we might choose to pay more per pound for a higher quality. I always choose the better price per pound unless I have a brand loyalty because, well I don’t want to give the guy more money than I have to in order to purchase his product. I do this with soap powder, deli meat, even cocoa.

Over in the corner I noted one brand of cocoa that had “53.6” listed as it’s unit rate. My eyes bypassed this brand, Nestles by the way, as my immediate impression was that there must be some mistake. All about the Nestles’ cocoa were varying brands and sizes, all running between that 2 and 5 dollar mark. I considered the best value for these products but my eye returns to the Nestles.

“Damn,” I muse to myself. “The Nestles is only 53.6 cents a pound.” I lean down and peer closer to insure my eyes are correct. I check the brand as Nestles is a name brand, arguably the best of the lot.

My brain runs amok as I ponder how Nestles can possibly afford to sell their quality cocoa at two to three dollars less per pound than even the anemic store brand.

It was FIFTY THREE DOLLARS AND SIXTY CENTS A POUND, Kaitlyn! Now we’re talking a difference of at least forty eight bucks a pound between the Nestles and the other brands.

The experience left me glad that our legislators once wrote such a useful law. I then pondered how the judges would be at passing such laws.

Then there was the car insurance, Kaitlyn.

With a new monthly rate of $103.56.

My eyes bulge at the notice that my insurer will now deduct this amount from my checking account every month. Before they had been deducting just a little more than this amount to insure TWO cars.

Due to a car lease and movements to different states, I was required to keep my insurance in the state of Merryland while husband had to purchase auto insurance in our new home state of Delaware.

“You’ve lost your multiple car discount,” the pleasant car insurance lady tells me. I said I had no problem with this.

“You’ve also lost your discount because you no longer have a homeowner’s policy with us,” nice lady continued. Which I allowed as we did purchase homeowner’s insurance in our new state for our new house.

The insurance lady stopped all pleasant like but I was not pleased.

The de facto cost of my car insurance was still over $1,200 a year! I only drive the damn car two days a week! I wasn’t buying that the huge increase in the cost of auto insurance was due to the homeowner’s discount or the multiple car discount.

And if it was, well I told the pleasant lady, I believe a driver with a perfect record such as myself who only drives occasionally could certainly get auto insurance cheaper than over a grand a year. No auto accidents or speeding tickets…EVER, Kaitlyn! This in over forty years of driving! I told pleasant lady that I bet I could save a bundle on my car insurance from Geico. A popular car insurance commercial of this era, Kaitlyn, but its message wasn’t lost on me.

Pleasant lady scrambled and asked me some questions. How much did I drive weekly? How many miles on my odometer? I heard keys clicking.

“I think we can get your rate down to $83.00 per month,” pleasant lady says.

Well darn if that ain’t a good twenty bucks lower than they were going to charge me! Which translates into $240 per year. $240 bucks of my money that the insurance guy was going to get out of my pocket beyond what I really had to pay. Had I not questioned it is what I’m saying here.

The anecdotes listed here Kaitlyn are but a snapshot in time. Every day, when money is involved, there is always some discretion.

There is no honor, Kaitlyn, in paying more than necessary, no matter your wealth, class or status.