Arrive Naked, Leave Naked

Save Money, Stop Worrying, and Get Rid Of It Before You Die!

We used to say, “It's impossible to keep up with the Jones'”.

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In the olden days, when we were young, and in our grandmother's time, spend + thrift = accumulated wealth but that definition has become obsolete, now it seems to have a meaning quite the opposite.

Now, a spendthrift is a person who spends money recklessly or wastefully. adj. extravagant: spendthrift bureaucrats; (noun) one who spends money profusely or improvidently; a prodigal; one who lavishes or wastes his estate; also used figuratively; (adjective) prodigal; extravagant; wasteful.

If you are not already doing so, learn to save money, perhaps by becoming a bit of a miser [noun: a person who love money and hates to spend it; one who lives very meagerly in order to hoard money; a greedy or avaricious person].

But, most importantly, remember that money is not everything; it is not “the be all and end all”. For instance throughout Stan Webb's 34 year career as a certified accountant, estate and financial adviser he would often be required to attend a person's death bed. He heard the repeated refrain from the dying, “do not do what I did, save all of your money for a [never arriving] 'rainy day' and a luxurious retirement”.

While he was a corporate and personal financial adviser, Webb was also taught 'Investment and Portfolio Analysis', and Financial topics at UBC – the University of British Columbia.

Repeatedly he taught that investment theory was to take some risks, save and invest while you are young. Even if you err [make an error or a mistake] a little as you are learning, you will have time to recover.

Later on in life one should become more conservative [moderate; cautious; preservative] and make much less risky investments; perhaps even using an actuarial model [compute life and insurance risks and premiums] ~ and try to divest [sell of] most all capital and all investments as one approaches the end of life.

Even in the life of corporations it is often best to follow some similar guidelines. Corporation may disappear through mergers and acquisitions, death of the founders, privatization and/or bankruptcy. And, the underpinnings of all business and investments, even New York bankers, is individual shareholders. As businesses (and NPO - non profit organizations) mature they should consider divesting at least part of the original capital and retained earnings (NPO surplus) through dividends, share buy-backs (NPO refunds of contributions and donations) and other available methods. Sometimes the best route is to deal with a M&A – Mergers and Acquisitions specialist. Of course, organizations have a tendency to perpetuate themselves and tend not to do this [to self liquidate] but perhaps they stray farther and reach much further than there original objectives. Sometimes that is a bad thing. Samuel Clements (Mark Twain) once said, “Put all of your eggs in one basket, and watch the basket.”

Where there are heirs of a family business there is repeated history of them being wasteful ~ "A sparing father and a spending son." See also, Succession planning - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

For individuals Webb says, “spend it all on charity, family, friends and yourself before you arrive at death's door”. Time and again he heard stories of a life time of saving and scrimping only ended up with the refrain, “you can't take it with you.” Then too, when you die there will be capital gains and/or gift/estate taxes that will come out of your estate.

Yes, we know that there are some biblical references stating that you should save and create an estate for your heirs, but we disagree. References to those issues may be found at our related publication, Living In This World© [ http://www.livinginthisworld.com/ ]. It may be that we are not saving our souls? Who is to say, however, perhaps we are right. Perhaps.

Remember too that those who scrimp and save on a small mean salary, saving for a small mean retirement are also in danger of dying with a small mean soul [using one of several definitions for mean ~ this one being “close-fisted; illiberal; penurious; stingy; Synonyms: beggarly; mingy; miserly; scotch; tight].

It seems the perfect solution that we arrive naked, and should leave naked.

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