"I flipped through catalogs and wondered: What kind of dining set defines me as a person?  Like so many others, I had become a slave to the Ikea nesting instinct."

-Tyler Durden

I love these cartoons demonizing others for your current situation.  Makes you feel warm and fuzzy, right?  This one is especially good because it attacks both of them!  You can blame the rich and the government for your place in life. You can blame racism or your up bringing. But I'm going to tell you, the average American, something that nobody else will. It's your fault!

The reason the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer is because of mathematics.  Let me explain, the rich have assets, which grow.  The poor have to grow their base.  It's a function of saved cash, not class warfare or government policy.  If you want to get rich, you need to save money in order to acquire more cash flow producing assets.  It really is as simple as that, the rest are just details. 

Now be honest with yourselves.  Go stand in front of the mirror and ask yourself truthfully, if the government lowered my taxes and allowed for me to keep more of my money that I earned.  Would I actually keep it or spend it?  Yes, some of you would, but seeing as we already have one of the lowest overall tax rates in the industrialized world and we also have the lowest savings rates of anybody.  I'm guessing you're lying to yourself if you answered 'yes'.  So quit blowing sunshine up your own ass and take control of your situation.    

When I read about the prosperity of early Americans who came here for a better life.  Many leaving government and aristocracy controlled legal systems and land.  After all only 10% of the people in England prior to the birth of the USA owned any land.  Compare that to the ownership rate of 90% in the British controlled new world (eventually the USA and Canada).   

You think things have changed?  You still can't get ahead because 'the man' is keeping you down?  The only thing that is getting in the way is yourself, and your false belief that people care about your outward perception reflected in what you own.

"Baby I think we need a bigger home, all of our things can't fit in this house anymore. We've outgrown it."  Oh you mindless stupid little shit.  You have it completely ass backwards! You have too much stuff!  Garage sale time!

The Chinese live in a dictatorial communistic regime, with an incredibly high income tax rate.  Yet, they're still able to save around 45% of their income.  What's your excuse?

Now on a more personal note.  Crass Cash received his annual bonus today.  While I'm very grateful to my employer for giving me more money in exchange for my labor and increasing skill set, I'm severely fucking pissed that the federal government took over 1/3 of it to fund their little pet projects.  "But, CC they use that money to pay for roads, education, police, and hospitals.  How could you be against that?".  Actually all of that gets paid for with local/state taxes (property and sales tax) and the gas tax, all of which I paid this month.  The overwhelming majority of your tax dollars goes to medicare (Obese white people who drive everywhere), social security (I'll never see any of this), and the military who defends our borders from Canada (USA's Mortal Enemy) and Afghanistan (where are they again?).  With that said, I'm not going to let those asshats in Washington hold me back. 100% of that will go towards investments, so that one day I can structure my income to pay little to no taxes.  See how that works?    

-CC

"Reject the basic assumption of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions."
-Lou (Fight Club)

So you think kids are expensive and they're the reason you can't save money? You have debt because of your kids? You can't save for retirement because of your kids? So let me tell you about Amos...

Amos is an Amish farmer.  He lives a respectable happy life in Lancaster County, PA with his wife and...14 kids.  That's right folks he's got 14 kids! With 14 kids though you'd expect for him to be broke.  Once again you'd be wrong!  Amos who is happily married with 14 kids, also has managed to save over $400,000 so that he can outright buy his own farm.  With 14 kids you're going to need your own farm!

Compare this also with the Duggars who have 20 kids and who also live very comfortably.  They're debt free and make more than enough money through their real estate holdings.  These 2 examples are families where the children have grown to be freakishly (I mean that in a good way) efficient and respectful.  So how did this happen?  How can a mother and father raise a class room full of kids who are not a drain on society and still manage to save a mountain of money?

It boils down to basically this, they are removed from the Kardashian consumerism hype of our modern world.  Cable...HAHA!!  Neither have cable or TVs for that matter.  Not that not having a cable bills means that you can now afford 14-20 kids, but rather it stops exposing your children to constant wants.  People just do not grasp the amount of damage that advertising does to society, especially children.  Advertising needs is a wonderful thing because it enables to you make more informed decisions,  but that is what is rarely advertised.  Besides the internet completely replaces that service now. 

Now there is more to this than just not having a TV in the home.  They waste absolutely nothing, they have hand-me-downs galore, I'm sure they don't take vacations to Disney, and they teach their children from a very young age to respect what they have.  

I want to tell you a quick story about a friend of mine who taught his daughter just such a lesson.  In my friend's house they require their children to do choirs in order to get money for the non-essentials in life.  So his daughter saved diligently for something that she wanted.  They go to the store and get the item.  The problem is that she was $6 short when they rang her up at the register (sales tax is a bitch).  Now my friend could have done the easy thing and given or "loaned" his daughter the money so that she could get it. But he correctly did not. Instead he told her that she needed to save $6 and they'd come back to get it. Well a week later she was disciplined and her goal was accomplished.

This entire scenario taught everybody involved a very important life long financial lesson. Keep up the great work!

-CC