Old-school personal finance

Watch Your Pennies So You Can Build an F.U. Fund

Looking at saving money in an old-school way to give yourself options

Benjamin Franklin has been accredited with many financial and business quotes. One of them was,

Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. — Benjamin Franklin

I’m an old-school kind of guy, raised by parents who were born during The Great Depression and raised through World War 2 and the Korean War. Because of the world's financial state at the time, they were raised to watch their pennies so their dollars could buy them more.

Since my birth in 1966, I’ve lived through 8 recessions according to investopedia.com. I never knew, of course, because my parents knew how to stretch a dollar. Growing up, we didn’t have all the nice things in life, but we had what we needed.

During each of those recessions, there were those who were prepared and those who struggled. I believe, the ones who struggled, were the ones who weren’t watching their pennies. They didn’t have what I call F. U. money set aside for emergencies due to economic downturns, layoffs, or job loss.

So how do I watch my pennies to build a supply of F.U. money?

That’s a great question. The answer is simple, but it sure as hell isn’t easy to implement on a consistent basis. You need to figure out what you really need as opposed to what you want.

Let’s say you stop at Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts every day for a morning cup of coffee. Each coffee could cost between $2.00-$3.00 depending on the size. If you bought one each day, you could be spending between $60 and $90 per month.

You could easily cut that cost by at least half if you bought a travel mug or thermos and make your own coffee at home to take with you. The money you save from that alone you can put into a separate savings account labeled as F.U. money.

The same can be accomplished by preparing your own lunch to take to work with you instead of paying $10.00 or more going out to lunch. Most people work 5 days a week times 4 weeks in a month. That would be 20 lunches at roughly $10.00, equalling roughly $200 a month. Now stretch that out over 12 months. Ouch!

Those are just two examples. Over time, you will be able to pay off your credit cards with the money you saved. Maybe you won’t need to use them as much.

Is this easy to do on a daily basis? No. I won’t lie to you. There will be days when you really want to treat yourself. OK, so treat yourself. Just remember that once that treat is consumed, you need to go back to watching your pennies again.

You can’t live in self-deprivation forever. Sometimes you just have to have something small to make yourself feel better every so often.

The takeaway

Even though Benjamin Franklin wrote most of his quotes 250 years ago or more, the principles still hold true today. The little expenses we don’t think much about on a daily basis add up over time. It’s money we spent in the past that we might need today or tomorrow.

We need to look at what our real needs are as opposed to what our wants are so we can save a few pennies a day that will add up to dollars. Those dollars will eventually add up to an F.U. fund which we can use for emergencies or tide us over during a period when times are tight.

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