The Rich Don't Penny Pinch
seanmcclure.substack.com
The Rich Don't Penny Pinch
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Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch
#2The author and I ascribe different meanings to "penny pinching" ...
Also,
> Imagine you are in your car driving and you notice someone in another car, alone, wearing a mask. This is during the covid pandemic so seeing someone wearing a mask is not overly surprising. But then you stop and think wait a second, this person is alone and wearing a mask. Isn't that odd? In fact it seems downright ridiculous. Why would anyone wear a mask in their car when they are alone?
> ...
> Doesn't it makes more sense to just give yourself a blanket policy that says "I put my mask on whenever I leave the house, and don't take it off until I get home." That beats trying to keep track of who needs me to wear the mask, chances of dropping the mask, dirty hands touching the mask, losing the mask, etc.
> I'm not trying to suggest here whether or not people should wear their masks in the car when by themselves.
This begs for "I Wear My Face Mask in the Car"[1].
A penny pincher is the person who goes to dinner with a dozen people and ends up spending an hour trying to "fairly" divide the check among everyone. Or, the one who says a few days later that you should treat him to lunch because he only had a single glass of wine whereas everyone else had two or some such.
Sure, it is a good idea to follow useful rules of thumb to minimize cognitive load, but it is also important to be able to know when a rule of thumb should be discarded.
Whether the rich are rich because they do this stuff or because we notice it more when a rich person acts this way is not clear.
Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch
#3The world is full of people who take a casual attitude towards their finances. They are the ones we keep reading about when we are told most people can't raise $1000 in an emergency or don't think they will ever be able to afford retirement.
Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch
#4The author and I ascribe different meanings to "penny pinching" ... Also, > Imagine you are in your car driving and you notice someone in another car, alone, wearing a mask. This is during the covid pandemic so seeing someone wearing a mask is not overly surprising. But then you stop and think wait a second, this person is alone and wearing a mask. Isn't that odd? In fact it seems downright ridiculous. Why would anyo…
> A penny pincher is the person who goes to dinner with a dozen people and ends up spending an hour trying to "fairly" divide the check among everyone. Or, the one who says a few days later that you should treat him to lunch because he only had a single glass of wine whereas everyone else had two or some such.
Alcoholic drinks in most popular cities are $10+ per drink, if not $18+ in tier 1 cities. If someone that does not drink alcohol is called a penny pincher for not wanting to spend thousands of pennies for others’ alcohol consumption, then what is a person who expects others to spend thousands of their pennies for their alcohol consumption called?
Same situation with vegetarians going out with meat/fish/poultry eaters, since meat dishes cost a decent amount more.
Very odd to me that expecting someone else to pay vastly more for your consumption is considered OK, effectively ostracizing the budget constrained people in your network from dining out with you.
Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch
#5The converse is not true; you don't get rich by spending freely.
That being said, there's good frugality and bad frugality. Bad frugality is being "penny wise and pound foolish," spending less now in ways that result in spending more later.
Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch
#6Feels like sacrileg already: I don't find the rich fascinating. They are not gods chosen folk, they are not interesting. They are lucky outliers and the equivalent of a PLC controlling a chemical plant, whos pipelines stream finances.
Those i know- sorry in advance - are boring. Obsessed and boring.
Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch
#7The world is full of people who take a casual attitude towards their finances. They are the ones we keep reading about when we are told most people can't raise $1000 in an emergency or don't think they will ever be able to afford retirement.
The world is full of people with a hoarding attitude toward an arbitrarily chosen store of value. They are the ones we keep reading about when we are told poor decisions have collapsed buildings, destroyed ecosystems, caused wars and unnecessary human suffering.
Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch
#8The author and I ascribe different meanings to "penny pinching" ... Also, > Imagine you are in your car driving and you notice someone in another car, alone, wearing a mask. This is during the covid pandemic so seeing someone wearing a mask is not overly surprising. But then you stop and think wait a second, this person is alone and wearing a mask. Isn't that odd? In fact it seems downright ridiculous. Why would anyo…
> A penny pincher is the person who goes to dinner with a dozen people and ends up spending an hour trying to "fairly" divide the check among everyone. Or, the one who says a few days later that you should treat him to lunch because he only had a single glass of wine whereas everyone else had two or some such. Alcoholic drinks in most popular cities are $10+ per drink, if not $18+ in tier 1 cities. If someone that do…
I think it also depends how many times a year you are in this situation. If you go out with big group 5 times a year and end up paying $10 more than you should, you end up down $50/year.
If this is a weekly or daily event, it makes sense to make this more fair.
In my opinion, stressing about anything less than $100/year is penny pinching.
Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A penny pincher is the person who goes to dinner with a dozen people and ends up spending an hour trying to "fairly" divide the check among everyone. Or, the one who says a few days later that you should treat him to lunch because he only had a single glass of wine whereas everyone else had two or some such. Alcoholic drinks in most popular cities are $10+ per drink, if not $18+ in tier 1 cities. If someone that do…
I think it also depends how many times a year you are in this situation. If you go out with big group 5 times a year and end up paying $10 more than you should, you end up down $50/year. If this is a weekly or daily event, it makes sense to make this more fair. In my opinion, stressing about anything less than $100/year is penny pinching.
Of course, but it is never $100 per year.
It is just crazy to me that with all the price increases and increase in income/wealth gap, and increases in variety of diets, that it would still be considered taboo to not want (or even be able to) pay for others’ excess.
I go out of my way to make sure if I am having extra to chip in extra, but I certainly would not look down on anyone that insisted on paying for only what they consumed.
Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch
#10The converse is not true; you don't get rich by spending freely. That being said, there's good frugality and bad frugality. Bad frugality is being "penny wise and pound foolish," spending less now in ways that result in spending more later.
The problem with bad frugality is that it can be really hard to detect - especially when it comes to things that affect your health.
Saving money now on regular checkups, which leads to a health emergency later is an obvious one. But what about spending money on ergonomics, PPE, diet, exercise, etc. It can be hard to quantify the long term risk/benefit.