Hi, I'm Rick Kahler and thanks for joining me.
Well, why hire it done when you can do it yourself?
This is really a common money belief for frugal people,
who often spend weekends doing home maintenance
and honey-do chores around the house and
their properties. In my case, it's really
haunting the neighborhood with my sprayer
in search of noxious weeds like thistles
and hounds tongue. One of my friends,
a frugal do-it-yourselfer who's now in his 70's,
was heading out of town to visit some friends.
His wife reminded him that the gutters desperately
needed cleaning. He considered delaying his trip,
getting out the ladder, crawling up on the roof,
and perching perilously over the gutters
to sweep the pine needles out with
one hand while supporting his body weight
and maintaining his balance with the other.
Been there, done that.
He thought, "You know maybe, I'll just
ask my wife to call someone to do that,"
and he told her so.
Not eager to see him crawling around on
the roof herself, she quickly agreed.
"Should I run the price by you?"
"No, just go ahead and hire someone,"
and then true to a lifetime of frugality, he added,
"Unless it's exorbitantly expensive?"
"Then what would you like me to do," she asked.
He pondered for a moment, imagining
returning home with the task still facing him.
"On second thought, just go ahead and pay
whatever it costs. At this point in my life,
I have more money than energy."
The late Dick Wagner once asked a group of us,
"What is money?" I answered , "Energy."
Dick responded, "That's a function of money,
not a definition." He went on to explain
that money is a social agreement.
Money is what society and governments say it is.
But still, I rather like the notion of money
functioning as energy. Seeing it this way,
saving money is similar to charging a battery,
where energy is stored until it's needed.
When we're young adults, we generally
have less money but plenty of time and energy
to keep up with home maintenance
and other life chores.
As we have families, start businesses,
care for loved ones, and grow older,
it's normal to have less time and energy
to accomplish those mundane but essential tasks.
If you're in your 20's and start investing routinely
into a 401(k )plan, being able to afford to hire someone
to do home maintenance chores probably is not
one of your goals for the future.
It isn't something a financial advisor is likely
to use as a great motivator to persuade you to save
20% of your income, so you can afford to have
somebody clean out your gutters.
Typically, savings goals are much grander
like becoming financially independent,
buying a second home, or traveling around the world.
Yet in many ways, having money
to take care of everyday responsibilities
is the most important reason to save for retirement.
At some point, as you get older, you will
start running low on your energy.
If you don't have extra cash,
your choices may be limited.
Either you'll be up there on the roof,
risking your health to clean out your gutters yourself,
or you simply won't get it done.
If you do have money saved, you have the
financial energy to replace your decreased
physical energy.
You can tap into the energy you have stored
in the form of money. You can still take care of
all those essential life tasks; you just
do it by writing a check for someone else to do the work.
If you're young and energetic
you might think you're investing to
accumulate the financial means for future world
cruises or a vacation home in the Bahamas.
If you're in your 70's, you may very well
enjoy those rewards.
Or, you might be more grateful to your
younger self because you have the funds to pay
someone to clean out your gutters.
Thanks for joining me.