Wednesday, February 08, 2006

debt

I do not have meetings until later today so I decided to break routine and go to Bob Evans for breakfast. The "Homestead" with sausage patties, country fried potatoes, two eggs (over easy), and biscuits and sausage gravy did not disappoint. I cannot figure out why this kind of thing hasn't caught on in Europe - I blame the French.

Seriously, the food was wonderful albeit fattening. I engaged in some conversation with the busboy. Ok, bus "man" ... he was easily 55+ years old. A real nice guy but unfortunately feeling a lot of financial pressure. This winter has been particularly hard on him and he has not been using the heat in his home due to the cost. We talked about the condition of the economy and how people seem to feign happiness by purchasing things they really cannot afford. I tried to hide my jewelry and my new Ralph Lauren overcoat.

Last night at TGI Friday's, I was talking to a financial planner about the same sort of thing. He sees people connecting happiness to their possession of material things. Subsequently, debt is increasing in an effort to find happiness - simply because ultimately it cannot be found in things.

Our move to Europe has been good in terms of releasing us from debt. Now I pray that God has changed our hearts and we do not return to our "old nature" when we move back to the US this summer.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I owe I owe I owe So off to work I go... Oh? God needs me to go where? I have too much debt, I can't go. Oh? God wants me to give how much? I have too much debt, I can't do that. (God help us have more sense -not cents- so that we can do more with the cents you have given us!)

Anonymous said...

here's a profound theological comment: "mmm, bob evans..."

ricki said...

No "b:", we cannot start a Bob Evans movement.

I just read an interesting post predicting MacArthur will write another "attack" book. This book will be a continuation of his against those that do not share his mind of Christ. The first being against charismatics (Charismatic Chaos)and the second the seeker movement (Ashamed of the Gospel). The new attack will be against the the emergent church.

Can you imagine if we start a Bob Evans church? The attacks against the biscuit and gravy movement would be endless.

Anonymous said...

I would be interested in any reason you might have pinpointed in why your time n Europe helped to reduce your debt.

Quality vs quantity? pared down expectations? minimalist lifestyle?

ricki said...

Several reasons:

1) once you owe money, it seems that you always owe money. It's "depressing" to think you cannot buy something until you have paid off your debt plus saved enough to cover that new item. Since you already owe X, what is wrong with X+Y ? Net, I always choose to go a little further in debt rather than live without.

2) once you do not owe money, it's simple to adapt a mindset of, "if I have the cash for it then ok. If not, no." It's not a matter of adding a little more debt. Going from zero to debt feels big.

3) I'm living in Europe temporarily. I cannot buy things pretending that I will get long use out of them (electronics and such). I guess this fits the "minimalist" point.

4) It's so easy in the US. I go to Walmart for A and come back with B & C. Here I cannot even find A.

reftagger