Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Sunday, April 14. 2013

Rich Habits

I heard this fellow Tom Corley interviewed on the radio last week. He studies the life habits of prosperous people compared to less prosperous people.


He said nothing surprising. For a few examples, he said the prosperous tend to delay gratification, exercise, set life goals, make life plans, volunteer, severely restrict their kids' TV and computer time, set examples of hard work and self-discipline for their kids, to be constructive with their time, and to be frugal except in matters of health and charity.


Sounds old-fashioned, doesn't it? Socio-cultural-character tendencies. These things have not made me rich, but they have made my life better. People tease me about my frugality, but I am never frugal about truly life-enriching things and I hate being slothful. God did not make me to sit on my butt.

Posted by Bird Dog in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 12:10 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

My dad works at 72. Construction supervisor. Wears a yellow hard hat. Not rich by any means, but probably could afford to retire to a trailer in Florida if he wanted to. Says he works so he has money to give to church and charity.

He'll never quit.
#1 The NJ on 2013-04-14 13:18 (Reply)
Precisely. And these people shouldn't be allowed to hide money in retirement accounts, at least not a lot, when there are others who could use that money. To stimulate the economy by consumerist purchasing, of course.

Besides there is such a thing as church and state, and those characteristics sound a whole lot like what used to be heard in Christian churches.
#2 JKB on 2013-04-14 13:22 (Reply)
Depends on what you mean by 'slothful' I suppose. My grandfather used to say he was the best farmer in the world because he was the laziest farmer who made a living at it. He really meant being efficient. There is always something to do on a farm.
#3 JorgXMcKie on 2013-04-14 17:06 (Reply)
Is delaying gratification taught, or inherited? That might be a more interesting study than the heritability of IQ.
#4 Assistant VIllage Idiot (Link) on 2013-04-14 17:36 (Reply)
It's learned. Easy to learn.
#4.1 bd on 2013-04-15 16:14 (Reply)
you know birddog....I doubt any dog with intelligence would hunt beside you....
#5 brobro on 2013-04-14 17:40 (Reply)
"God did not make me to sit on my butt."

But he did give you a butt. Much like the Parable of the Talents, wouldn't it be a sin not to use it?
#6 guy on 2013-04-15 15:18 (Reply)
Re second paragraph. I agree: Y, Y, Y, Y, Y, Y, Y, Y, and Y....which is why my wife and I are extremely comfortable in our retirement and, having sacrificed nothing of importance during our working years, can enjoy our annual vacations in exotic places around the globe. We never had huge salaries, but we lived well while keeping our spending within our means...and I'm looking at you Barack Obama, as I type that.
#7 Agent Cooper on 2013-04-15 19:19 (Reply)
This raises an interesting which-came-first question. Do people get rich because they have more patience, or do rich people, who generally have whatever they need and thus avoid a lot of stress, find it easier to be patient?
#8 jdgalt on 2013-04-16 22:50 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.