[...] Facing and Fighting Financial Trolls How to deal with the people and thought patterns that stop you from becoming well-off. [...]

Just like an alcoholic in AA, a debt problem can only be cured when someone decides they really want to cure it and are willing to incur the sacrifices to make it happen.

Help from a third party is only effective once you decide to help yourself.

I suppose peoples’ codes of ethics determine the kind of money habits they can adopt – to me, being frugal and conscientious in my spending and building up savings would be practices I would feel comfortable with.

Having money is not a crime, it’s just that one has to be scrupulous about how one accumulates it.

[...] Facing and Fighting Financial Trolls How to deal with the people and thought patterns that stop you from becoming well-off. [...]

An excellent post, reminding us that the greatest obstacle to our goals is often ourselves.

As for the folks who reject a savings mentality, it doesn’t really bother me. I figure that financial Darwinism will eventually take its natural course with such individuals.

Yep, to this guy, saving my fifty dollars each week implied an erosion of my ethics and social conscience. I couldn’t be bothered arguing with such a close-minded and bigoted person.

For me, the external trolls are not naysayers in my attempts to save and be frugal, but rather are people who do not “get” what I’m trying to do. And it’s not like they’re trying to figure me out, either–it’s just that they haven’t put the pieces of my lifestyle together.

One of my friends, for example, eats out a lot. He calls at least a couple of times per week to see if I’d like to go downtown and have sushi, etc. I go once in a while, if the expense fits my budget, but much of time I decline, saying that it would be best if I ate at home, as I’m trying to be careful about money. His response often is something like, “Well, we don’t have to do sushi; we can go for Thai instead.”

I guess some people don’t feel like they’re prosperous unless they’re able to spend their discretionary income. In the case of this friend of mine, there’s a lack of understanding of the future potential of wealth and money saved. In fact, he even has a modest IRA from a previous employer (~10 years ago), but he hasn’t done anything to track this account down and “take possession” of it. It merely exists somewhere. I couldn’t imagine having such a casual attitude toward my earnings!

There’s also seems to be a slight implicit assumption that external trolls are not actually people that you know in the real world. I mean the basic tactic of ignoring is the same but its quite a bit harder, especially if you can only ignore the behaviour not the person.

However, looking back you can see how many of the fears didn’t pan out. Who among us feels pangs of anxiety about Russia leapfrogging us in space exploration with the launching of Sputnik? Back in 1957 many people were anxious and it was reason enough for many to doubt the future of western capitalism, and by extension the free market.