This is the first of an irregular series. I love to read, especially the classics. From time-to-time I’ll share nuggets of personal finance advice I find buried in the pages of the past.
This month, our book group is reading Betty Smith’s 1943 classic, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The book describes what it’s like to live in poverty, and how that mindset affects a person’s choices. I love it.
In the following excerpt, it’s December 1901 in Brooklyn, New York. Katie Nolan has just given birth to her first child, and is asking her mother for advice. Katie wants a better life for her daughter, Francie. “I do not want this child to grow up just to work hard,” she says. “What must I do, Mother, what must I do to make a different world for her? How do I start?”
“The secret lies in the reading and the writing,” replies her mother, an Austrian immigrant. “Every day you must read one page from some good book to your child…There are two great books. Shakespeare is a great book.” The other is the Protestant Bible.
“And then, what else?” asks Katie.
“Before you die, you must own a bit of land — maybe with a house on it that your children may inherit.”
Katie laughed. “Me own land? A house? We’re lucky if we can pay our rent.”
“Even so.” Mary spoke firmly. “Yet you must do that. For thousands of years, our people have been peasants working the land of others. This was in the old country. Here we do better working with our hands in the factory. There is a part of each day that does not belong to the master but which the worker owns himself. That is good. But to own a bit of land is better; a bit if land that we may hand down to our children…that will raise us up on the face of the earth.”
“How can we ever get to own land? Johnny and I work and we earn so little. Sometimes after the rent is paid and the insurance there is hardly enough left for food. How could we save for land?”
“You must take an empty condensed-milk can and wash it well.”
“A can…?”
“Cut off the top neatly. Cut strips down into the can the length of your finger. Let each strip be so wide.” She measured two inches with her fingers. “Bend the strips backward. The can will look like a clumsy star. Make a slit in the top. Then nail the can, a nail in each strip, in the darkest corner of your closet. Each day put five cents in it. In three years there will be a small fortune, fifty dollars. Take the money and buy a lot in the country. Get the papers that say it is yours. Thus you become a landowner. Once one has owned land, there is no going back to being a serf.”
“Five cents a day. It seems a little. But where is to to come from? We haven’t enough now and with another mouth to feed…”
“You must do it thus: You go to the green grocer’s and ask how much are carrots the bunch. The man will say three cents. Then look about until you see another bunch, not so fresh, not so large. You will say: May I have this damaged bunch for two cents? Speak strongly and it shall be yours for two cents. That is a saved penny that you put in the star bank.
“It is winter, say. You bought a bushel of coal for twenty-five cents. It is cold. You would start a fire in the stove. But wait! Wait one hour more. Suffer the cold for an hour. Put a shawl around you. Say, I am cold because I am saving to buy land. That hour will save you three cents’ worth of coal. That is three cents for the bank.
“When you are alone at night, do not light the lamp. Sit in the darkness and dream a while. Reckon out how much oil you saved and put its value in pennies in the bank. The money will grow. Someday there will be fifty dollars and somewhere on this long island is a piece of land that you may buy for that money.”
“Will it work, this saving?”
“I swear by the Holy Mother it will.”
I’m only a quarter of the way through A Tree Grows in Brooklyn right now. It reminds me a lot of Willa Cather. I have high hopes that the rest of the book will be just as good.
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Awesome, I hope you’ll do this w/ movies, too.
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I like the advice. I decided to scale it up a bit, by asking what would be the amount needed to afford a down payment on a small condo. Say, $10,000. In 3 years, you could have over $10,000 by putting away $10 a day, by doing little things like the mother said. (Maybe not coal and oil lamps, but the principle holds).
Very nice. Thanks for sharing.
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People these days talk about owning a house being a part of the American Dream. But no one is willing to work for it like the mother told the daughter in this passage. Everyone thinks it is something that is owed them, not something that they need to earn. So we have this mortgage crisis with people who did not have the resources to buy a house owning a house and not being able to pay for it. They might have the resources if they trimmed their lifestyle, they might not. But bottom line – the American Dream of owning a home is an opportunity, not a right.
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I love that book.
When I lived in California, I was impressed by how dedicated many immigrants were to “make it” in the United States and ensure that their children could have an easier life than they have had. I think that many immigrants have seen a much harder life that most of us will, and they are willing to make sacrifices that the average American would whine about. When you come from a place where there is no way for a poor person to own a business, get an education, or get a decent job, you understand that America really does provide opportunities for smart people who work hard and make personal sacrifices.
I grew up middle-class in the midwest with all the social pressures about what’s done and what’s “not done”. So, when DH and I say we can’t do something to reach financial independence, we step back and wonder whether an immigrant would be willing to do that to improve their financial security. Usually, the answer is yes, so we think about it a little harder. Sometimes, we think of a variation of the idea that works better for us; other times, we still just don’t want to do it, but we reject a lot fewer workable ideas.
I call it “the spoiled brat factor”.
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I have high hopes that the rest of the book will be just as good.
It absolutely is
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So if owning a bit of land is so important, why does government prohibit ownership of tiny bits of land the poor can afford?
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When you come from a place where there is no way for a poor person to own a business, get an education, or get a decent job, you understand that America really does provide opportunities for smart people who work hard and make personal sacrifices.
Where I work, we have many hard workers, some of whom are smart, but nobody is getting rich!
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I think I’ll be going to the library today. Thanks for the inspiration.
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@Minimum Wage: what personal sacrifices are they making? Are they going back to school, moving to a better job market, living with extended family, pooling resources with friends and relatives and starting a small business? What are you all doing?
Nobody’s talking about “rich” but you.
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She does finally get her land. But I won’t spoil it. I think the passage you quoted has been in the back of my mind, because it is very much how I think. Yet, I haven’t read that book for years. Thanks for the memories! I too own a bit of land – just hope I don’t need to use it soon!
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One of my co-workers is an aspiring artist, he got some sort of award with some money a few years ago. Some of us have a second job.
I can’t afford to go back to school as I have no money and cannot get financial aid.
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I want to start a business selling stuff online. I actually have stuff to sell now, but it’s sitting in a storage unit because my landlord thinks I don’t have room for it here and he made me put it in a storage unit.
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I loved that book so much as a kid, and reading this reminds me that I still do. My copy is tattered and torn and is missing a cover, but reminds me of the joy that reading brought me at that age. Thanks for the good memories.
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Hi!
I’ve been reading your blog religiously for months, but I never felt the need to comment until now. This is one of my favorite books of all time; reading and re-reading it has taught me quite a few life lessons. I am SO happy to see that you dedicated a whole entry to it
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It’s a wonderful, wonderful book. I discovered it in high school and always re-read it when I am doubtful about sticking to my financial plans. They had so much less than I do; it really puts things in perspective.
Thanks for the reminder; I hope you enjoy the rest of it.
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This is my favorite book of all time, and I re-read it at least once a year. I actually just finished reading it again last week.
The rest of the book, if possible, is better than what you’ve read so far. I hope you revisit this issue when Katie does in the story.
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How strange and wonderful that a “finance blog” posted about one of my favorite books of all time! Cool….Recently discovered this site through Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You To Be Rich and found the archived posts really practical.
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Love this. There’s so much about good decisions in literature. Not that I’ve got anyting against PF authors, but I frankly got more about money from Vanity Fair than from any ten books about investing and interest rates.
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That’s what I love about GRS, Christina; it’s more like a “mad tea party,” rather than just info on interests rates and credit scores, etc.
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This book may actually be the first “financial” book I’ve read! It inspired me to pinch pennies and to be grateful for what I have. I always loved the idea of the star can, which I suppose in modern times is equivalent to the high-interest savings account
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This is priceless advice.
I admit that I have never heard of the book, but the words and the setting of this conversation somehow combine well to etch the message deep in my mind.
Thanks for sharing
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This is one of my favorite books! Glad that you highlighted it on your blog.
Thanks!
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Timeless advice. My gas bill is almost 50% lower this month, and it’s due in part to posts like this. The other half of the equation involves layers. LOTS of layers.
I look forward to more irregularity.
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I have never had the pleasure of reading “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” but from your description, I think you would also like “The Glass Castle” which was very humbling for me. It is also about a poverty-stricken family whose children had to learn to survive with no food for a week at times and going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground. Ever since the read, I haven’t wasted a single bit of what I am lucky to have.
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I loved that book; my family were raised on it. Unfortunately, we have also been raised on the economic division of labor: the women pay for all essentials, and men, who after all, don’t *have* to stick around, should be allowed to keep their money and do what they wish with it.
This system seems harder on the men than the women, oddly. But even after losing the love of my life to it, I feel like an extraordinarily manipulative, anti-feminist hussy when I think of one day asking a man to help out with the bills.
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I had heard of the book years ago, there is an old WB cartoon (A Hare Grows in Brooklyn) which stole its title from the book.
Tbat wasn’t the first time WB stole an idea: Sylvester was originally named Thomas!
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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is my favorite book and I read it once a year. Poverty is a theme in all of Betty Smith’s books. Joy in the Morning takes place in Michigan and is about surviving the first year of marriage while having no money and going to college. The main character, Annie, gets excited when she learns that she can save a penny by buying two packs of smokes at a time instead of one. I also love her because she decides to rewrite War and Peace after reading it and finding it too complicated. If you like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, please read Joy in the Morning. It is only about 200 pages.
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This was one of the few books I owned, so I probably read it 50 times. See if you can find the part where Francie gets her coffee every day and doesn’t drink it–just uses it to keep her hands warm. Her mother says everyone needs something to waste.
Also the grocery scene–though I believe there’s some anti-semitism in that one.
Forgive any wrong memories–I haven’t read this book in more than 30 years.
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Dear Minimum Wage, Beginning to think you’re a jokester having fun with this site. Don’t get that feeling about any other posters. WHY IS IT THAT EVERYONE ELSE CAN FIND WAYS TO IMPROVE THEIR FINANCIAL SITUATION BUT YOU CAN ONLY FIND MORE REASONS FOR FAILURE? No matter what the suggestion, you find a way to claim it won’t work. If you’re legitimate, you have a problem and it’s not money, it’s attitude. How is it that so many foreigners, legal and illegal, come here not speaking the language, with a history of poverty, psychological scars from horrible events, AND END UP SUCCESSFUL AND OWNING A HOME AND/OR A BUSINESS IN A MATTER OF YEARS? Yet you continue to fail. Get a grip kid! If you have things in storage YOU’RE PAYING STORAGE RENTAL FEES WHICH DO YOU NO FINANCIAL BENEFIT. Take a few of the things out of storage twice a week, sell them online and empty the storage area. Right away you’re NOT PAYING RENT ON THE STORAGE AND HAVE MONEY FROM WHAT YOU’VE SOLD ONLINE. Or take pictures and measurements at the storage place and go home and list the things on ebay. YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE THEM AT HAND WHEN YOU LIST ON EBAY. I think you’re having us all on and amusing yourself inventing all these pitifutl “why I’ve failed today” tales of woe. I have money. When I walk my dog (adopted from an animal shelter, not bought!) I pick up aluminum soda cans on the street. Also pick up the occasional stay change. The cans are collected, and every few months they are sold for scrap. The money goes into a savings account. When the amount reaches $500. it’s used for a CD. IT’S FREE MONEY AND BENDING OVER TO PICK UP THE CANS OR COINS SAVES ME FROM HAVING TO PAY FOR A GYM MEMBERSHIP. Now either find a positive way to save / earn some money or fess up that you’re a fraud! I say this as a person who sells on ebay regularly. If you don’t have things to sell, you can sell on ebay on commission for others and earn money with no investment. LOADS OS PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO SELL THEIR THINGS ON EBAY. deRuiter
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You know Ive heard about this book but never took the time to look through it, I’ll take a looksee when Im done with the one I have right now. I think books like these often offer wise advice we don’t see today.
It looks great so far!
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@ DeRuiter–Word of advice-don’t. Its best to let others who are so deeply steeped in their own negativity find their own way. It will be of much more value than to have the rest of us beat them over the head with all that we’ve learned. At some point you have to get tired of your situation enough to pull yourself up by your boot straps and make things happen.
MW and I have had this conversation on my site and dare I say he/she is committed their current way of life rather than making a concerted effort to get out of whatever situation they happen to be in…
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ATGIB is a fantastic book that I cannot recommend more. I recommend it to my students (college freshmen) and I can’t wait for your post where you declare how much you loved this book.
Pace yourself. When it’s over, you’re quite sad.
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One of my favorite books — my book club also read it.
I think the lesson that you always set aside savings no matter how much or how little you make is an important one.
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wow. I was just looking for a Sunday afternoon book and this certainly caught the imagination.
in the interest of application, I’m having trouble wrapping my head around the actual star bank.(I have a dark closet; the story is sweet; I find at least 5 cents a day on the street…)
any one handy ever made one?
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This is such a fantastic book. I had many of the same thoughts as you about the lessons in the book and the economic realities that the family faced. There are many more insights to be had throughout the book. Great post.
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I read that book when I was about 10 and still feel myself drawn to it. I probably re-read it every year and get something new from it each time. Such an amazing, captivating story.
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GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’d love to take a few things out of the storage unit and sell them but the storage unit is located in a place I cannot get to.
More specifically, you have to go down a steep hill to get there and I have a balance problem and cannot negotiate steep downgrades.
I also pick up aluminum cans, pop cans are worth a 5-cent deposit here. There have been times when I lived on fumes and collecting returnables provided food money. (Boxed mac-and-cheese, but it was food.)
Now if I had the money I would hire someone with a truck and move everything from that storage unit to one I could get to. (It would take at least three trips with a pickup.)
I don’t have a camera so I cannot take pictures.
Obviously I have a “startup capital” problem. If I had the money I could move the stuff to another place. If I had the money I could rent a normal-sized apartment where I could keep the stuff at home and avoid paying for the storage unit.
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@Minimum Wage: Do you have any friends or trusted acquaintances who have a truck, or would invest a few dollars, or would take a share of the profits for helping you access your stuff on a regular basis? If you don’t have any people you can turn to or hate to ask for help, your “personal sacrifice” in this situation might involve moving way out of your comfort zone to make some new personal connections.
One of the other qualities of successful immigrants (and other successful people I know) is the ability to work with other people to move toward a goal. I’m not great at this part either, but I’m working on it.
(If I’m feeding a troll, oh, well. Hey, I was happy to hear that s/he is trying to do something. It’s a nice change from the passive whining. Obstacles happen. It’s what happens after life craps on your plans that matters.)
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What a great post idea for making a personal finance blog a tad bit more personal. I read this book a long time ago and loved it but wouldn’t have ever thought about it in the personal finance sense. I’m sure your readers (myself included) are going to start noticing more and more mentions of finance topics in the things that they read now. Definitely keep this up! Hope you enjoy the rest of the book.
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@Laura H.: In Islam, when a couple marries, the husband is obligated to pay a dowry directly to the wife. The amount is not set in stone; they agree on it in the marriage contract. That dowry is the wife’s to do with what she wishes. Except possibly in the case of the wife’s adultery, she can also keep it upon divorce.
Additionally, the wife is permitted to work outside the home as long as her primary wife-and-mother duties are met. Whatever she keeps is hers to do with whatever she wishes. The husband’s income, however, must first go to support the family, including the wife. Sort of the opposite of what you’ve described.
Of course, there is compensation in the inheritance laws which state that if a parent dies, the sons get twice what the daughters get.
I’m not Muslim but I thought that was kind of interesting.
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As for savings I was never a regular saver, but I did what I thought I could when I thought I could do it. For instance it was not unusual for me to arrange for a set amount of my paycheck to go into a savings account. The account was in another state (I’d had it since high school) where I could not touch it for frivolous reasons, but if we had an emergency, I could call home and ask for it to be sent to me.
I managed to amass over $2000 that way before my husband got mad and demanded that I put some of it towards our bills. I regret ever telling him about the account and IF I ever get married again I will not be giving my husband access to my bank accounts. I would be happy to open a joint account with him to pool money to make sure the bills were paid but he doesn’t get a dime of what’s mine otherwise. I learned my lesson.
Nowadays I’m starting over with not-a-lot and have worked out a budget that I think I’ll be able to follow closely starting next month. It’s going to involve savings in some form or fashion. I’m long past due to have some kind of emergency savings in place again. Like Minimum Wage I don’t make a lot, but I’m willing to use the resources I do have.
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to minimum wage, I think that you are entirely missing the point……. anyways everyone has a story, myself being a single mother making $9 an hour at the time was able to buy a house so I was able to shelter my daughter and I and also have food on the table. And guess what? I was new to the area and did not know a soul. Be kind and caring to people and good things will come in return, like friendships and people who will be willing to let you borrow thier vehicle etc……… As for my house it was perfect for my daughter and I ( very small, I live within my means ), also I had to sacrafice with not having cable televsion, not having access to the INTERNET ( I would go to the liabrary ), also lots of other things !!! And Guess what? Time went on and I am happily married living in a different house with my family and Renting out my first little house that I ever bought making a net profit on everymonth and hope to one day make a profit when I sell it. So that is part of my story.. This site is about learning from each other not being negative. Mayby you should start by canceling your internet to save money.
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A lot of us are doing this very thing… whether it be for a house, for retirement, or whatever goals we have.
Piece by piece.
Step by step.
It isn’t pretty, but we get there.
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Excuse me? How do you think I find job and housing leads? I should give up that to save $9.95 a month?
I don’t have cable or satellite or even a television, I don’t have a VCR or DVD or an iPod or an XBOX or a Wii or air conditioning.
My cheap old PC doesn’t even have sound. Sheesh.
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[...] think the answer would be a little of living as a warrior, a little of living life as Katie and a little of back to the farm kind of [...]
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To minimum wage, yes you should give up the $9.95 fee, buy a newspaper. Also I have 2 childeren and do not have an XBOX or Wii, I think mayby you are confusing wants from needs.
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I think Minimum Wage is either a troll or the whiniest person, ever. No cable or satellite? Not even an XBOX or a Wii? Aw, that is the saddest thing I’ve ever heard!
If you are legit, why do you bother coming on these sites, when clearly nothing anyone can suggest will ever work for your situation? Sounds like there’s no possible way to make any changes, so I guess you’ve got it all figured out. Sounds like most of us are tired of reading your posts, anyway.
And, to get on topic, this books sounds wonderful, and I’m going to Half Price to try to find a copy. I have a hard time denying myself things that I think I need. I try to stop, take a step back, and evaluate whether I really need something, but I don’t always do this. I think I usually know the answer, and I don’t like it, so I buy on impulse and feel guilty later, but I never feel guilty enough to return what I’ve bought. I’m trying to detach myself from material wants more. I try to think “Okay, so you buy these shoes you think you HAVE to have, and how has your life improved? Are you trying to impress someone or be someone else? Are they going to change your life somehow?”
I’m always going to love things I don’t need, but I’d like to get a handle on it and set a budget and STICK to it. I think a shift in my own attitude will make me happier than if I just deny myself outright, without coming to terms with the root of it.
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ATGIB is one of all time favorite books! The Nolans *do* get their land, but in it is in an unexpected way. I don’t want to spoil it either. Let’s just say they don’t build a house on it. However, Francie learns how to strive for something and carries that lesson with her into (young) adulthood. It’s a great book.
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How appropriate! My book club is reading this book this month too. Okay– now I’m going to read your post, I was just struck by the coincidence.
Hydes
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i liked the title, and your review makes me want to read it now.
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