Nomad News-Vol.3-No.63

INTEREST-FREE LIVING: In a previous Nomad News, I mentioned I Would send along some Suggestions, aimed primarily at the yonger generations, on how they could plan ahead and buy nearly anything they wanted, with the exception of a car and a home, without paying any interest, so, here goes: When we moved from Philadelphia to New Jersey, the cost of heat and electricity increaxed dramatically. What to do? I purchased enough stock in Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G) so that the dividend paid for the two utilities. They still do. We now pay the heat and electricity bills with our credit card and receive Reward Points, that we can accumulate and purchase something for free, like in FREE. On the subject of credit cards, if you don't pay off the balance every month, tear up the card. If you are paying credit card interest you are laying a trap for future upward mobility and happiness. I'm 95 years old and have been in debt only one time (see below). Pay your bills promptly. That is why, on my last check, our credit score was 806. Open your Home Bank. You need to accumulate a little reserve first. It's called saving. You might want to keep your reserve in a safe stock fund where it collects interest and is readily available. Now you are your own banker. When you decide to buy a new TV, you go to the Home Bank and borrow the money, paying it back on a desciplined schedule, interest free. BE ON the lookout for opportunities. Around 1960 I purchased a property in Barnegat Light NJ, for $16,000. Less than twenty years later, I sold it for $91,000 (Today, the land is worth a million or more) I didn't rush to Atlantic City and give the cash to Donald Trump. There were rumors in the market that something was happening at Nabisco Foods and Campbell Soup. Nabisco was one of my clients so I went with them and purchased 1000 shares of stock at around $41.00. A year later, Nabisco and Standard Brands merged and the merger price of the stock was $83.00. I'm not citing this to boast or to create an impression I was some sort of a market wizard. I wasn't. I just saw the opportunity and took advantage of it. IN 1939 I was earning $20.00 a week and giving half of it to my mother. This is something young people who are still living with their parents, should be doing today. I borrowed $100.00 from a shyster loan company, under threat of getting my legs broken, to buy a one-sixth interest in a J-2 Piper Cub airplane. I had no idea what the interest was. Usurious for sure. I had no idea how I was going to repay this but I had to have that ownership in that airplane. I skimpped and saved enough to make the payments on time and saved my legs. That taught me my lesson about not paying interest. UNSOLICITED ADVISE: Be cautious when offered unsolicited advise. My philosophy has always been: I seldom listen to unsolicited advise. Never take it. THE FOLLOWING episode may not be of help to you but, I think it is apropos our discussion My first job was with the Philadelphia Record, as I have mentioned before. A kid in the Detail Department named Bookie Yarrow, started a Shyster's Club. Six or seven of us kids banked fifty-cents each Friday with Bookie, who loaned the money at an interest rate of five-cents per day per dollar. Usurious wasn't even the name for that. Newspaper reporters were notorious for being broke all the time, so they were our best custoners. There was never a cent in the bank. We split our dividends on June 1 and December 1. The payout was always about $50.00 each for $13.00 banked. That's how you make money but I wouldn't advise it today. FINAL WORDS: No matter how good, or how solid you think your job is, it is'nt. The only security you will have is what you make for yourself. Always have a Plan A, and, if possible a Plan B to move into if the hammer comes down. Also, work to have enough reserve assets (this can be in conjunction with your Home Bank) so you can survive for a year at your present standard of living. Don't say that this is impossible. You will not be able to accomplish this with your entry level job but, as you move up the ladder, you can accomplish it before you retire. I SUPPOSE this could be summed up with a few words: discipline, common sense, and independence. If you don't acquire these three qualities, you are not going to have the fun life that I have enjoyed. You will be mired in a sinkhole of dependency from which there is no escape. Only YOU can acquire these qualities and, they start with common sense. Too bad they have erased common sense from the curricula (or is it curriculum) in the government schools. We will part with this Irish saying: "Live a long time without getting old".