I have a dear friend who chose never to get education past high school, and who has worked in progressively more responsible but ultimately not high-income jobs for a long and satisfying career. Yet he’s never faced the challenges that people who make a multiple of his income face. What is his secret? Thrift. Common sense. He lives in a modest but very nice rental, he avoids long-term credit card debt like the plague (using cards only a conveniences to be paid off each month), and he chooses pleasures which are affordable and easily manageable within his means. He saves, maintaining a short-term reserve and investing long term for retirement.

I knew of another couple once, both highly educated professionals, who lived in a home that might have been from the Great Gatsby. They were bright, capable people–but when an economic set-back beset them, their safety net was not just frayed, but missing. I learned a confirmation of an important lesson from their misfortune–one should always live within–and if possible, below, one’s means.

I agree with the comments in the podcast that it is the “love of money” that is the root of all evil rather than money itself–and it is possible to imagine an idolatry of miserly living.
Yet the idea that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven illustrates a lesson about how we live with money.

I work as a commercial litigation attorney, who has represented both debtors and creditors. One thing that strikes me, always, is when I meet someone who has been defrauded into making an unwise investment. So often the investment promoter seeks to appeal to a shared religious heritage–and public prayer with relative strangers perhaps occurs no place more often than among senior citizens being asked to pray with those who wish to defraud them of their money.

This podcast helps avoid “ceding the field” to those who view religion as the ultimate “get acquainted and get rich” scheme. People of faith and good will share a common goal in material life–to live so as to enable ourselves to pursue
our individual callings. We forget what a precious gift we have in lands of plenty to pursue these goals. When we view money as one part of our integrated lives–lives we wish to live with meaning, according to a Purpose–then we cannot afford to leave money matters to “wiser minds”, whether on Wall Street or elsewhere.

I love the charity Kiva, a micro-lending charity. One lends 25 dollars to help fund a loan made by many to a third world business owner. A loan of as little as five hundred dollars can make such a difference. We forget how in 3/4 of the world, avoidance of want is not possible. In our 1/4 of the world, striking a balance should be not only a hope, but a reality.

I liked very much the frank, down-to-earth approach of your guests, and the discussion altogether. Thank you, also, for including my music here, as I release music for just such purposes.

In addition to Hulu, I suggest that the creative commons music culture gives one the chance to obtain free music to download, whether from jamendo.com, any of hundreds of netlabels, from ccmixter.org or elsewhere, as but the tip of an iceberg of creative sharing now being pursued by those who think that making money has ruled the arts a wee bit long.

Such a long comment–perhaps I should close and say “great show!”.