As a child, we considered our parents to be omnipotent wizards: they took out crispy pieces of paper from their pockets and exchanged them for ice cream, toys and all the blessings of the world. As adults, we are again convinced that our parents really have magic. We, young people, no matter what salary you give us, we are always in short supply. And the “old people” always have a saving stash! And they are not oligarchs at all. How do they do it? Let’s try to learn from valuable experience.
Russians over 50 are children of the USSR. They not only had a Soviet childhood, like the forty-year-olds, they managed to become adults before the collapse of the Soviet Union. These people have gone through such a school of survival that just hold on. Especially if you remember the impoverished timelessness of the nineties.
For our parents, the nineties in Russia is not a fun era of Tamagotchi and candy wrappers from the “Love is…” gum. They had to learn how to get food, clothing, vitality and optimism from literally nothing. Sewing, knitting, repackaging, mending worn-out boots, earning extra money at night, making four full-fledged dishes from one chicken, baking a pastry without eggs – our moms and dads can do anything. Life taught them for a long time to store everything they can, and just in case, do not throw anything away.
Our parents managed to survive when the salary was delayed for six months or given out by the products of enterprises. Therefore, it is not a problem for them to save up a little now, when real, real money regularly appears in their hands. They know how to save for a rainy day just because they saw these dark days with their own eyes.
Many people neglect such an important matter as budget planning. Having received decent money in their hands on payday, many succumb to euphoria and go shopping: we walk, life is good! On this wave, they buy all kinds of king prawns, expensive cognac, designer, but not suitable for the wardrobe, handbags and a lot of unnecessary nonsense, for which there was a promotion in the mall.
Your money must be constantly counted. Not only go to the store full and with a clear shopping list, but constantly recalculate your money after each waste.
Knowing your monthly income, you should schedule the mandatory expenses in advance: payment of utilities, rent of housing (if the apartment is rented), transportation costs, meals, household expenses, payment for kindergarten or clubs for a child. From the remaining money, you can create your own emergency reserve – this is for unforeseen expenses, for example, buying new seasonal shoes or treating a sudden illness. Visualization is very useful: cash out the money, spread it out in front of you and form piles for different expenses.
Since the inhabitants of the village and the suburbs were allowed to freely grow gardens and livestock, only a completely lazy and inactive person can die of hunger. A small excursion into history: in the USSR, for a long time, the personal subsistence economy of citizens was strictly controlled by the state and was limited. In the private gardens of the villagers, each tree was counted, and from the allotment of land and each unit of cattle, the citizen was obliged to hand over part of the natural product to the granaries of the Motherland.
Our own land is a real breadwinner these days. Many older people enjoy farming. What does it mean? That thanks to their work, they are provided with onions, garlic, apples, honey, frozen and dried berries, pickles, preserves for the winter, on which, by the way, more than one generation of Russians has been fed. Breeders of cows, pigs, goats and poultry perform their family’s food program with a bang. The surplus is slowly being sold, and the proceeds are accumulated so that later there will be something to surprise the children for whom their salaries are not enough for anything.
Truly adults, mature people (not according to their passports, but according to their attitude) have one important quality – the absence of unnecessary illusions. This is the best vaccine against spontaneous shopping.
At the age of 18, you can lower half your salary on cosmetics only because the advertising on TV was very convincing, and you were in such a mood. You cannot understand an adult woman with appeals to “pamper yourself”, “live here and now”.
She knows for sure: fashionable eyeshadows and lip glosses do not turn into princesses those who, in principle, have never been and never will be. And no anti-aging cream will give a young fire in the eyes, and beauty and long youth are the result of good genetics, a skilled beautician, as well as discipline, self-restraint and efforts in the form of sports exercises.
When you do not rush to every squeak of a changing fashion and think soberly, a lot of money remains on your hands.
“In 2000, I divorced my husband and was left practically alone with the child. I urgently needed to buy my own home: I could not go with my son to my mother’s one-room apartment. I decided: you can’t give up and stop, otherwise you will get bogged down in this state for many years or for the rest of your life, – says 50-year-old Larissa. – I had money for a one-room apartment, but I set myself a goal – only a two-room apartment, I have a son! I took the missing amount on credit. As a result, about one fifth of my salary remained. And the times were hard, poor – the consequences of the 1998 crisis. I had to save desperately, for example, sometimes I did not even have money for a minibus, and I walked to work on foot through half the city. I bought meat, vegetables and fruits in small quantities only for my son, and she ate the cheapest thing in Russia – bread. As a result, I put on a lot of weight on the buns, and that was a disaster: my wardrobe became too small for me! I had to urgently lose weight, because I had nothing to buy new clothes. It was a difficult experience, but it helped me: now I know that it is quite possible to save and save, even if finances are limited. “
The conclusion is this: whoever knows how to save – in fact, just knows how to set a goal for himself and achieve it.
In all honesty, we admit that a lot of apartments and cars of Russians were bought with the participation of the savings of an even older generation. Yes, pensioners help and will continue to help their children and grandchildren. Someone has veteran pensions and benefits, someone has a large old-age allowance earned in his youth in the northern regions, someone receives good money from the state as a former worker of the home front, someone has the status of having been in the occupation, and so on. The large pension of a grandmother or grandfather often feeds the whole family.
Another point: older people often manage to acquire some assets. For example, a bank account after the sale of the parent’s house, apartments and garages for rent. In the same nineties, when enterprises were turning into joint-stock companies, smart people bought shares, sometimes not even believing that these “pieces of paper” would ever make a profit. Nevertheless, many managed to subsequently sell their shares profitably and put together capital.
What conclusion can be drawn from this young? Try to study the game on the stock exchange, and suddenly you have talent.
Our mothers, fathers, grandparents survived difficult times because they knew how to do a lot with their own hands. Lovers of reading can be recommended as an example of the amazing book by Alexander Chudakov “Haze Lies Down on the Old Steps” (the book received the “Russian Booker” award). It is very interesting to read about how one hardworking exiled family survived the war in the Kazakh backwoods. They did absolutely everything for their life and everyday life and even surprised their neighbors by treating them with sweet tea in times of famine: they managed to evaporate sugar from sugar beets grown in the garden.
All kinds of knowledge, abilities and skills are the most solid capital. This was relevant in the era of the USSR, it is still in price today. Craftswomen sew, knit, prepare mastic cakes, make decorations from polymer clay, and felted from wool. The armored men glue the wallpaper themselves, install the plumbing, lay the tiles, fix their cars, fix the electrical outlets, and so on. Those who do not know how to do all this are forced to pay.
Perhaps we should, whenever possible, take an example from our parents in order to save our money.