My grandparents used to save pieces of string. They would fold up tin foil, put it in the drawer to be re-used. They lived very simply and frugally. My grandparents were young adults during the Great Depression. It changed their lives permanently. They were also quite well off financially. Defies logic. 

 

I have recently read that higher income people (over 70K/yr) use coupons frequently and conversely, low income people hardly ever use them. Now I grant you that 70K can hardly be classified as “rich” in today’s world but there is enough of a difference between the two income groups that it too defies logic. You would think low income people would eagerly embrace using coupons to gain any advantage they can, and that people with a comfortable income would not feel the need. But such is not the case.

Like the old mind-twisting question, “which came first, the chicken or the egg”? I wonder, did rich people become rich by using coupons? Or did they start using coupons only after becoming rich? In other words, were they using coupons even when they were poor? Which came first, the coupons or the rich? 

 

There used to be a commercial on TV for Midas Muffler in which a rich miser guy would drive up in his old car, asking about the guarantee, the clerk would say, “What is a man with your money worried about a guarantee for?” To which the old millionaire would reply, “How do you think a man like me got to BE a man like me?”

In my opinion, I think probably it boils down to attitude, a mindset. I think having an attitude of being careful with money, taking advantage of every coupon they can find, starts in people and eventually these type of people become rich. It’s an attitude of not throwing away money, of understanding that the time spent clipping coupons saves way more than it costs. These types of people would rather spend the money on other things that they enjoy. I contend that people who develop the habit of using money wisely are the ones who become rich. The poor stay poor because they continue to make bad choices. No one holds you down, in this country we are free to break out of our circumstances but it takes work, no one is going to hand it to you. The American difference is we have the freedom to move from lower to upper class. Everyone faces prejudices of one sort or another. Feeling sorry for yourself or using an excuse is a cop out. Why allow anyone else’s attitude toward you to hold you back? Why give them that power over you?