Dear LPG, 

I am lucky enough to have quite a few friends and acquaintances, and now that we are all allowed out and about again, I find it interesting that, when you get a few of them involved in a casual chat, one of the subjects tackled is bound to have a financial flavour.  

It is no secret that when it comes to things that are rising, the cost of our utility bills and other very basic commodities are on the up but, for so many, the rising prices are yet another reason that helps them to legitimise their rationale when it comes to pleading poverty.   It may well be something that we men think about more readily than the ladies but I find that, while many of my friends spend a lot of time during such conversations in a sort of verbal competition where each will imply that they have more financial problems than the others, they will also hint about their plans for the money that they do have.  I have to say that it is often those plans which contribute to my assessment that they are not as poor as they think.

Over the years I have read stories of individuals who have lived like relative paupers, even accepting charity from others only to die leaving fortunes.  We older people are also often more ready to give money to official charities from month to month and I am sure that I am not the only reader who has given money to an individual they know personally because they felt they were helping a friend in need, only to experience that feeling of being conned because the recipient of their gift turned out to be wealthier than they themselves. I would also point out that I gave because I genuinely felt the money was needed having assessed what was said and the habits and visual state of the person concerned. 

This leaves me wondering what such people are really saving all their money for.  Life Insurance advertising often points to the importance of leaving money for your children, but by the time we get to a ripe old age, most of us will also be telling stories of how well they are doing.  Our fifty-something year old children are more likely to have learned to fend for themselves and, provided you have made a will, they and their children, will get whatever you leave behind. I feel it important to spend your money while you have the opportunity and if you plan to spend some of it on them, at least work within a budget that includes your own wellbeing.

I find myself asking why anyone would deprive themselves of a healthy lifestyle and comfort just to amass money, and then die, because no amount of money in the world is ever going to be able to save them.  

Not all misers are mean and selfish users.  Sadly, many genuinely believe that they are poor.  I know a few.

Rudy Morgan