The tragedy of the man not set up for tragedy – that is every man’s tragedy
Posted 06-23-2015 at 01:43 PM by HappyinCali
I recently read this quote in a book called American Pastoral by Philip Roth
"A beautiful wife. A beautiful house. Runs his business like a charm…. This is how successful people live. They’re good citizens. They feel lucky. They feel grateful. God is smiling down on them. There are problems, they adjust. And then everything changes and it becomes impossible. Nothing is smiling down on anybody. And who can adjust then? Here is someone not set up for life’s working out poorly, let alone for the impossible. But who is set up for the impossible that is going to happen? Who is set up for tragedy and the incomprehensibility of suffering? Nobody. The tragedy of the man not set up for tragedy – that is every man’s tragedy.”
These quotes might seem as too deep and jarring to tie to something as mundane as savings, but I think it is a fascinating topic. The essence of the above quote is that man is never prepared for tragedy. We are just not built to contemplate the worst case scenario. Whenever something bad happens to someone else we utter clichés such as “makes you realize how fragile things are” and change nothing about our lives.
Of course lives are hard to change. We are all creatures of habit and until OUR routine is the one that gets shattered by tragedy, we are unlikely to change much. As a result, when tragedy strikes we are utterly unprepared emotionally and unfortunately, financially.
There is not much you can do for emotional preparedness. Tragedy always hits you hard, regardless of mental preparation. But the anguish of an emotional tragedy is only amplified by the difficulties poised by a financial tragedy that is caused by the emotional tragedy. This is one aspect of our lives that we can actually control and it will help us mitigate the damages of the tragedy when it occurs – be financially prepared.
Being financially prepared could come in many shapes and forms – life insurance, unemployment insurance, accidental death or dismemberment insurance etc. It could also come in the form of nice safety cushion of savings.
Most financial literature suggests 6 months of essential expenses being saved – that includes rent/mortgage, car payment, groceries and gas & water. These are the things that you cannot do without. However, I think that’s too low. In today’s economy 6 months might not be enough to find a job if you lose yours. A new job might require relocating to a different city or state. And what if the tragedy is not job loss, but the death of a loved one – funeral costs by themselves could drain you savings cushion. The MEDIAN cost of a funeral with a casket is >$7,000!! http://nfda.org/about-funeral-servic...tatistics.html
So, if 6 months of savings is not enough, how much is enough. I don’t think there is a good answer to that. My answer is the more the better. Having a safety cushion is a state of mind and an attitude towards spending. It doesn’t mean being cheap, or making your life unduly hard – it just means that you pay attention to where your money goes, trying to find cheaper alternatives to daily tasks and rewarding yourself for doing the right thing by putting money in the bank. Let me give you an extremely tiny and mundane example.
On a recent trip, the valet at the hotel charged $40 per day. I thought that was really high. I looked around and literally one block away, I saw paid parking that cost $15 per day. I naturally parked there and saved myself ~$80 over a 3-day period. However, plenty of guests went for the valet. There literally was zero effort associated with parking in the garage and yet so many people chose not to do it. I wasn’t cheap. My quality of life didn’t suffer. I just had common sense and saved almost $100.
Think about how happy you would be if someone walked over and handed you $100 for walking 50 feet. That is exactly what happened in that scenario, yet plenty of people chose not to receive that $100. No wonder the savings rate in America is <6%. Link Given that the median household income is $51,939, a 5.8% savings rate is $2,909. Therefore $100 savings is 3.4% of your annual savings!!! That is insane.
My point is that most of us will experience an expected tragedy in their lives. A lot of times, that tragedy might require you to jump on the plane the next day to fly to a different state. If you are saving $3k per year and pay $800 for next day flight, you have lost 33% of your savings. Going back to our funeral example, a median funeral will cost you 2.5 years of savings if you are making the median household income and saving at the median US savings rate.
These examples tell you that you should be trying to save a lot more.
More savings is always better. There is literally no downside to having savings in the bank and it doesn’t mean you need to live like a pauper to do it. Savings in the bank will make dealing with tragedy immensely easier, because tragedy rarely comes without financial costs. The emotional pain of dealing with the tragedy will be enough. Don’t make it worse by turning it into a personal financial tragedy, as well.
"A beautiful wife. A beautiful house. Runs his business like a charm…. This is how successful people live. They’re good citizens. They feel lucky. They feel grateful. God is smiling down on them. There are problems, they adjust. And then everything changes and it becomes impossible. Nothing is smiling down on anybody. And who can adjust then? Here is someone not set up for life’s working out poorly, let alone for the impossible. But who is set up for the impossible that is going to happen? Who is set up for tragedy and the incomprehensibility of suffering? Nobody. The tragedy of the man not set up for tragedy – that is every man’s tragedy.”
These quotes might seem as too deep and jarring to tie to something as mundane as savings, but I think it is a fascinating topic. The essence of the above quote is that man is never prepared for tragedy. We are just not built to contemplate the worst case scenario. Whenever something bad happens to someone else we utter clichés such as “makes you realize how fragile things are” and change nothing about our lives.
Of course lives are hard to change. We are all creatures of habit and until OUR routine is the one that gets shattered by tragedy, we are unlikely to change much. As a result, when tragedy strikes we are utterly unprepared emotionally and unfortunately, financially.
There is not much you can do for emotional preparedness. Tragedy always hits you hard, regardless of mental preparation. But the anguish of an emotional tragedy is only amplified by the difficulties poised by a financial tragedy that is caused by the emotional tragedy. This is one aspect of our lives that we can actually control and it will help us mitigate the damages of the tragedy when it occurs – be financially prepared.
Being financially prepared could come in many shapes and forms – life insurance, unemployment insurance, accidental death or dismemberment insurance etc. It could also come in the form of nice safety cushion of savings.
Most financial literature suggests 6 months of essential expenses being saved – that includes rent/mortgage, car payment, groceries and gas & water. These are the things that you cannot do without. However, I think that’s too low. In today’s economy 6 months might not be enough to find a job if you lose yours. A new job might require relocating to a different city or state. And what if the tragedy is not job loss, but the death of a loved one – funeral costs by themselves could drain you savings cushion. The MEDIAN cost of a funeral with a casket is >$7,000!! http://nfda.org/about-funeral-servic...tatistics.html
So, if 6 months of savings is not enough, how much is enough. I don’t think there is a good answer to that. My answer is the more the better. Having a safety cushion is a state of mind and an attitude towards spending. It doesn’t mean being cheap, or making your life unduly hard – it just means that you pay attention to where your money goes, trying to find cheaper alternatives to daily tasks and rewarding yourself for doing the right thing by putting money in the bank. Let me give you an extremely tiny and mundane example.
On a recent trip, the valet at the hotel charged $40 per day. I thought that was really high. I looked around and literally one block away, I saw paid parking that cost $15 per day. I naturally parked there and saved myself ~$80 over a 3-day period. However, plenty of guests went for the valet. There literally was zero effort associated with parking in the garage and yet so many people chose not to do it. I wasn’t cheap. My quality of life didn’t suffer. I just had common sense and saved almost $100.
Think about how happy you would be if someone walked over and handed you $100 for walking 50 feet. That is exactly what happened in that scenario, yet plenty of people chose not to receive that $100. No wonder the savings rate in America is <6%. Link Given that the median household income is $51,939, a 5.8% savings rate is $2,909. Therefore $100 savings is 3.4% of your annual savings!!! That is insane.
My point is that most of us will experience an expected tragedy in their lives. A lot of times, that tragedy might require you to jump on the plane the next day to fly to a different state. If you are saving $3k per year and pay $800 for next day flight, you have lost 33% of your savings. Going back to our funeral example, a median funeral will cost you 2.5 years of savings if you are making the median household income and saving at the median US savings rate.
These examples tell you that you should be trying to save a lot more.
More savings is always better. There is literally no downside to having savings in the bank and it doesn’t mean you need to live like a pauper to do it. Savings in the bank will make dealing with tragedy immensely easier, because tragedy rarely comes without financial costs. The emotional pain of dealing with the tragedy will be enough. Don’t make it worse by turning it into a personal financial tragedy, as well.
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