Pluggers by Rick McKee for March 05, 2022

oh, Benjamin Franklin, you never let us down

Poor Boo Boo look sick. Just look at his scrawny neck. Now look Boo Boo, don’t depend on allowances, you should learns to steals the foods.

Wow. Two whole dollars. I think we’ve figured out why so many young Pluggers turn to dealing meth.

At that age I bought comic books with mine. Are they even sold in drugstores any more?

Yes tis important to save for that rainy day … when you can’t make hay ;-)

Here’s a great, true, penny-earned story: Stop me if you’ve heard it before. My best friend was a great saver (much easier if you remained unmarried until you’re forty). A great Ferrari fan, and skilled shopper, he eventually acquired a pair of used ones, and was displaying them both at an auto show when a kid asked him, “How did you ever save enough money to buy two Ferraris?” He replied, “When you see a penny on the ground, do you pick it up?” When the kid gave a negative reply, my friend closed with, “Well, I do!”

I never got an “allowance.” There were always jobs to be had around the house and the neighborhood. No one told me how to spend my money. Didn’t spend it on comics. The corner store guy would let me read them in the store in exchange for stocking in and removing magazines twice a week.

What was an ‘allowance’. I was lucky (! ! ! ! ) to get a dollar after I mowed the lawn and took out the garbage for a whole money let alone getting something regular ! ! ! !

I haven’t seen $2 bills since I moved away from my hometown (which had an international thoroughbred horse racing track).

I still hear my grandmother’s voice when seeing a penny (or any coin) on the ground. “See a penny, pick it up…”

Two bucks? Comic books run $3-5 and graphic novels can go as high as $25.

I invest my pennies…not save them

Jan 8, 2012 in Orlando - a 1793 Philadelphia mint one-cent sold for $1.38 Million.

Actually a penny saved is about 1.2 Pennie’s earned, depending on your tax bracket and state.

Now there is a plugger that has stayed in the past.. big time. A $2.00 (monthly) allowance probably goes back to the early 60’s

That cliche was very true back in the day when I was little as that’s about all my savings account earned each month. Today not so much as my $100K emergency savings account only earns 86 cents a month.

Think of it as earning a dollar a minute.

Ben Franklin, my gr-gr-gr-gr uncle! I can save a penny too, it’s the big stuff that’s harder!

I like Julius’ advice to young Chris Rock on Everybody Hates Chris…“I was 20 before I had $30, and I still have $8 of it left.”

Bad advice with 7% inflation and bank accounts paying .01% interest you are losing money every month.

And with those, you can buy two thoughts!

When I was in kindergarten I started getting a penny a week allowance. I could keep it and spend it (a penny actually bought things then) or I could deposit in my savings account at the “bank of mom” – with passbook record of my deposits into a lunch box. Mostly I did the latter. (Have I mentioned that both my parents were accountants.)

I continued depositing most of allowance and gifts that were cash into the lunch box. Which led to me opening a real savings account as soon as I could – I would ride my bicycle into the business area of our community planning to buy “something” with the money I had – but would instead end up depositing in my savings account. Most of my salary while working when in college and then after joined it. So when I grew up and we were getting married we had a nice little sum set by for a house.

I was not paid for working around the house. My parents taught me that in a family everyone does what they suppose to and what they can do and everyone in the family is entitled to bit of the money the family has (my allowance). My mom later told me that they given my allowance this way so it was not a question of “well I don’t want the money so I won’t do this or that” – I had to do the this or that completely separate from the question of getting my allowance. (I guess they knew my personality well.) It did not occur to me until I was grown and out of the house how communist that was.