Just a Quiet Friday

[pshaw_raven]

 I'm taking Sheba to the vet this morning for her yearly shots. After this, I think she won't need to go back for three years for boosters. We got the carrier out a couple of days ago and just put it in the kitchen like it's no big deal, and we can get her to go into it with treats. This is no guarantee she won't turn into Buzzsaw Cat when it's time to crate her up to go, but it might work! Sheba can be very dissuasive when she wants to, and the normal logic of "two adult humans vs. seven pound cat" falls apart when you're trying to handle something that's like a ball of angry razor blades.

So, Suze Orman. Yeah. I won't bother linking the tweet or anything but she, in her infinite wisdom, has said that the problem is that people spend too much money on coffee. And if you'd just put all that in an IRA (I assume she means a Roth IRA) in forty years you'd have a million dollars! Again, instead of looking at the corporate and governmental entities that got us into this position, let's blame individuals. Could people be spending less and behaving more frugally with their money? Yes, but that isn't the point. The point is that shaming someone for wanting the bright spot of joy in their otherwise depressing grind of a day slogging away at dead end jobs on a doomed planet is a shitty, stupid thing to do, and it's missing the target entirely.

I put a cat towel in the carrier ahead of time, since Sheba was sleeping in another room. And now Nana is in the crate napping on the towel. I wonder what the vet would say if I showed up with two cats. "Nana doesn't have an appointment, she just wanted to come along for the ride." 

Don't get too comfortable in that box, Nana - you're next. I have a plan to get the rest of the cats in, up to date on their shots and such, by the end of the year. Feisal will be easy to take. Crowley maybe not so much, but he at least likes to ride in the car. 

Comments

[cdayzee]

I'm not a fan of Suze Orman. She gives off too much of a holier-than-thou vibe & we're all just annoying insects under her feet.

Ah, cats in crates going to the vet - or anywhere else for that matter lol. Fun times, fun times :P

[pshaw_raven]

I also recently learned that Suze apparently received some large interest-free loans from friends, and at one point started a debit or credit card service aimed at lower-income people that had so many hidden fees attached that it was shut down.

[rebeccarobota]

Yeah, I've been trying to reduce my spending on groceries and restaurants (mostly groceries - I buy fancy organic stuff), but the honest truth is that the extra money would be go toward replenishing my emergency fund, not toward retirement. And my food dollars are helping small farmers and food coop employees possibly retire someday so it seems like a bit of a zero sum game.

[pshaw_raven]

I feel like a lot of financial advice we hear is based on both the idea of a zero sum game, and the idea of infinite growth. It's almost like the idea of living simply for its own sake and not to save up millions of dollars for retiring on is anathema.
I'm all for saving money where I can but there are some things that I do splurge on or that might be considered wasteful, but they make me happy. Apparently we're not supposed to be happy?

[dorchadas]

I especially like how in her perfect world all the coffee shops would go out of business, displacing a bunch of employees and people who use them to work during the day.

But as you say, the real problem is the fixation on the idea that anyone who isn't an enlightened ascetic deserves any money-related bad thing that happens to them.

[xoxomarina]

A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow.

I'm all for saving, even for retirement, but tomorrow's not guaranteed. So if you want that cup of coffee or that avocado toast, buy it today while you still can. Because if you wait to be rich 40 years from now, you'll be sorely disappointed (and resentful).