I expected that to be obvious but this is the first comment which is suggesting it. Which probably means it can’t be entirely a joke.

There is at least one serious thought in the post - I think people should concentrate more on providing value than on frugality.

“the blogs” don’t tell you to live like a hobo, they do tell you to be conscious of your spending and not going to the movies and not eating out are good life strategies, not just a way to save money

I sincerely hope you’re kidding. Pushing consumerism on people is pretty disgusting. Living within their means and not defaulting on debt shouldn’t be cause to make someone feel guilty. It was a lack of personal and corporate responsibility that caused the credit crunch, and a shark investor should be good enough at fiscal math to see that obvious.

I hope you are kidding. Otherwise I feel quite sorry for you.

Then when things went south (i.e. when gas and other prices went up or their hours were cut at work or they lost their job or they had medical bills to pay), they couldn’t handle the bills anymore and they didn’t have an emergency fund to sustain them through troubled times. So, they went into bankruptcy and/or foreclosure.

Foreclosures put a strain on the banks and investors, and flooded the market with cheap houses, lowering the value of other homes for sale and hurting the equity of other homes. People who needed to sell their homes couldn’t.

Bankruptcy also hurt the businesses that they owed money to — businesses that then decided that they were going to be stingier with credit, making it harder for other businesses to take out loans to pay their workers before profits started rolling in. So they fired more people and the cycle continued.

Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Frugal had an emergency fund because they spent within their means. When Mr. Frugal lost his job, they were able to weather the storm until he found another one. They tightened their purse strings a little until he had a new job lined up, but overall their spending was steady because they were used to counting every penny.

In fact, they might have even spent a little bit more than usual, taking advantage of genuine bargains and putting some money into the stock market knowing that by the time they need that money again the market will have recovered and they’ll have made more money.

If I save and put money into a 100k CD, my bank can then lend that money out to another person which is willing to take more risk than me. That risk grows the economy and creates opportunity.

If I send that $100k to vanguard or T rowe price, that broker will invest the money into a company and that company can choose how to use my 100k to further expand its business to
a) make them more money
which
b) eventually makes me more money