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Friday, September 30, 2011

The Way We Look at Obligations

I grew up in a family that believes in being debt-free. I never made a habit of buying nice things - my nice stuff always came from a very generous aunt. My dad inculcated very well his own sentiments about materialism, also his principles about owing money. He grew up dirt poor - he’s a baby boomer and the Philippines was still reeling from the effects of the Japanese occupation and World War II when he was born. His father, who happened to be the spoiled baby and, at that time, only boy (his two older brothers had died in the war) of a well-to-do family, abandoned his literal child-wife (my grandma is only 15 years older than my dad) and their three children to portray the token scumbucket you always find in this kind of stories. Anyway, young and desperately poor though she may have been, my grandmother had principles. First, she wasn’t going to stay in a marriage with a philandering husband, so she left his house (to the vengeful wrath of all her in-laws). Second, she always paid her debts as soon as possible. Her loans never lingered. Her family would go hungry, but she dealt with her obligations. That’s something that stuck with my dad. You can probably understand why a couple of generations later, I ended up very leery of credit cards, not getting any until they were offered to me free. I guess people have varying values and philosophies about these things depending on their own experiences and background.

2 comments:

Sharkbytes (TM) said...

OK- I know you have to write to earn money, but where are more BABY PICTURES!?

spinninglovelydays said...

lol I'll upload some as soon as I figure out the bluetooth thing...