Silence and Noise by Ivan Richmond

Author:Ivan Richmond
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria

PERSONAL FINANCE AND COMMUNAL LIFE

Looking back on my naïveté with regard to the amount of money we received as a family at Green Gulch, and my inability to imagine anyone’s earning more than a thousand dollars a month, I realize how poorly I was prepared by our communal lifestyle for making my way on the Outside. One important and practical skill I’d imagine most people in the Outside World have learned by the time they reach adulthood is how to manage personal finances. And, while I’m aware that, even in the Outside World, not everyone is a Wall Street wizard, it seems reasonable to assume that any kid who’d grown up hearing his parents discuss the rise and fall of the stock market, whose family owned or rented a home or were concerned with paying their monthly bills, would acquire some basic knowledge of day-to-day money management.

At Green Gulch, however, having a knowledge of personal finance was not considered important. At a practical level, because we were all provided with a roof over our heads, food, and a living allowance, no one had to worry about paying off a mortgage, coming up with rent money, or even earning a living. And, on an idealistic level, most members of the community looked upon any kind of interest in the stock market or financial investment as a form of materialism. They seemed to think that anyone who spent too much time thinking about money must not be spending enough time becoming enlightened.

So, I was raised to believe that understanding personal finance was not only unimportant but also materialistic. And, even after my family left Green Gulch, my parents didn’t seem to think it was important to teach me very much about handling money. Of course, they had to take care of their own finances. In fact, by 1988, just before I started my freshman year in high school, they bought the house in Tam Valley where they still live. But, despite their home-ownership, they still maintained that, in the overall scheme of things, finance was not very important and materialism was unenlightened.

Recently, however, I’ve come to realize that understanding personal finance is important. For example, I’d like to buy a house someday, and that will mean getting a bank loan and paying off a mortgage. I’ve also learned the importance of investing for my future and thinking now about the security of my later years. But I’ve had to learn practically everything I know about personal finance on my own.

For me, the question of how to deal with money is part of the conflict between materialism and nonmaterialism. If I get too absorbed in money, the stock market, and accumulating wealth, is it possible that I’ll lose sight of the nonmaterial things I consider more important? To me, life should be about spiritual growth and caring for the welfare of others, but I realize that if I am to live in a world based on a free-market economy, I’m also going to have to pay at least some attention to securing my own position in that world.

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