It’s not just the vegetarians. Pig products-including, in this case, the piggy bank-have fallen out of favor with all kinds of consumers. Grandparents used to give government bonds, but now gift cards to “Best Buy” seem to be the rage.
It doesn’t help that immediate gratification is part of our culture while also inherently in conflict with the age-old advice about saving for a rainy day.
The piggy bank also is losing out as a simple way to teach early money-management skills: Young people aren’t counting the days until they can break theirs open, but rather attending finance camps and participating in investment clubs.
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This week in our special magazine devoted to personal finance, “The coming credit crunch,” we try to provide helpful analysis and advice to assist readers in that often-elusive hunt for personal financial security.
Deputy Magazine Editor Marshall Froker was determined to offer readers concrete examples and the instructive tales of some local folks who have made what would seem to be, in hindsight, questionable decisions.
“We’re all vulnerable to the financial pressures that can push us into debt,” Marshall explains, “and those pressures, like health-care costs and variable-rate mortgages, are getting worse for many people.”
The problem is not only dealing with, but even bringing up, a subject that can inspire shame and ambivalence.
“People feel guilty about having debt. They want help with it, they feel burdened by it, but they don’t want to talk about it publicly,” explains Gail MarksJarvis, Tribune personal finance columnist. “That’s true even if they are doing the right thing-trying to pay it off so they can s`ave more. As a colleague said, ‘People would rather talk about their sex lives publicly than talk about their debt.'”
Even today, when piggy banks are relics on eBay, we may look back and find that the lessons taught by those ceramic creatures were priceless-and better than a finance camp.
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