Saving Like Robinson Crusoe

Being a former English lit major does stuff to you. For instance, this article arguing for following the budget -- and actions -- of Daniel Defoe's island castaway, Robinson Crusoe:

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/2007/12/the-economics-of-robinson-crusoe.html

Poor old Robinson was marooned in the 1600s. (Based on a true-life incident, by the way...and his island still exists. Dave knew of it in his Navy days.) The novel was published in 1719. And if Mr. Retirement Extreme had bothered to read the book before he started yammering on about it, we wouldn't have all this stuff about berries! In fact, Crusoe lived mostly on dairy products (goat), limes and other tropical fruit, and goat meat, based on his journal.

There. Whew. I feel much better.

Having said that, the author of the above post does have some good points. And there are some financial lessons we can learn from Mr. C & his buddy, Friday:

*Make do with what you have. Crusoe swam out to the shipwreck and salvaged everything he possibly could, from nails and wood planks to gold and silver coins. (He said he would have traded the latter for a lot of things...not worth much on a deserted island!) Whatever he didn't have, he did without, or --

*Use your inventiveness to come up with a substitute. No cloth? Use goatskins. No thread? Unravel fabric, or devise plant fibers. Or --

*Don't have it? Go without. Needless to say, 'ol Rob did this a LOT.

*Be patient. Crusoe's stockade was made of wood poles pounded into the ground. Stake by stake by stake. It took him months to accomplish anything, but once it was finished, it stayed useful for years. Which brings up another point:

*Take care of what you've got. That car can last for a decade if you change the oil regularly and keep up on maintenance. The house will endure better if you keep things clean and repaired. Crusoe couldn't afford to lose a single one of his innovations.

*Ask a friend to help. Help him back. Crusoe got a lot more accomplished when his man Friday came on the scene. You can spend a lot less if you borrow a friend's equipment (taking good care of it -- see earlier comment) or help...and offer yours in return.

*Be thankful. Robinson's faith in God carried him through some very hard times. We, who have so many more opportunities, people to talk to and love, and places to see, could learn something from his patient example.

By the time of Crusoe's rescue, he was a rich and resourceful man -- and a big improvement, he felt, on the insecure sniveler who'd crawled up on the beach decades earlier. (Now if he'd only gotten the message about slavery, as well...) When he first saw the ship's captain who rescued him, Crusoe said:

Then I took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer, and we rejoiced together. I told him I looked upon him as a man sent from heaven to deliver me, and that the whole transaction seemed to be a chain of wonders; that such things as these were the testimonies we had of a secret hand of Providence governing the world, and an evidence that the eyes of an infinite Power could search into the remotest corner of the world, and send help to the miserable whenever He pleased.




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Read Robinson Crusoe here: http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/crusoe.html

and find out more about Alexander Selkirk, probably Defoe's inspiration, at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe

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and now I'm off to shovel through the snow in single-degree temps...which I am certain Mr. C. did NOT do. Oh, for a deserted tropical island...