Welcome to Money for the rest of us. This is a personal finance show on money. How it works, how to invest it and how to live without worrying about it.

I'm your host David Stein. Today is episode 240. It's titled Three Financial

Lessons from Henry David Thoreau.

Been thinking a lot about Thoreau recently as LaPrel and I arrived in Phoenix a few weeks ago.

Just brought our cars, our clothes, our dog, podcasting equipment, video equipment, and nothing else.

So we showed up at our house, the realtor met us with the keys, and there was a box with a mattress on the front porch.

That first night, that's all we had.

One mattress to sleep on.

Then over the last few weeks we've been slowly adding things to the house figuring out

what we need what can we buy used which we buy new kind of getting it down to the essentials and somewhat like Throwe did.

Probably a little grander scale.

But I've been thinking about Thoreau. In some ways he's very

relatable. He was not wealthy. He struggled with money issues much of his life.

Now his family had a successful pencil-making business,

but Thoreau wanted to make his own way in the world.

For much of his life he was poor.

He wrote in the first chapter of Walden,

Some of you we all know are poor, find it hard to live, are sometimes as it were gasping for breath.

I have no doubt that some of you who read this book are unable to pay for all the dinners which you have actually eaten or for the coats and shoes

which are fast wearing or are already worn out.

And have come to this page to spend borrowed or stolen time robbing your creditors of an hour.

It is very evident what mean and sneaking lives many of you live.

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