貯金好きな日本人と思ってたら、最近はこのアメリカ人の低所得者の貯金が増えているそうです。
貯金といえばハウスメイトのシリィルの叔父さんのアントニーは貯金王と言っても良いくらいの人です。
８８歳まで定職はストリートパーソン、去年のクリスマスに交通事故に会うまでは、マイアミのリンカン通りで拾った帽子を５００個の在庫を抱えていましたが、一セントのお金も外で使う事はなく、マイアミのストリートパーソンの最年長と言われるまで、現役でしたから、見上げたものです。
甥のシィリルも貯金魔、彼はバイオリン二ストですが、夏はガーデナーワークで一年分の稼ぎをしていて、低所得者の部類ですが、きちんと貯金をしています。
アントニーにはかないませんが、５ドル以上の買い物はしないという。
先日もショップで歯ブラシを買っていましたが、レジーに長い列が出来ていて、何だろう？と思っていたら、５ドルの歯ブラシを１ドル９０セントだと、言い張っていて、シリィルが歯ブラシのことでもめていました。
結局はレジーが根負け、５ドルの歯ブラシを１ドル９０セントに負けさせたシリィルの金銭感覚は頭が下がるというより、頭痛がしてくるくらいです。
低所得者は生活必需品はリサイクルショップでご用達。アメリカのリサイクルショップは上手く機能しています。
アントニーは軍人の恩給を６０年貯め昔は利子が高かったお陰で、今は高級ナンシングホームで暮らせています。
アメリカの老人ホームはバカ高く、シリィルもアルツハイマーになったら家族ではどうしょうもないので、お金を貯めておくんだそうです。
シリィルの親戚にアルツハイマーがいるので、自分のDNAにもアルツハイマーがあると。
アントニーのように８８歳まで元気でいれればあとの残りの人生も計算しやすく、問題ないですが。
６０歳まえに病気したら一億円あっても足りない、寿命もお金次第で決まるアメリカ。
外人はアメリカで年取れないですね。
When I think about how much some Japanese people like to save money, recently that has also made me think about how it seems that the low income group in the US has also recently to begin saving more. My housemate Cyril's uncle, Anothony, comes to mind when I think about savings, but even if he seemed like the king of saving things, he still was a good guy. After he retired, he was a pack rat up until he was 88, and before he was in a traffic accident last winter, he had collected over 500 hats he found along Lincoln St. in Miami. He didn't even use one cent while he was out, which is something I admire in him, especially considering current times.
Cyril, his nephew, is also a smart saver. He works as a violinist, but during the summer he works as a gardener to earn a years wage. Even though he is in a lower income bracket, he makes sure to put his money into savings.
Yesterday he went to the store to buy a toothbrush, but at the register I saw that there was a really long line forming, and I wondered why. Apparently Cyril was insisting that this five dollar toothbrush was only $1.90, and got into an argument over it with the cashier.
In the end, the cashier discounted the item down to $1.90. Cyril's sense of money gives more of a headache rather than something that is to be respected.
A lot of low income people will get their necessities from a second hand store. The second hand store in America functions extremely well, I think.
Anthony saved his pension received from the Army for almost 60 years, and thanks to high interest rates over the years, he was able to afford to stay at a very nice nursing home now. American retirement homes are ridiculously expensive, and in the future Cyril might have Alzheimer's as well, and with little family to help him if that happened, so it seems like he is saving money now to prepare. Cyril's family has a history of Alzheimer's, so the tendency for the disease is within his DNA.
If he can live to be independent up until he is 88 years old like his uncle, he probably would not have a problem for his remaining years economically. But if he became ill before he was even 60, having a hundred-thousand dollars wouldn't even be sufficient to pay for all of the expenses. It seems like in America, money can be the decider of your life span. Foreigners in America can't grow old here, can they?
