Some Guidelines in Effective Spending
Consumer Smarts: 1,001 Hints for Strengthening Your Dollars by Marvin L. Bittinger and William B. Rudolph (Baron’s Educational Series: $11.50).
American capitalism has created a cornucopia of goods and services that makes us all--excepting hermits, members of monastic orders or followers of David Thoreau--into consumers. Thus, a refresher course in effective getting and spending would seem to be in order.
But for all its breadth (1,001 hints, for sure!), this educational paperback, compiled by two Midwestern university professors, is aimed primarily for young people just starting out in life--who need help in buying major appliances, mastering insurance rates or who might remain as yet uninitiated in the IRS rites of April.
If, however, you’ve spent your best years in the supermarket, if you know all about big cans vs. small and you never, never, never buy bruised fruit, then you hardly need these hints and may feel free to skim People magazine in the checkout line. Most experienced consumers have learned that properly insulated attics, fully loaded dishwashers and washing machines save money, and who, in energy-conscious America, leaves a room without turning out the lights?
This guide is redeemed by the two chapters on buying a used or new car. The authors precisely detail the dealer’s markup, how to interpret the sticker price, methods of financing and how to “haggle.” They counsel holding onto an auto for 6 full years, or 100,000 miles, by proper maintenance, of course. But now we’re talking transportation--like my spouse’s better-days 1973 Comet--not automotive ego or aesthetics.
The Joy of Being Single: Stop Putting Your Life on Hold and Start Living by Janice Harayda (Doubleday: $15.95).
Though the copycat “Joy of” in any book title is almost guaranteed to induce ho-humism, Janice Harayda, a former editor at Glamour magazine, manages to take a fatigued topic and inject it with freshness and originality. We all come into this world alone, and many of us will be forced to live alone for some part of our lives. Today, more than 60 million Americans are solo because they have never married, are separated, divorced or widowed.
“Singlehood is--and always will be--the universal human condition,” the author says, but the good life can exist outside of marriage. Among Harayda’s predictable suggestions: Develop a “dowry” of supportive friends and a sense of family, not necessarily based on blood bonds. Join groups or associate with people interested in the same subject, whether it’s Mahler, politics, lepidopterology or break dancing. Observe rituals and holidays, give and attend parties (lots of them), and, whenever possible, buy property so as to put down community roots. Because one of the great perks of singlehood is the freedom to travel, any kind of a getaway is recommended.
One unusual suggestion is to use the services of a professional matchmaker, a common practice in India and in orthodox Jewish communities. So the ultimate goal after all, Harayda believes, is to find a proper mate. But, in the meantime, she insists in this upbeat, often clever guide, life should not be conducted like a dress rehearsal.
