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In the early 80s, two social scientists, James Q. Wilson and George Kelling, came up with a crime-abatement theory called broken windows.
In a nutshell, the broken windows theory goes like this:
- Broken windows on a building or a home that aren’t fixed send the message that the owners of the structure don’t care.
- Since the owners don’t care, the penalty or stigma associated with destructive behavior (breaking windows) is removed, and more people engage in the destructive behavior (they break more windows). The act of not caring thus creates a twisted subsidy, if you will. And people respond accordingly. Whatever you subsidize, you get more of.
- Petty crimes in a neighborhood act as a sort of broken window. If they aren’t addressed, they send the message that the authorities don’t care, and more people than otherwise are emboldened to commit crimes. Hey, everyone’s doing it, right? A twisted subsidy in action again.
I came across the broken windows theory in graduate school and found it very intriguing. In fact, I found it so intriguing, I decided to test it at work.
Broken Windows at Work
In the early 2000s, I was made foreman of a highway crew at my lovely government job, and one of my responsibilities was to maintain a mile-long stretch of grass that ran along Radcliffe Road in a town called Plainview. My municipality’s definition of “maintain,” however, wasn’t very comprehensive. The only thing my crew and I were required to do was cut the grass once a month during the growing season (roughly April through October). That was it. We weren’t required to edge the grass or prune the flora along the fence line. Nor were we required to rid the commons of litter. If we did anything that resembled honest maintenance, it was only because homeowner complaints about the lack of tidiness in the commons were too numerous to ignore.
My municipality’s definition of maintenance was the essence of a broken window. Take a look at the Google Maps street view of Radcliffe Road below. This is from September 2012. And its condition isn’t too bad. There’s some litter and the fence line looks like it could use a little weed-whacking. But it’s nothing compared to the Radcliffe Road I inherited in the early 2000s. The fence line back then looked like a jungle, the grass was overgrown and encroaching upon the roadway, and litter was everywhere. We in effect told the community that we didn’t care. And the more wayward members of the community behaved accordingly. They were emboldened to use the Radcliffe Road commons as an undocumented garbage dump.
Since I thought my municipality’s definition of maintenance was bullsh*t, and since I had developed a keen interest in the broken windows theory, I enacted the following maintenance schedule for the Radcliffe Road commons.
- Cut grass once a week.
- Edge and weed whack every two weeks.
- Trim the flora along the fence line once a month.
- Pick up litter every day.
Needless to say, my crew thought I was a douche for enacting the above maintenance schedule (hell hath no fury like bureaucrats suddenly told to exceed long-established norms). But that’s okay. They thought I was a douche before I decided to test the broken windows theory. What really concerns us here is the results. Did the community respond positively to my rigorous maintenance schedule? Yes—resoundingly so. I made Wilson and Kelling proud. As soon as we started caring about the Radcliffe Road commons, the community started caring about it too. In fact, acts of littering dropped so precipitously, I freed my crew from litter duty and began policing the Radcliffe Road commons all by myself. And I would go days without seeing so much as a candy wrapper.
It’s amazing what happens when you fix a broken window.
The Broken Windows of Personal Finance
Don’t ask me why, but I’ve been thinking about the broken windows theory again—especially as it relates to personal finance. When I was growing up, there were a lot of broken financial windows in my family and community; that is, there were a lot of destructive financial behaviors that were socially acceptable because most adults either engaged in them or considered them relatively benign or unimportant. Here are some examples of what I mean.
Smoking. Cigarettes had warning labels when I was growing up, but smoking still had a lot of cachet and was an integral part of American life. Everywhere you went, people smoked. They smoked in cars, homes, restaurants, supermarkets, office buildings, airplanes, elevators, movie theaters, and stadiums. Hardly any place populated by humans was off limits. Heck, Mrs. Groovy even remembers her childhood physician smoking while he was examining her—and she was allergic to tobacco! Yes, it was that bad. And while a few adults in my life warned me about the negative long-term health consequences of smoking, not a single adult ever warned me about the negative long-term financial consequences of spending a crapload of money on cigarettes rather than investing that money in mutual funds.
Fortunately for me, I had a natural revulsion to this foul habit. So I never smoked a cigarette in my life. But a lot of my peers weren’t so lucky, and they got sucked into the tobacco vortex by the twisted subsidy of social acceptance.
Watching television. I shudder to think how much television I watched in my youth. Save for meals, homework, and chores, being in the house meant being in front of the television. My guess is that I easily watched 5-7 hours of television a day. What a colossal waste. Imagine if I would have used just a quarter of that time to read a book instead. Maybe I wouldn’t have gotten a verbal score on my SAT that placed me in the vicinity of functional illiteracy.
Buying cars on credit. No one I knew growing up ever considered the financial damage caused by using debt to buy rapidly depreciating hunks of shiny metal from Detroit. Having a car payment was as customary and natural as the sun rising in the east. In 1986, less than two years removed from college, I bought my first car on credit. And I had a car payment practically every month since then until May of 2006. That equates to several cars and nearly 252 consecutive months of car payments. Ouch!
Taking education only semi-seriously. My parents knew the importance of education. And so did most of the parents in my corner of suburbia. But their commitment to it wasn’t fierce. There were no tiger moms in my neighborhood growing up. Come home with mostly Bs and you were good to go. There would be no recriminations for plopping down in front of the television. No recriminations for failing to open a book. And no recriminations for obsessing over sports and dating.
Thinking that investing in the stock market was only for rich people. No adult in my youth ever expressed an interest in the stock market. Adults in my youth were decidedly middle class—people who drove trucks, delivered mail, put out fires, worked in factories, and waited on tables. And they didn’t buy stocks. They knew their place—they relied on homeownership and pensions to build wealth. Stocks were for the Thurston Howells of the world.
Embracing the siren call of materialism. More is better. Bigger is better. Newer is better. The adults in my youth had no idea how damaging this mindset was to their financial well-being. So they gladly jumped onto the hamster wheel and so did most of their children. This is a big reason why I basically lived paycheck to paycheck until I was in my early 40s. Before I finally discovered the emptiness of materialism—that is, before I discovered that more stuff wasn’t going to bring me lasting happiness or fulfillment—I found it far easier to bear the burden of debt and financial brinkmanship than bear the burden of not having the “right” clothes, the “right” cable package, the “right” car, and the “right” mailing address.
Now, before I go any further, I need to defend the adults in my youth.
First, the broken financial windows that they failed to fix were bad, not disastrous. There’s a huge difference between buying a car on credit and, say, procreating while still in high school. The former may set you back a few years. The latter may set you back a few decades. In other words, the adults in my youth avoided the really big financial mistakes. They didn’t drop out of high school, they didn’t procreate out of wedlock, they didn’t engage in violent crime, and they didn’t shy away from gainful employment (they worked their asses off, actually). And these financial-friendly virtues were passed on to me and all the other kids in the neighborhood.
Second, the adults in my youth allowed broken financial windows to fester, not because they didn’t care, but because they didn’t know any better. Back in the 60s and 70s, for instance, a high school degree was still a worthwhile credential. Anyone armed with a high school diploma and a penchant for hard work and competency could move up the job ladder in most fields and at most companies. America’s labor market back then was far less infected by credentialism than it is today. You didn’t need a BA to reach middle management, much less get a job interview. Also, back in the 60s and 70s, factory jobs and pensions were much more prevalent. Personal finance for my parents’ generation was thus far less complicated. You got a job, worked forty years, and then retired comfortably with a pension check and a Social Security check. Easy peasy. My parents’ generation had no idea that private pensions would be replaced with 401(k)s and that most factory jobs would fall victim to automation and globalization. The bottom line is this: you can’t blame people for not fixing broken financial windows—such as being lackadaisical toward higher education and being ignorant of stock investing—when those broken financial windows weren’t a serious problem for them.
Okay, having just made a rousing defense of my parents’ generation, it’s now time to explore how one fixes the broken financial windows in one’s life.
How to Fix the Broken Windows of Personal Finance
This is a tough one. Unlike crime and maintenance of the commons, there’s no external authority that can come into a community and force the adults living there to be good role models and fix their broken financial windows. When it comes to the broken windows of personal finance, you’re the only one who can care. It’s all on you. You’re going to have to turn inward and become super disciplined and super demanding. You’re going to have to place your right hand on the financial bible (Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover) and swear that you will no longer engage in financial behaviors that are moronic but socially acceptable.
The good news is that you can fix your broken financial windows all by your lonesome. Here’s how.
Step One: Determine If There’s a Problem
The first thing you have to do to fix the broken financial windows in your life is make an honest assessment of your financial well-being. Are you financially fit? Or are you a financial train wreck? To help you in this regard, I’ve devised several questions you need to ask yourself. If you answer “yes” to any one of them, the odds are high that you’re a financial train wreck and there are several broken financial windows in your life. If you answer “yes” to two or more of them, you assuredly are a financial train wreck and have several broken financial windows in your life.
- Do you work less than 40 hours a week?
- Are you living paycheck to paycheck?
- Would a $400 car repair bill be a crisis—that is, would a $400 car repair bill mean going hungry, missing a rent payment, or delaying a needed trip to the doctor?
- Do you need to own the latest iPhone, wear designer clothes, drive a late-model car, or frequent the hottest nightclubs in order to feel good about yourself?
- Have you invested more in tattoos and body piercings than stocks?
- Do you spend more hours playing video games than reading books?
- Have you produced any children out of wedlock?
- Do your friends have more felonies than bachelor degrees?
- Do you party hard—that is, do you drink a lot of alcohol and do a lot of drugs?
- Do you live in a trailer park or a neighborhood that has its first-story windows decorated with security bars?
Step Two: Identify the Broken Financial Windows in Your Life
Assuming for the moment that your answers to the above questions prove you’re a financial train wreck, the second thing you have to do to fix the broken financial windows in your life is to identify those broken financial windows. This can be done quite easily if you have an internet connection. Just go to YouTube, do a search on “poor habits rich habits,” and then start binge-watching the videos that come up. Here are ten videos from that search that I highly recommend.
- 15 Things Poor People Do That The Rich Don’t (Alux)
- 15 Sacrifices You Need To Make If You Want To Be Rich (Alux)
- The Habits Of The Rich Vs. The Habits Of The Poor (His and Her Money)
- Why You Are Still Broke (Practical Wisdom)
- Rich Spending Vs. Poor Spending (Ryan Scribner)
- Five Expensive Money Habits That Are Killing Your Wallet (Minority Mindset)
- 12 Things Rich People Do That The Poor Don’t (The Better Men Project)
- 8 Things That Wealthy People Do Differently (The Financial Diet)
- These 6 Rich People Habits Changed My Life (Jeff Rose)
- Jim Rohn: The Philosophy Of The Rich And The Poor (Habits of the Wealthy)
After watching a bunch of these videos, you’ll be able to identify at least ten financially stupid things that you and most adults in your community do. These are your broken financial windows. These are the wretched money habits you need to fix.
Step Three: Fix the Broken Financial Windows in Your Life
After you have identified the broken financial windows in your life, the final thing you have to do is fix them. In one respect, this is the easy part. All you do is stop doing the socially acceptable but financially stupid things you’ve been doing and do the opposite. For instance, let’s look at my broken financial windows and see what I did to fix them.
Smoking. This was super easy. Just because the adults in my life found smoking acceptable didn’t mean that I had to. The stench of cigarettes always made me wretch and I have always avoided them like the plague.
Watching television. I stopped watching sports and got rid of cable. This reduced my television watching to maybe an hour a day (I curse you YouTube and Netflix).
Buying cars on credit. In 2006, I made the last car payment of my life. Mrs. Groovy and I purchased our current car in 2008. It was a 2004 Camry and we paid for it with cash. We’ll probably buy a new-to-us car in a year or so and we already have the money set aside for it.
Taking education only semi-seriously. In my late 20s, I developed a love for books and reading. In my late 30s, I taught myself databases and programming. I also went back to college at this time and got a master’s degree. I wouldn’t describe myself as a renaissance man, but I would describe myself as a life-long learner (i.e., a recovering dullard).
Thinking that investing in the stock market was only for rich people. As soon as Mrs. Groovy and I moved down to Charlotte from Long Island in 2006, we each opened a Roth IRA. We’ve been students of investing and Bogleheads ever since. VTSAX all the way, baby!
Embracing the siren call of materialism. Remember my 2004 Camry I mentioned a few paragraphs above? Well, I’m still driving that old-man car. It has 180,000 miles on it and it is easily the worst car on the block. And I love it.
Fixing broken financial windows isn’t hard once you decide to fix them. What is hard is overcoming the inertia of habits and culture. Here are four things to help you in your quest to overcome that inertia.
Drop your ego. You’re not awesome. You’re not the “next big thing.” You’re a broke schmuck. So get over yourself and admit that you don’t know what the hell you’re doing when it comes to personal finance. There’s no shame in admitting this. Nor is there any shame in asking for help.
Don’t blame the system. Blaming the system is a dodge. Fix your broken financial windows first and then get back to me about the system. If you’re still struggling financially then, I’ll not only concede that the system is to blame, I’ll be the first one to join in the revival of Occupy Wall Street. “Hey-hey, ho-ho. Goldman Sachs has got to go.”
Don’t get hamstrung by guilt. You’re not disrespecting your parents if you decide to fix the broken financial windows that they passed on to you. Nor are you a traitor to your community or tribe if you decide to fix the broken financial habits that they passed on to you as well. Remember: in Groovyland, we don’t engage in ex post facto finger-pointing. There’s a good chance that the bad money habits so prevalent in your world today were once good or benign money habits. In other words, the adults in your life are neither stupid nor lazy. Their money habits just may not work for someone wanting to get ahead today. Different circumstances call for different strategies. And you’re not an ingrate or a sell-out for recognizing this.
Find a new tribe if your current tribe fights you. I’ll never forget the answer a co-worker gave me when I asked her why she moved from Buffalo to Charlotte. She told me she would have never gotten out of poverty if she remained in Buffalo. Her family was that toxic. Sometimes finding a tribe that will support your financial rebirth means moving to another state. Sometimes it means joining the military. And sometimes it means befriending a virtual community made up of nut-job bloggers who go by such colorful names as Mr. Money Mustache, J Money, Crispy Doc, and Miss Mazuma.
Okay, groovy freedomist, that ends my rumination on broken windows and personal finance. I don’t know if this attempt at behavioral economics makes any sense, but it sure gave me plenty of fodder for a blog post. Let’s now turn our attention to Groovy Ranch.
Groovy Ranch Is Nearing the Finish Line
A lot of sh*t is happening at Groovy Ranch. The bench in the utility room has been stained and finished.
The appliances have been delivered and they all should be installed by the end of today.
And the built-ins and the fireplace mantel are complete.
Final Thoughts
Okay, groovy freedomist, that’s all I got. What say you? Did your parents and community burden you with any broken financial windows? And if they did, how did you go about fixing them? Let me know when you get a chance. Peace.
This is a really great article, except for the bit about ‘producing’ children out of wedlock being an indicator of being a financial train wreck-ouch. Big shout out to all the other choice moms and single parents on the FI path out there- way to go ladies, we got this 🙂
Excellent point, MG. I should have pointed out that none of my indicators should be interpreted as a moral judgement. You’re not a bad person, for example, if you produce a child out of wedlock. But as far as personal finance goes, the evidence is clear. Doing so makes financial success infinitely harder for both parent and child. At my last job, we had several never-married mothers in the office and everyone of them was struggling financially. That’s anecdotal evidence, for sure, but empirical evidence points to the same grim outcome. Households headed by unwed mothers are the poorest households in America. So when I included out-of-wedlock births in my list of financial red flags, I did so not to be snarky or preachy, but to enlighten. If that wasn’t clear, the fault lies with me. I got to do better job in the future. Thanks for pointing out a weakness in my argument. I really appreciate it. Cheers.
P.S. Mrs. Groovy and I are heading to Melbourne next year. Anything we positively have to see or do when we’re there?
Whoa, your new place looks awesome!! I’ve been waiting for the finished results forever!
Btw, love the post on the broken window theory! My favorite story is when NYC Mayor Guilani used this on the NYC subway.
https://www.city-journal.org/html/how-new-york-became-safe-full-story-13197.html
Also, you could say you were doing passive work on your stretch of highway. You realized that more effort in the beginning would lead to less later, if you could get the neighborhood to pitch in and be proud of it as well.
Awesome experiment!
Awesome! Someone else remembered the greatest broken window experiment ever conducted. Made my day, Olivia. And one of the more interesting side-effects of cracking down on petty crimes was the capture of violent criminals. It turned out that a lot of people with warrants for violent crimes also engaged in petty crimes like public drinking and turnstile hopping. In the late 80s and early 90s, NYC had over 2,000 murders annually. After introducing broken-windows policing, murders plummeted to under 500 annually. Pretty neat.
Your new place looks super nice, sir!
I love this study. I want to believe that certain things we do around our house rub off onto the neighbors, in a positive way. Rather than broken windows, we influence by cleaning our windows, keeping up our landscaping, and replacing shingles, etc. Seems to actually have an effect!
I love it, my friend. Yes, I think there’s a tipping point for cleaning windows too. People are natural followers. If the cool people do the right things, the neighborhood will blossom. Great insight.
Another fascinating insight into a brilliant mind. Thanks for the deep dive, my friend, I’d missed this.
I was thinking about money blueprints, as JD Roth calls them, that come from family.
I had none, since my immigrant parents didn’t want me to worry about money. What they did have for me was a study blueprint.
My dad’s family lost everything in the Cuban revolution, so all that was left was their educations.
My grandfather finished the sixth grade. My grandmother, an orphan, dropped out of school even sooner to work.
My father and uncle both went on to obtain graduate degrees (MBA, pH.D) since their intellectual capital was the only bit the family felt could never be taken.
So despite no money skills at all, they set me up nicely to eventually learn those skills.
Enjoyed the provocative article, my friend! Ranch looks beautiful, may you inhabit out in good health for many years.
Fondly,
Yet another nut job
CD! You’re definitely one of my favorite nutters. Thank you for sharing your very inspiring background. I forgot all about JD’s money blueprint. It’s a brilliant concept. Thanks for reminding me about it. And, yes, money isn’t the most important thing parents can bestow their children. Parents can best ready their children for success by modeling discipline and a love of learning. If their children embrace those two things, they’ll do fine. You’re the best, my friend. Cheers.
Wow Groovy Ranch is looking awesome! I can’t wait to bring all the kids to come and visit 🙂
It’s ironic how the “broken windows” of personal finance aren’t necessary eyesores, but tend to be eye-catching things instead. I love my beat-up car that’s over ten years old and dread when it finally gives up on me. Of course, there’s also the short bus we purchased as a family vehicle instead of buying an expensive van. Everyone seems to notice the bus – a big, louder, not pretty vehicle – but it’s a symbol of our financial intelligence.
Harmony@CreatingMyKaleidoscope recently posted…Our Road Trip To Washington, D.C. For $300 – With Five Kids!
Damn, you got one fine brain sitting in that skull of yours. I love it. Beater car doesn’t equal a broken financial window, it equals financial intelligence. Would you care to elaborate on this awesome observation? It would make a great post, and I don’t want to steal your idea.
Oh, and I almost forgot. You, the hubby, the kids, and the bus are always welcome at Groovy Ranch. We’ll leave the lights on for you.
Love it Mr. G! Dropping your ego has to be one of the most important things you can do. I’ve never been one to the blame the system but that one is probably equally important for many.
Ranch is looking AWESOME!
Thank you, Amy. I’m with you. Ego is such a hurtle. I was consumed by my ego for the longest time. But I realized that it was more important to get it right rather than be right, everything changed for the better. Love the cut of your jib, my friend. When are you and John going to visit Groovy Ranch?
this is a really great perspective and it changes a bit about how I see things and how I behave.
Some of my natural tendencies are towards being as cheap as possible – but it ends up costing more in the long run.
Taking a broken window approach might end up saving money in the long run!
Nice, GFF. I never considered ultra-cheapness as being a broken financial window. But if it leads to being a constant money drain, it certainly is. Love the way your mind works, my friend. Cheers.
It’s a bit like treating others how you’d like to be treated yourself. People will respond to what they see around them.
Our biggest investment is in rental property, and we aim to provide a good property for our tenants. We want them to be proud of where they live and to look at after the property. It costs us some money to do this, but I think it pays off financially as our tenants stay longer and they take better care of the property.
Can I make an addition to your list? It’s similar to smoking, but I’d add alcohol. I think this can have many negative financial, health and sometimes social sides to it. However, mostly society doesn’t shout about this as much as it does with smoking.
Oooh, I forgot about alcohol. Good catch, David. Oddly enough, the adults in my life weren’t big drinkers. They were big smokers and horse gamblers. And here’s the kicker. My brother and I grew up to be big drinkers. But we hated smoking and horse gambling. Go figure. Thanks for stopping by, my friend. Cheers.
Great post, Mr. G! I’ve heard of the broken windows theory before, but I’ve never seen it applied to personal finance, and you did it well. I’ll admit that the adults in my life did pass on a few broken windows, but I’ve been fortunate enough to fix most of them by now.
And Groovy Ranch is looking spectacular! Can’t wait to see the finished product…photos might not be enough, I think a video tour would do it justice.
Gary @ Super Saving Tips recently posted…Racism, Prejudice, and Finances – The Ugly Truth
Thanks for sharing, Gary. And like you, I was fortunate to have relatively minor broken financial windows to fix. In hindsight, the adults in my life got a lot of things wrong when it came to finances. But they also got a lot things right about being honorable human beings, and the rights they passed on to me and my peers was more than enough to override the wrongs they passed on.
Monthly payments were the biggie for us growing up. The “it’s only an extra $20 a month to buy this” adds up quickly when you find something new to buy every few months.
Josh recently posted…4 Habits That Keep People Poor (And What To Do Instead)
Yes. Same mentality in my neck of the woods. If you had enough room in your paycheck to handle a installment payment, you could “afford” the object attached to that installment payment.
Great stuff Groovy! This is what I was thinking before you got to it
the adults in my youth allowed broken financial windows to fester, not because they didn’t care, but because they didn’t know any better.
My Mom is a smart woman, but she smoked for 55 years, including when she was pregnant with me. And drank. We were Baltimore through and through, and that means lots of broken windows.
And the ranch looks beautiful!
Dave @ Accidental FIRE recently posted…How To Fight Imposter Syndrome
Thanks for sharing, Dave. My mom smoked through all her pregnancies too. But like you said, it wasn’t out of maliciousness. It was out of ignorance and custom. People smoked back in the 50s and 60s and no one was aware of the health risks–especially when it came to second-hand smoke.
What a great analogy! And the broken windows theory is definitely true. So much time wasted as a kid in front of the TV it’s amazing. Different times back then I think.
At least now, I’ve got my financial windows boarded up pretty tight!
Jon Sharpe recently posted…Three Steps to Crush Benefits Enrollment Season
“…financial windows boarded up pretty tight.” I like that. May I steal that line?
Brilliant post Mr Groovy.
I never knew about the broken window theory but it makes complete sense. Very cool social experiment you conducted with the maintenance job you had.
Neighborhood pride is definitely something that needs to be cultivated and that starts with getting rid of unacceptable activities. Once pride is built up like you noticed it becomes self sustaining.
Xrayvsn recently posted…The Financial Life Cycle
Thank you, Xrayvsn. It’s amazing how infectious neighborhood pride can become.
Your illustration on Broken Window theory is a great analogy for PF! Reminds me of one of my favorite posts of yours on “Sub-prime financial culture” (yes, I’ve binge-read your whole blog).
Love how the house is coming along – I’ve really enjoyed reading the whole series, especially since I’m doing likewise :). Your kitchen and fireplace/built-ins are so pretty!
Jennette Marie Powell recently posted…More Reading than Writing
I love it, Jennette. You’re too kind. And when are you going to post some pictures on your construction progress? Nothing fires me up more than pictures of basement walls and rough-in plumbing!
We stayed 2 miles off site for Cents Positive this past weekend and I was so frustrated by just HOW MUCH TRASH we passed along the way to the hotel. I picked up quite a bit, but it had me fuming. I just don’t understand why people don’t care about keeping the place they live in nice. Well done on picking up litter duty and making a difference in your community. Seems like such a little thing that should not be an issue anywhere now.
Litter is the bane of my existence! And sadly the small town that Mrs. Groovy and I are moving to has a lot of litter. The work of caring soul is never done. Thanks for stopping by, Angela.
my folks were a lot like yours in the old school ways to get ahead. they were frugal enough blue collar folks who did a lot themselves (like build the house we lived in). i didn’t listen to all the lessons but had to learn the investing ones on my own, also around 2006 at almost age 40. putting ego aside is a big one and getting away from spendy folks sure did help.
nice post, as is any one that uses dullard, douche, and schmuck.
freddy smidlap recently posted…Is There a Better Index than the S&P 500? Food for Though Edition
Love the way your mind works, Freddie. And thanks for pointing out that I managed to use the words “dullard,” “douche,” and “schmuck” in this post. I didn’t consciously set out to do that, but the fact that I pulled it off so effortlessly only elevates its Rockstar worthiness. Thanks for stopping by, my friend.
Really enjoyed this post.
I’ve never heard of the Broken Windows theory but it makes sense. I smiled when you said that you did your own experiment with it!
Thank you, FD. It’s an interesting theory. I think what gives it its force is a moral sense that thankfully most people have. People want to be good. And sometimes that want needs to be primed or nudged.
This is a good one, maybe even the one you might pick for this year’s Rumble entry. As I look back from the point of success in personal finance, I ask myself which of these influences I was surrounded by:
Parents didn’t smoke – check (my Dad even grew up in Kentucky and was in the military and hated smoking)
TV – guilty, like you, I spent a lot of hours but eventually cut the cord
Cars – my Dad was a mechanic and we only had 2 cars ever that were new. He bought junkers and overhauled them in the garage as a side hustle all my life
Education – I was lucky to have an uncle that became an Engineer when he was injured in the Korean war and had to use the GI Bill to retrain. A true role model
Stocks – I was also lucky that my older brother had a budding interest in investing and a huge influence on me in my teens as I watched him househack and follow the market
Materialism – all our clothes were bought on huge sales and at Christmas if you tried taking something back because it didn’t fit, you might get a dollar if you were lucky.
Those lessons set me on my way. Interesting walk down memory lane. But I envision a few of my nieces and nephews that need me as a role model now, which is what I’m doing collecting all this wisdom here. Thanks!
Susan @ FI Ideas recently posted…I Had a Million Dollars Worth of Fun in Engineering, and I Didn’t Want a Dime More
What an inspiring story, Susan. It sounds like you inherited few broken financial windows from your family and community. And those that you inherited were slayed. Love the cut of your jib. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve never heard of the Broken Window theory but I can relate to the broken window examples you listed near the beginning. I never smoked but was surrounded by it, bought cars on credit, wasted hours on TV (Gilligan’s Island, for instance), blew thousands of dollars on community college before I was ready to take it seriously, etc. It’s like we share one brain! (Just kidding, we each have our own, and yours is far superior).
Fantastic post.
The Ranch looks great!
It is scary how two people separated by a continent can have very similar experiences. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but it just goes to show you how shaped we are by family and culture. If your family and culture have serious broken financial windows, you’re in trouble. Thanks for stopping by, my friend. Your comment made my day. Cheers.
My parents had some problems with broken windows. My dad liked to gamble and spend too much on a few things. My mom doesn’t trust investing. Luckily, I got over those and my financial house is in a good shape.
I think it has a lot to do with the people you associate with too. If your community have lots of broken windows, then you probably have some too. It feels normal to have a car loan, iPhone, and tattoos if your friends do.
I love the fireplace. It looks so sleek. It’s really neat.
Oh, man, I totally forgot about the gambling. My dad’s side of the family were big time horse players. They were always studying the racing form or stopping by OTB. But their bets were always small potatoes. They really were responsible gamblers. Utilities, car payments, and mortgages were always paid. Here’s the real kicker, though. My brother, sister, and I never developed an interest in horses. For whatever reason, we just didn’t care about it. It was, like smoking, a broken financial window that didn’t get passed down. Thanks for stopping by, Joe.
Great post! Hindsight is 20/20, so there are a lot of things I would have done differently, but can’t. So at least I can look back and know I enjoyed a Pearl Jam concert or two, or three, or…lol! But, the present moment Tonya is a wiser one, and hopefully the future Tonya will even be wiser! I was going to write a post next week about “cleaning up” life a little. It’s always important to check for broken windows and other leaks in life and make adjustments. Ever notice the tiny little drips in the faucet turn to bigger drips, and eventually you could have a hole in your ceiling from water damage! Another thing is to watch who you hang out with. You’ve heard the expression you are the product of the 5 people you hang around? True. I try to limit my time with anyone throwing jabs my way, or who aren’t somewhat responsible themselves.
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“[Y]ou are the product of the 5 people you hang around.”
Oh, man, is that true. And frightening. I was very fortunate. The five guys I hung around with growing up were really decent people. They didn’t smoke or do drugs. They didn’t goof off in school or amuse themselves with petty vandalism or crime. And they didn’t treat their girlfriends poorly. They had a strict rule that “gentlemen didn’t kiss and tell.” I shudder to think how screwed up I would have become if the five guys I hung around with were a bunch of knuckleheads or thugs. Thanks for stopping by, Tonya. Awesome comment.
WOW.
I am not BS’ing when I say this, but this article maybe the best PF article I have EVER read.
The majority of people simply follow the habits of those whom they surround themselves with. They adopt these habits because it is comfortable and they will never be criticized for following the herd.
To break from these chains, you need to acknowledge your broken windows internally, then go out of your comfort ways and fix them.
BRAVO GROOVY FAM, BRAVO
Thank you, Sean. I’m truly at a loss for words. I’m so used to people kindly shooting down my twisted thoughts. But I think my bringing broken windows into personal finance is on to something. It might actually help some people address their financial demons. And you are so right about the power of habits and how those habits are shaped by the herd. Very scary.
Great analogy Mr. Groovy. When I was a kid, I remember walking by old warehouse buildings with broken windows and remember the temptation to throw a rock at the windows. For me, it was either a no one else cares kind of mentality, an everyone’s else doing it so why not, or maybe the inner desire to get rid of things no longer in use? I don’t know but you’re right. Broken windows are magnetic. The segue into personal finance (and other areas) made me stop and think about the broken windows in my own life. I think I’ll have to start a to-do list and get to checking them off. The ranch is looking nice btw!
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Hey, Mr. S. There’s got to be some social scientist somewhere who can do a study that measures the marginal guilt of doing something wrong. I got to imagine the pangs of guilt would be barely detectable if you threw a coffee cup out your car window into a roadside overflowing with garbage. But if that roadside were pristine, the pangs of guilt would be pretty severe. Human beings are definitely an odd species. Thanks for stopping by, my friend. Always a pleasure hearing from you.
I’ve always been intrigued by the broken window theory and this was an elegant way to apply it to personal finance. It occurred to me that my parents did not allow much TV for us and substituted books instead. That made me the unusual engineer who could write as well as I could calculate. That made me the highest paid and fastest promoted and the earliest retired. Very much of that due to reading instead of mindless TV. Great thoughts.
Hey, Steveark. Writing is a great skill to have in your skill stack. So many employees are weak in this regard, you really stand out at work if you can construct a cogent sentence. Sadly, I didn’t find this out until late in life. I took the SAT in 1978. I got in the mid 600s on the math portion and in the low 400s on the verbal portion. If my verbal score matched my math score, I would have had a 1300 SAT. That score would have put me in Ivy League territory. How’s that for a kick in the head. I lost out on Dartmouth because I preferred watching the Gong Show to reading! Somewhere, Gene Gene the Dancing Machine is laughing his ass off.
I think you are correct, I scored a 1400 on the SAT with exactly the same score on math and verbal of 700 each. I was a natural whiz at math but the verbal scores came from all the reading my mom taught me to love. And being balanced like that made my career!
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I’ve always been intrigued by the BWT. Very cool that you tested it out. We’ve seen the same thing in different areas where we’ve lived. If folks “stay on top” of litter pickup, it seems less litter is thrown. I’ve never made the jump to Personal Finance, but I think you’re on to something. Cool application, almost giving me a CMLT! Haha.
BWT…CMLT. What would the world of personal finance be without acronyms? You’re the best, my friend.
Mr. Groovy recently posted…The Broken Windows of Personal Finance