In light of the 4th of July holiday, we would like to remind you that certain tenants of personal finance are timeless, and that even our founding fathers understood that with freedom comes certain responsibilities as it relates to personal finance.
John Adams – On the Importance of a Financial Education
“All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from the defects of the Constitution, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.” – From a letter to Thomas Jefferson in 1787
Thomas Jefferson – On Living Within Your Means
“But I know nothing more important to inculcate into the minds of young people than the wisdom, the honor, and the blessed comfort of living within their income, to calculate in good time how much less pain will cost them the plainest stile of living which keeps them out of debt, than after a few years of splendor above their income, to have their property taken away for debt when they have a family growing up to maintain and provide for.” – From a letter to Martha Jefferson Randolph in 1808
