Credit, debit or … cash?
The maxim of buying nothing but what we have money in our pockets to pay for lays, of all others, the broadest foundation for happiness.
To Mr. Skipwith, 1787, 1994
Patrick Lee’s Explanation
Sometime during Jefferson’s five years as ambassador to France, he began borrowing money to pay off loans he’d taken out previously. It was a pattern that would plague him all his life.
Paying cash yielded two benefits.
- It taught one to be content and live within one’s means.
- It allowed one to live without worry of losing possessions through default.
Jefferson did love his creature comforts, and he was generous with family and friends. Those traits, along with larger issues far beyond his control, contributed to a debt at the end of his life that some have estimated at $100,000 in 1826 money, several millions in 2012 dollars.Jefferson would apply this principle religiously to government spending. He could not apply it to himself. He wrote similarly to a young boy in 1825, “Never spend your money before you have it.” By that time, he knew his beloved Monticello and all his estate would be liquidated to pay that debt.
Let Thomas Jefferson share his leadership with your audience.
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