Some theorize that the extinction level event that will impact humans may come from social versus environmental changes. Is it possible that the social phenomenon of not being able to properly handle our personal finances could lead to enough social unrest to cause a civil war? Can the underlying divide, or political exploitation, between the “wealthy” and “poor” grow to the point that the inequality destroys our social environment, leading to a quantum shift in our lives and society? In fact, it might not be the warming earth, pandemic disease, carbon emission, or a giant meteor that wipes us out. Consider the real possibility that our inability to address financial inequality and the number of people living in poverty as the foundational sources of our ultimate demise.
TODAY'S REALITY
When it comes to our relationship with money, we are stuck in the Stone Age.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), money is a significant source of stress for three out of four Americans.1
Forty-five percent of Americans have no savings whatsoever.2
The average person age 60 or older who does have savings has about $150,000, certainly not enough to stop working.3
Almost 40% of American adults wouldn't be able to cover a $400 emergency with cash, savings, or a credit card charge they could quickly pay off.4
The median American household has only $11,700 in savings.5
Among elderly Social Security beneficiaries, 48% of married couples and 69% of unmarried persons receive 50% or more of their income from Social Security. In 2019, the average monthly Social Security retirement benefit for a new retiree was about $1,500.6
The level of credit debt in the United States during the height of the most recent economic expansion (2019) was over $35,000.7
It's painfully obvious that the average American is in terrible financial shape. Despite the relentless barrage of information and warnings from financial experts that saving for the future is not a luxury but a necessity. In our society, people who don't save are looked down on. We blame them for being irresponsible without realizing that today's bad financial behaviors were our ancestor's essential survival behaviors.
SO WHO ARE YOU?
Ask yourself if the environment you were raised in was one of financial independence or one of interdependence. Independence in this case means that every family unit within your tribe was expected to, and generally did, take care of itself. Or was it interdependent, meaning that everyone shared, when necessary, financial resources. If the latter, you may find it very difficult to save while others close to you have significantly less. If your case is the latter, you may feel a great sense of responsibility for people who are in need. You may find that they expect you, if you have more, to share what you have, and if you don't, they may cut you out of their lives.
YOU ARE WIRED TO SPEND
You are wired to share and not save. That makes it a significant challenge to deal with modern personal finance. But we have another significant challenge: We are also hardwired to spend. Not all that we gathered is given away. We use it; we spend it now; we don't invest in our future. So why do we have that impulse? It's the same reason we have a problem with obesity. We can blame our DNA.
Your ancestors did not live long by engaging in moderation. When there was something to eat, they ate as much of it as they could. They didn't say, Oh, I think I have had enough, I'll quit now, and save some for later. They didn't avoid eating fatty or sugary foods; they thrived on them. There were probably those who thought they should eat in moderation, but in prehistoric days, when people didn't know when or where their next meal would come, they were less likely to survive to pass on their DNA. So, the survivors, our ancestors, were consumers. Consuming as much as they could, even beyond when they were full. They did so because the next meal was not a guarantee and any food that went uneaten would quickly spoil.
This consumer programming helps to partly explain our current obesity crisis in America. We are no better at managing our calorie intake than we are at saving money. In many ways, money is our food. We love to consume it as we find it!
If we get the chance, we will consume more than we need. But now we have the ability to consume more than we even have. We call this buying on credit. Businesses understand this human need and seduce us to consume our money, borrow more, and consume that too. They are just capitalizing on human nature. So modern society has created a situation in which our ancestral programming sets the stage for our becoming obese and broke.
YOU ARE WIRED TO TRY TO KEEP UP WITH THE JONESES
In tribal life, ancestors' status within a tribe was a matter of life or death. One of the greatest threats to their survival was finding that they no longer belonged in the group and they no longer had a community to help keep them safe. Our ancestors left on their own would not live long enough to pass on their DNA. So, today, we are incredibly sensitive to whether we belong in a group or not. We are wired to be on constant lookout for cues that we might have lost our place.
In the past, it was critically important that our ancestors kept up on the latest gossip and rumors. Tribes typically consist of 100–150 individuals, so it was a daily task for our ancestors to see where they stood. It was important to know who was mad at whom, and who was in good favor with the leaders of the tribe. Given that our current society is so much larger, we rely on social media and the news to make sure we are not caught by surprise. Watching the news, whether accurate or not, triggers our pleasure centers and gives us hits of dopamine similar to those we get from food and sex. Our brain rewards us for keeping up with the Joneses. For our ancestors, keeping up with the news was a matter of life or death.
ALL THE RULES HAVE CHANGED
Within the past two generations, there has been a dramatic shift away from this tribal social system. Part of the responsibility of the tribe was taking care of each other, including as older people. Over time, as we moved from small tribes to larger groups, this responsibility was passed on to institutions, corporations, and the government. Several decades ago, such entities were there to take care of the tribe. Your company would fund your retirement, and Social Security would step in to take care of the remainder. You saved a little for vacations and holidays, but when and how retirement would occur was not a concern.
What about all this debt? Our grandparents didn't have credit problems. They didn't struggle with credit card debt. Were they wiser? More disciplined? Perhaps, but that's not why they didn't carry massive amounts of debt. The fact is that they couldn't have gotten access to unsecured debt if they wanted it. There was no such money mechanisms as credit cards. The only unsecured credit they were likely to get was from the local grocer, who wasn't likely to extend it more than $100