Hellenic Budget

This past week, I was speaking to a fellow gym member about our respective vacation plans this summer and he mentioned he was mulling a trip to Greece in August.

But first he cautioned, he would have to severely tighten up what he termed his family’s “profligate spending” in order to be able to visit the Acropolis and Parthenon while sipping Ouzo and enjoying bottles of Agiorgitiko.

When I asked him how he planned to accomplish that, he said he had formed an austerity plan and was all too happy to share it with me.

First, he announced that he was suspending his membership to the health club for six months. Next up, he would hold off on a planned new car purchase and then stop paying into his 401(k). And that was just for starters.

Then, on Friday nights, which was his family’s regular day to “order out” for dinner, they would stick to fast food only.

Okay I told him, let’s examine each measure more closely.

First, I was honest with him and said he was probably 25-30 pounds overweight, so skipping regular workouts for six months was probably not the best economical course to take – health wise.

Second, his car was a at least 10 years old and was frequently in the shop for repairs. If he held on to it, the mechanic’s bills would surely exceed those of a new car payment or lease. With the weekend papers overstuffed with ads and fliers from countless local car dealers, I assured him he could find a deal that would suit his constrained budget.

A subsequent strategy to hold off paying into his 401(k) was for lack of a better term – idiotic. Even if his employer matched just 3 percent of his paycheck contributions, he was basically throwing away free money – not a sure-fire budget strategy for sure, nor a plan for his financial future.

As far as fast food, I showed him that opting for fast food instead of, say, a pizza or chicken dinner at a local Italian take-out restaurant was really not much of a savings and certainly worse health-wise.

Finally, he said that his backyard fence was crumbling and needed to be replaced. He was determined to bypass a landscaper and do it himself. Knowing him as I did, his DIY-er skills were more akin to Homer Simpson than Bob Vila and told him that would be a costly mistake, not to mention incredibly time consuming.

He said he’d think about my recommendations and I hoped he’d at least consider them if he wanted to see Greece that badly.

Opa!