Byron Tully - The Old Money Book: How to Live Better While Spending Less: How to Live

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Core Values

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P art II

How Old Money Does It

FORWARD

When I wrote The Old Money Book in 2013, the global economy was still crawling its way back from the Financial Crisis of 2008. During that time, I had watched friends, colleagues, and most of America suffer in ways not seen since the Great Depression. Housing prices had plummeted. Unemployment had spiked. Foreclosures were common. People were selling their jewelry. College students returned home, their parents unable to continue to pay for their tuition. Many young adults, once gainfully employed with big plans for the future, moved back in with Mom and Dad to regroup, rethink, and look for any kind of work.

Americas eternal optimism had taken a serious hit, but the United States government took action. Banksif not working peoplewere bailed out of the situation quickly. Mortgage assistance was put in place. Investment and entrepreneurship rallied. And slowly, many went back to work, back to normal, and tried to forget the whole thing.

Not me. I saw the moment as a wake-up call.

Living in Los Angeles among an apparently affluent demographic, I witnessed how precariously many seemingly rich people lived: if they lost their jobs, they were about three months away from financial disaster. Why? Because they were spending everything they earnedand then some. They lived in the McMansion. They drove the luxury car. They sported the latest designer fashions and logo-heavy accessories.

Still, the math goddess that reigns over income and expenses was unimpressed, and many had to downsize considerably. A few lost everything.

These horror stories stood in stark contrast to my friends in Boston, some who came from old, established New England families. While they shared the same worries about the economy and the country during the crisis, their financial position remained sound. Their modest, much-below-their-means and far-under-the-radar manner of living changed not one bit. Their concerns were for others, not for themselves. Why? Because they had been raised with or had adopted a way of life that was antithetical to the consumer lifestyle that so many Americans had been sold.

They lived in older but well-cared-for houses. They drove nondescript cars. They dressed modestly and traditionally in what some might call preppy attire. Most importantly, they prioritized savings and investment above conspicuous consumption. They were more concerned with actually being financially independent rather than looking rich.

In making this distinction, they embraced different values. They shifted their priorities. These priorities led them to make different choices. These choices led them to develop different habits, and experience different, decidedly better, outcomes in their financial and personal lives. Especially when the chickens came home to roost, as they did in 2008.

As I said, some of these people were raised in this culture of Old Money, and some simply adopted its practices. Both groups benefited equally. All weathered the downturn relatively unscathed.

Watching this phenomenon in real time, I realized that there were important lessons here for people who wanted to live better while spending less. It simply came down to making the distinction between aspiring to a certain standard of living and curating a certain quality of life .

I took this concept in hand and wrote The Old Money Book , detailing the values, priorities, and habits of Americas upper class in order to show anyone from any background how to live a richer life. Its that simple. Theres no snobbery to it (quite the opposite, in fact). Its not a get rich quick scheme (again, quite the opposite). Theres no social media group to join, no webinar to sign up for, no logo, no slogan, no merchandise, and, tragically, no secret society with oaths sworn in Latin or initiation rituals that include blindfolds and torches.

After The Old Money Book , several related volumes followed, including:

• The Old Money Guide To Marriage , which offers insights into dating and relationships;
• Old Money, New Woman: How To Manage Your Money and Your Life , which details the challenges and opportunities facing women today; and
• Old Money Style: The Gentlemans Edition , which provides a timeless approach to dressing well for men.

Even though I was still curating The Old Money Book blog in the fall of 2019, I felt fairly confident that my work on this subject was done.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. And as the famous saying goes, it was dj vu all over again. This time the culprit was not overhyped mortgage-backed securities but a deadly, airborne virus that decimated the global economy. Worse than that, as I write this, it has infected millions of people and taken almost one million lives.

Originating in China, the virus quickly spread throughout that country, into Europe, and then hit the northeast of the United States like a tsunami. Devastating statistics rose from New York City. Other metropolitan areas in the country soon experienced clusters of infections. Healthcare services were, and still remain, strained to the limit, mirroring the nerves of many Americans. Stimulus payments and recovery packages have been legislated, and will, most likely, continue in an effort to calm financial markets and moderate the suffering of millions of people who were living paycheck to paycheck before this disaster.

Unprecedented quarantines of entire cities and the shutdown of daily life (and commerce) became routine and widespreadand may continue. The lull that scientists and political leaders predicted would occur during the spring and summer months of 2020 never materialized. In fact, the spread accelerated. And while businesses and schools have reopened, or tried to, the global economy has been left hollowed out. Again, unemployment figures continue their gasp-inducing climb. Mass foreclosures for homeowners and mass evictions for families who rent appear imminent, like black clouds on the horizon.

As the entire world waits for a vaccine or treatment to be discovered or developed, and then distributed to the global population, nobodys talking about getting back to normal. We seem to all be trying to decipher or determine what the new normal is going to look like. Were trying to find that opportunity that wise men say lies in the ruins of every disaster, that flower blooming among the weeds, that dawn on the horizon.

And, once again, I have watched this slow-motion train wreck unfold, not from Los Angeles, but this time from Paris. Once again I witness a seismic shock of a sudden economic downturn and the aftershocks of financial and personal suffering that follow. Many people I know have weathered this storm better than that of 2008. After the financial crisis, they changed their priorities. They downsized. They startedand stayed witha savings and debt reduction plan. They went back to work or got a second job, and turned a corner in how they lived their lives. Even if it was uncomfortable, they learned from that pain and adapted when they had the chance.