Happy Independence Day!

Today would be a good day to declare your Independence from whatever it is that is preventing you from reaching your financial goals. Whatever it is - excessive debt, obsession with dollar stores, love of Coach purses - today is a good day to start to free yourself from their tyranny. In moderation, none of these things are necessarily bad. As long as you can pay your bills, keep a decent roof over your head, put three squares on the table and put away sufficient savings, debt, dollar stores, and Coach purses are not necessarily harmful. But it seems to me that when most people really like something they tend to like it to excess, unfortunately.

Most of us like to make resolutions on January 1st, but I don’t know of any success stories that resulted from this. Maybe changing the resolution-making to the Fourth would shock our systems and thus be more effective.

To help you out, and in keeping with the day, I recommend to you one of my favorite books, “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”, America’s very first self-help manual. Mr. Franklin started out as a young man with a loaf of bread under one arm, a few coins in his pocket, and an ambitious soul. With some hard work and thrift, Mr. Franklin managed to make all his dreams come true. And look at all he accomplished! With nothing much in the way of labor saving devices (well, he had a horse), he still managed to accomplish more in his lifetime than most of us will ever do.

Mr. Franklin lived a good long time. He established a prosperous printing business, invented many things we still use today (bifocals, the franklin stove, and the rocking chair) and still managed to find time to be one of the founding fathers of our country. We still quote the pithy sayings from his Poor Richard’s Almanac. I have been to Washington D.C., and was awed and impressed by the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials. Why isn’t there one to Mr. Franklin? In fact, come to think of it, you don’t see him around town (D.C.) as much as you’d might expect.

As a role model, ol’ Ben has Britney Spears just beat all to pieces. If you’re looking for a guide to a better way, consider giving “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” a try. You can even buy the brand-new Dover paperback edition for only $2.50. What a bargain! Mr. Franklin would approve.

P.S. Dover publications is an excellent source of really great books at fabulous prices. Also, lots of neat stuff for kids you just can’t find anywhere else. I love this website. See, folks, here is a dangerous area of possible excess for yours truly. We all have them!