Frugality provides you with a margin of safety

When I watched, A fall from grace for the first time, I was young. I had no idea how the world works and I probably saw it as some form of entertainment with my friend. But yesterday, Netflix recommended the movie to me and I decided to see it all over again.
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This time, I brought all of my experiences to the screenplay and I took in different characters, possibly judging one, and feeling bad for the other, and of course, choosing the one to hate.

Believe me, the last part did not happen. I couldn't find someone to hate in the movie because life has given me my fair share of such experiences. The only thing I did was to tighten my resolve to be conscious of the people that I trust.

When I finished the movie, I remembered, how Anne said;

Trust is the most valuable thing that you can give away;

in the movie, What If.

To see Grace Waters, trusting her friend, Sarah Miller, and thinking that she wanted the best for her by asking her to go out more often and meet people made me realize that you can't completely know a person until circumstances reveal their true nature to you.

And the fact that Sarah tried to be the first to tell her story in order to set the narrative in her favor and get away with it made me remember the movie, How to Get Away with Murder. She would have been able to get away with it when she was called as a witness if she had an alibi on the day, Shannon DeLong, supposedly died. But like all bad liars, she had none and so he gave her friend away on the witness stand.

You know how I encourage anyone to do whatever they have to do to survive but to learn when to stop? Oh well, Sarah did not know where to stop. When her victim, Shannon, the true owner of the name, Sarah's Son claimed, committed suicide after being defrauded by Sarah and her son, she should have stopped there and lived off whatever amount she had been taking from lonely, old women with assets to defraud and claim, but she soon set her sight on her best friend.

True to the way I have my fears over visiting people in their houses, a lot of secrets lurk in the homes of everyone. Some of them are so dangerous, that you shouldn't be caught dead in them. Sarah Miller held a lot of women hostage in her home while she continued to live off their social security benefits until she decided to turn her best friend into one of her victims.

So when she was caught, and got away, leaving her son to face the consequences of all their actions, she went ahead to find new victims. God! She always knows how to pick them, she must have studied the pattern. Old, lonely, with pensions, assets, dead husbands leaving behind a pile of inheritance, etc.

This movie, watching it this time not only solidified my resolve to be weary of who I trust, but, also made me tighten my resolve to keep whatever amount of wealth that I'll be able to build private and out of prying eyes. It's better to be safe than sorry.

In a society where everyone is trying to reap where they did not sow, it's better to have a ton of assets but live as frugal as possible in order to protect yourself and the wealth you sweated to build. This way it will last longer for you and also be enough to take care of your future generations when you are long gone, giving you complete margin of safety.

The fact that one chooses to live frugally doesn't mean they are broke. It's better to be in a safe spot. This will give you the flexibility that you need to secretly find opportunities and take advantage of them without raising eyebrows. You'll be able to do away with your problems in the same way without raising eyebrows too.

I remember one of the last movies I watched, The Black Book. The man was a retired assassin. But he lived as low-key as possible and he was able to support the little kids in his community by paying their school fees. Their parents were grateful to the latter because they thought he was struggling like them but he was kind enough to share some of that with them through his support.

This kind of action builds loyalty, and trust, and of course, his reputation will soar as a kind person. So if anyone wakes up and wants to stain his name, his virtue and values will speak for him because the community will look into the lives of the people he helped and won't believe the weird gossiper.

Money wasn't supposed to be for show-offs, no, as Robert Greene says, money should be used to gain influence. And influence will take you farther than showing off would. So, take note, be financially wise because the quickest way to be out of money is to spend to show that you have it as Morgan Housel said.