Amish Financial Principles

The following is a guest post from JD at A Penny Saved. I grew up in an area full of Amish people and can testify that they're on to something when it comes to the very basics of handling money.

I live in the heart of Amish country. The Amish are a religious group that forsakes some modern conveniences. They still use a horse and buggy, they do not use electricity, they dress plainly. For the most part, they are happy and prosperous. So, without becoming Amish, what can we learn from them regarding our financial life?

• They live simply. They don’t need the latest, well, anything! They have uncluttered their life, not just with things, but also their schedules.

• They work hard. You see them up and working at sunrise; you see them working at sunset. They put in a full day.

• They invest in what they know. For the most part, the Amish invest their working lives in dairy farming and wood crafting. The same occupations they have been doing for centuries. They know it, they do it well.

• They stick together. Family is important. And they help each other. Parents help the children get started in life (occupation, home, etc.), the children help the parents at the end of their life.

• They see money only as a tool, not the goal. Their lives are not focused on riches or accumulation of things. Their lives are focused on living a life well lived – with their friends, with their family, with their faith.

In a world that is in a hurry, complicated, and at times out of control, maybe the Amish have figured some things out that are worth copying!

Comments

[Rajeev Kumar Singh]

Inspite of the proliferation of complex investment strategies and complexity of our financial system.. its amazing that the art of getting rich is still the goold old simple " Earn more spend less " and similar stuff... Wonderful read.

[Amanda]

It is nice to meet someone else who grew up in Amish country! I just recently won the Best of Financial Blog Carnival with my article called "Amish Finances" (featured here at FMF).

I love their simplicity, and down to earth ways.

[MrAtoZ]

The Amish are interesting in that they pick and choose which aspects of modern living they allow as part of their culture. Cell phones are (mostly) allowed because they don't have lines, but a traditional land line phone is not. And it varies from parish to parish, depending on who has the final say. It would take a strong will to remain in their world.

[Modern Mom]

The Amish are the worst, most selfish, most disrespectful facet of our society. They choose to live by their own rules, steal our hard-earned resources and not pay our taxes they yet cry foul when someone points out the obvious about their mixed-up, backwards lifestyle.

I have no respect for people who choose to live in the past, raising their children to not respect society, strive to achieve, or learn modern life-sustaining practices. They are nothing but selfish hypocrites, not "allowing" technologies such as telephone, computers, or electricity UNLESS it makes them money through their well-shielded enterprises.

Here in Pennsylvania, we are surrounded by these thoughtless, self-serving miserable people. Outsiders think they are "cute" or a tourist attraction, yet we know how much pain they bring to our community. We do everything we can, every single day, to show them the disrespect that they deserve, with hopes that they just go away and live in the dark.

Please do not admire or encourage the Amish. They world would be a much better place without them bringing down society.

[honeybee33]

wow. way to bring the hate, Modern Mom!

Look, we're all very, very different from each other and we're all just trying to share the planet. We can choose to vilify those who are different from us or we can choose to learn what we can from those differences. The point of this article is the latter, right? ;-)

[Josh Stein]

Amish are like any other culture - there are good ones and bad ones. I'm from very near Ohio's Amish Country, and there are a number of Amish that are good friends of our family. Similarly, there are ones that are despicable human beings. Just like us "English."

[CitizenKnow]

Point #2- working hard is not so much a virtue, but a fact of life... because well- they have no other choice. in other words- since they don't take advantage of modern technology, they have to work much harder to produce less output then a agricultural producer who does.

[Rob Bennett]

When one of the Amish farms burn down, all the other families get together to rebuild it.

That's insurance without the fraud!

Rob

[LadyoftheLake]

This is the first time I've been to this site and Modern Mom's comments made my heart hurt. A "modern mom" would be more enlightened and more tolerant. Maybe she needs to go back to the 1930s or 40's when we had no tolerance for blacks, hispanics, catholics, jews or gays. I live near an Amish community and have seen nothing wrong with the way the Amish conduct themselves. Why would Modern Mom go out of her way to show the Amish disrespect. She sounds like a bitter old lady to me.

[scott jewell]

The Amish do live a simpler life and try to avoid secular society, but cannot avoid it forever. Slowly the modern world is creeping into their culture The high tech global village is ubiquitous and will eventually force change upon them. I see the Amish like all other old cultures they either conform to social change or die.