1970s Money Habits Not Taught Today... That We Need in 2025

Have you ever wondered how your parents raised a whole family on a single income, fed everyone on casseroles and still had enough left over for a shag carpet and those fondue pots they used to get? Yeah, I know, Me too. Here's the thing. The 1970s, they weren't easy. Sky high inflation, in fact, stagflation gas lines were a mile long. Interest rates that would make your eyes water. But somehow people made it work. Not because they had more, but because they needed less and expected less and wasted less. And that just might be exactly what we need now. So we're going to look at that. The 1970s were economically wild. Stagflation, sky high inflation with a sluggish economy, double digit inflation by the end of the decade, I mean in the teens in dealing with it, mortgage rates, I mean we're complaining about six and six and a half percent. They were over 15% back in the 70s we had oil shortages. I remember if you had an odd numbered license plate, you could go to gas on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday lines to get gas were miles long. And the stock market, it was barely moving like in real terms for 10 years. It was called the lost decade. It was kind of an environment that forced people to tighten their belts to literally and figuratively and financially tighten them belts. To sit back and say, how do we do this? How do we navigate this? Because this is the environment we're in. And out of that pressure came some of what I think are some of the most practical down to earth money habits we've ever seen. And guess what? Inflation's back, debt is climbing, interest rates are up. Now, we are not in the exact same storm. And Lord knows, hopefully we never get to that point. But we're definitely sailing in some familiar waters if you lived through the seventies like I did. So here's the thing. I think we can relearn some things from that decade and how to use it to build wealth today. And I want to break it down for you. All right, so we're going to talk about a couple of those habits from, from the 1970s that maybe will help us today. And the first one is cash was king. See, back in the 1970s, there was no tap to pay. There were no digital wallets, there was no autofill checkouts. There was none of that. And it wasn't like the cart abandonment emails that were haunting you at 11:47pm before the deadline and the sale ran out. Listen, in the 70s, if you didn't have the cash, you didn't buy the thing that's it, Period, end of story. There was no foreign installment plans, no interest free options, nothing. Credit cards, they're rare. In the 1970s, only about 15% of Americans ever had a credit card. By 1975, it increased to maybe 30%. But if you had a credit card in the 70s, you treated it like, like plutonium, like dangerously powerful, not to be messed with casually, kind of plutonium. We didn't carry balances. It was something that you fixed fast if you had a balance, not something that you used to finance your brunches on Sunday. But see, today it's a whole different game. See, we've been indoctrinated into this environment of buy now, buy, pay later, or pain later, however you want to look at it. Because over 80% of people today now have at least one credit card. Most of them carry a balance. And we've seen how some of them have rebranded debt as a strategy and that interest as just part of the game. See, the tool didn't change, but the mind mindset did. And now with interest rates pushing 20 to 29%, that little piece of plastic is less of a convenience and more of a slow leak in your financial boat. And it can turn into a huge leak in your financial boat if we're not careful. So think about this while swiping our way into financial quicksand. Autopay, buy now, pay later, and subscriptions that you forgot you signed up for during the free trial in 2022. It's literally a death by a thousand invisible transactions. So here's what I think this tells us for today. Okay? How do we bring this to today? I think I want you to try a cash only challenge. Now, I know this is like blasphemy. What do you mean cash only change? Most of us don't even carry cash. But truly try it for seven days. Seven days only. No credit, no debit, no tap and go. Just cash. Count out, count out the greenbacks. Do it, okay? Or use a single checking account for all your spending so you see the money moving, okay? When we start to see that physical money moving, all of a sudden it has a different element in our psyche, okay? It'll change how you spend, I guarantee it. You know, let's bring back some of that 1970s style discipline with 2025 tools. That's, that's how we're going to win the money game on purpose. And so it's, it's important to start to understand how this, this plays out. Because the proliferation of credit cards in our environment, in our economy has been dramatic. I mean, right now there's over 520 million credit cards in circulation in the US alone. In the US alone, okay? It's now mainstream and expected as a process. And we wonder why people are carrying balances closing in on five figures, average balances closing in on five figures. And only about 40, 45% of those folks are paying the credit card balances off each and every month, which means that the rest of them, the 55% plus, are paying 20 to 30% interest on those balances. You can't get ahead that way. You can't get ahead that way. So that's habit number one. Habit number two. Back then, diy, it wasn't cute. It was necessary. Okay? If your vacuum broke in 1978, you didn't replace it. You called Uncle Joe. Now, my dad's name was Joe, and we had a running. A running joke. My dad was an engineer, chemical, plastics engineer. So inevitably he would bring epoxy, cement, duct tape, or electrical tape back from work and he would patch all the stuff and he would tinker on the weekends to make it to fix it. If you had ripped jeans back then, you patched them. They weren't frugal because it was trendy. They were frugal because things were expensive and we had to do things differently. So let's just. How does that compare to today? Today we actually throw things out when a button pops off, you know, and then we'll, we'll spend $300 on decluttering. Maybe what we ought to be looking at is this idea of, of what can I fix? What can I take care of? Maybe we have to start to learn a fix it skill. Do you sew? Do you pass? Do you sharpen? Do you tighten? Do you want to. You know, even, even myself, I am not a handyman. But by any stretch, I mean, I can be, but I, but I certainly don't enjoy it. But there are things that I will do just, just to do it. One, it, it makes my, My wife happy. You know, happy wife, happy life. I get it. So. But it can save you tons and tons of money. We actually, we did a. It's called a. I don't know, it, it's a. We did a whitewash on our brick in the front of the house. And while we were going to have someone else do it, and, and the guy said, well, I can do it for you, but it's going to cost thousands of dollars. And I said, well, okay, we're going to go ahead and do it. And he Says, but it's not that hard to do. Okay. So we literally looked it up on YouTube, and my wife and I did it ourselves. We did that. We did the fireplace inside the house and whitewashed the brick and all that stuff. And it cost us a couple hundred bucks. And it was a thing that we got a chance to do together. So I think that it's something that you want to look at and say, hey, what can we do? That makes it a project that also brings us together and saves us some money in the process. Okay. And it wasn't like we couldn't afford it. It was just like, okay, does it make sense being discerning about how we're spending and how our money is working for us, being intentional with it? It's one of the things that I talk about in the wealth priority ladder is that our money has to be intentionally used to get the intentional results we want. Otherwise, it's going to flitter away. Okay, Habit number three. Smaller homes equals bigger peace. Families lived back then in modest homes. You know, you'd have one or two bathrooms, one car, one TV type of thing. In fact, our TVs, we had to get up and turn the station. But I grew up in a home that my mom and dad built. Bought in 1958, and that was the only home we ever had. We stayed in it until we moved my mom out about seven years ago. And we ended up getting rid of the home. We moved her into an assisted living, but it was the same home. Two bedrooms, you know, four baths. I mean, four bedrooms, two baths. And that was it. And, you know, we did some work on it and we added on. We put a pool in at some point, but we didn't know getting bigger homes. Bigger homes, bigger homes. We didn't use the home to stretch our budgets to the brink of financial stress, just to impress the neighbors. Was there a tendency or a leaning to a desire to do it? Yeah. In fact, my mom and dad would have a number of arguments. They thought about moving and bigger home and this. That we ended up not doing it. And you know what? Honestly, it didn't matter. We had our life. We had our family. We did the things that we do. We live in a beautiful home now here. Now can we get a bigger home? Yeah, we could, but we don't need it. So why are we doing it? Okay. And the challenge is that in today's world. Hey, y'. All, I just want to let you know that my book Building youg Money Machine is out. And it debuted at number four and number 24 on the USA Today bestseller list. Number four in business, number 24 of all books, all titles, all genres. It was big time. So if you have not got your copy of Building youg Money Machine, then the first question is why not? The second question is when? And the third thing is go to yourmoneymachinebook.com, grab your copy, then give me the information from your your book so I can make sure that I give you some special gifts, bonuses and wealth resources to accelerate your path to financial freedom. Let's get to the Refinance our homes and it eats up. And if we don't do it right, it's eating up 40 to 50% of our income. 40 to 50% income. And mind you, a lot of families are two income families and it's eating up 40 to 50% of that just to have some granite countertops or, you know, a Pinterest pantry. But does it really make a difference if, if you're looking at and saying that is stressing you out financially or it's eroding your financial future? So maybe what we need to do in this habit is to start to look at things and say, let me do a lifestyle audit. Ask is this really helping me build freedom? Or is it just debt with a pretty backsplash or something like that? And maybe this is a time for you to look at your spending. I am not here to tell you to stop spending. I'm not here to tell you to downsize. I'm not here to tell you to do any of that. But I am here to tell you this is that if you choose not to do the things with your money that will give you a financial future that is free, then we can't then when we get there and are stressed, complain about it because we made the choices to get us there. And that may be hard, that may be tough, that may be direct, but it's the truth. And the fact is that if we want a different financial future, we have to make different decisions today. Some of them may be difficult, some of them may mean that there's some efforts and other things that got to change. And I get it. I'm not saying that it's easy, but I am saying it's possible. Because difficult isn't impossible. It just means that it's difficult. That's it. All right. Habit number four, shopping. It was actually a plan. It wasn't a reflex. You know, there was no such thing as prime day and midnight scrolling and shopping and all that stuff. Shopping required pants, a Parking spot and patience and impulse control wasn't a mindset. It was built into the process. If, like I said, if we couldn't afford it, it wasn't bought. You know, today though, it's one click checkout, it's same day dopamine deliveries. It's a totally different, different deal. This is why I tell people sometimes if you find that there's this tendency to do impulse buying and shopping because it's so convenient, so it's at your fingertips, whether you're scrolling on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, or just on the Internet or Amazon. You just, you can buy really quickly, really easily, no friction. So I tell my clients sometimes that have this difficulty, use a 72 hour rule, wait three days, write what you want down, put it in the cart, but leave it, leave it behind, okay? And in 72 hours, if there's still that need for it, that desire for it and you still want it, great, okay? If you don't, then you cancel it out. Money saved. But don't allow the immediate urgency or the immediate impulse or the immediate marketing message to go, oh, this is going away. I'll never get this again. Trust me, you'll get it again. The question is, do you really need it? Okay, how much stuff do we buy and shop for that maybe we don't necessarily need? So use a 72 hour rule here to help you out then. Number five, habit. Number five, meals. They were basic and that was fine. You know, dinner was spaghetti or casserole, tuna surprise. And not for me. But leftovers, they weren't sad. They were Tuesday, Wednesday. Okay, I love leftovers. I know some people don't, but I'm one of those that. So my wife can make something and I'll eat it. I'll eat it for three meals, but I love it. That's okay. Today, doordash. Doordash, because we don't have the time, you know, and then you scroll 90 minutes of the time you don't have, deciding what the heck you're going to order from doordash. And then you pay, you know, 30% in fees to get it. All right? So these are things that I think we just take for granted because they are part of our way of life. Yet we don't see how it can erode our financial future. Okay, now again, I'm not saying not to do it. I'm just saying that if you're gonna do it, be conscious, be aware, know exactly what it's costing and what exactly you're getting out of it. Okay? So what could you do differently? Well, for this habit, maybe cook three to four times a week, plan the meals so they stretch out a little bit, use the leftovers, save the fancy recipes for maybe a weekend. I don't. My wife, there's, there's. Sometimes she cooks. I said, what do we have? And she says, it's a surprise. Which is her code word for I cleaned out the refrigerator, okay? And I, I'll always joke around because my wife is a wonderful cook, okay? So it doesn't matter what she puts in. So she's a wonderful cook. But I say, I say our meals, they're like one one night stands. They truly are. Because, because we're never gonna have the same meal twice. Because she doesn't use recipes, she doesn't remember what she puts in. And so if I really love it, don't fall in love, because she's not gonna make it the same the next time. But there's something to be said for cooking at home, meal planning and doing that. All right, Habit number six, brown bags, they save big bucks. So eating out was really for special occasions for us. Even when I went into the workforce, I would bring my lunches, you know, whether it was a sandwich and some juice or water, an apple or something, that was the game we played. And so instead of going and getting a $20 sandwich and a $6 coffee every single day, I would bring my lunch two, three times a week. And it saved me, literally saved me thousands of dollars. And I, and I think we can do that now. So one of the things that you can do with this habit, if you're starting to see that you're spending a lot of money on lunches and things on a daily basis, maybe, just maybe take a couple of those lunches, two or three of them a week, and say, I'm going to bring a lunch. 1. It's probably going to be healthier. It's certainly going to be more cost effective, and you get to have the choice and maybe even enjoy it more in that process of doing that. So I don't know, I'd try to bring a lunch two to three times a week here. That leads me to habit number seven, budgeting. Back then, it was done by hand. There were no spreadsheets. My mom didn't have a budgeting app. She had a calculator. She had a checkbook and an honest moment with an electric bill. And truth be told, dad was probably more of the budgeter than, than mom. So today we swipe, we tap, we pray it doesn't that it doesn't bounce. I mean, we're not really watching it. We're not, not, not doing that. And I know a lot of people have disdain for the idea of budgets. Here's how I want to look at it. Budgeting isn't about restraining you, it's not about deprivation. Budgeting is about direction. I would rather you look at it as a plan. When you know you have a certain amount of dollars coming in, have you planned for those dollars to do the things they can do for you? So it optimizes your freedom and your wealth building journey. That's the purpose of it. It's not to tell you you can't do something. It's to tell the dollars to do the right things so you can maximize your life. And that's what I know we all want. And so if it were me on this habit, try it. Grab a budgeting app, grab a piece of paper for one month, see what every dollar is doing. Feel that you're making every decision so you're being intentional with each dollar. So you know that this one was earmarked for the meal. This mark is earmarked for the rent or the mortgage. This one was earmarked for my financial future. And you know that each dollar is doing its job just like an employee should. And then habit number eight, this, this one is, is fixed before you replace it. It's really easy for us to just replace things now. Some things you kind of go, eh, you know, the cost of replacing it is, is far cheaper and you just let it go. But bottom line is back then in the 70s, people didn't buy new until the old was so well and truly dead, they had no choice. We made it work till the edges of its soul were gone. That's what we did. Okay, but today, like we'll replace our iPhones every two years, every time a new one comes out. And I used to do that, I used to do that. I don't anymore because I look at it, I go, it's a phone. Do I need the best camera? No, that's my ego talking. And so I don't even know what I have. I think I have a 14, you know, an iPhone 14, I don't know. But there's nothing wrong. In fact, even some of my computers, we've bought refurb computers, you know, Apple, but refurb computers. But point being is that, that rather than constantly replacing, what can we do to fix it? Bring in, you know, a refurb model or something to save a little bit of money. So now you kind of ask yourself, is this something I can fix or is this something I can do without or can I find another solution, maybe used, refurbed, re engineered that I could use. And that's kind of being resourceful. That's what we did in the 70s, at least my parents did in the 70s. And then habit number nine, cars were owned and not financed forever. See, back in the 70s, buying a car, that was a commitment, not a seven year financial trap with Bluetooth. I mean that, that's not the case. The average car back then cost a lot less. It cost about $4,000 and most people either paid cash or took out maximum of three year loan. And once it was paid off, they kept the car for a long time. My dad used to buy the fleet cars, the used fleet cars from his company that he worked for. And so he'd buy used and we would keep the car for seven, eight, nine years. And the car stayed in the driveway, it kept going and we would repair it and we would do the things and maybe there was a questionable paint job or two, but, but that's the thing. No one just sat there and said, oh my gosh, I just paid off my car, so let me go trade it in for something new and go back into the debt. All right, Today's different and I get it. The average new car is not $4,000, it's 48,000. The average loan is six, seven even seven plus years. That's scary. Most people are living in negative equity in their vehicles and they're rolling a Ponzi scheme, if you will, from car to car that is going to catch up to them one day, one day down the road where they can't roll it over or it just gets too astronomically expensive. We've normalized luxury instead of reliability. We've normalized car payments instead of ownership. A car, frankly, it's a depreciating asset. It's meant to get you from point A to point B. I know we want to drive something nice. I drive a nice car. Now we intend to keep our cars seven to 10 years. And that's kind of what we do. Cars will depreciate the minute you drive off the lot and you lose 40% of the value. So you start behind the eight ball if you're not careful. And so if you're in a situation where we're trying to build wealth, maybe taking some of the 70s habits might be good here to sit back and say, let me buy a two year used car that comes with the warranty and all that stuff on it and keep the car for seven to 10 years. If you're going to finance it, you finance it for no more than 36 to 42 months. So three, three and a half years, you're not going to go beyond that. You're not doing seven year financing on a vehicle that puts you so upside down in the equity you can't get out of it. Every extra year you drive a paid off car is money back in your pocket, money that can go into your money machine. Okay? And as long as it's safe and gets you to work, then why are we worried about it? Who are we trying to impress? You know, I get it. I love nice cars, I love nice things, okay? But, but this one, depending on your facts, age, stage and circumstances, it shouldn't be draining our wealth. It shouldn't be draining our financial future. Okay, then number 10, generic was genius back then. The fact of the matter is we didn't have all these fancy labels in the 70s. There was a white label packaging, no mascots, no hype. It just said corn flakes. That's it. Okay? Today we pay for labels, not products. We pay for the brand, not products. That's marketing, that's not value. It's the same cornflakes, okay? So I look at things and say, let's look at the ingredients. We want quality ingredients because like we, we get quality stuff, primarily health concerns and all that stuff, with my history and cancer and everything. So we're not, we're not skimping on that. But. So we look at the ingredients, but we're not sitting back saying it has to be a brand name, it just has to be quality ingredients. So maybe the thing to do with this habit is to look at the stuff in your pantry that are staples and start asking yourself, is there a store brand that is just as good or not better, that is more cost effective? And boom, your grocery bill, which is way up right now, drops 10, 15, maybe as much as 30%. But only if you make these changes, right? And then this one I had to throw in here. Habit number 11 is coupons were a community sport and they literally were. I mean, my dad, on a Saturday, okay, he would sit with all the newspapers and he would clip coupons. He knew where those coupons were and he knew he was getting the chicken from Ralph's. He was going to get this from that store and this from that store. And he literally mapped out his route to get the deals to go grocery shopping. But the funny thing was is the neighbors knew that my dad Joe knew the coupons and knew the stores to go to. So on Saturday mornings, the neighbors would call my dad and say, all right, here's my shopping list. Where do I go? And so literally, this coupon clipping became this community sport and everything to allow you to do it. Now, today we have more tools, apps, and referral codes, but fewer shared strategies. We don't do that for people. But here's. Here's what I would do now. Before I buy anything online, I will search for a promo code. I mean, why not? If I can get 10 or 20% off, why not? Okay, but if you know of friends that might be using the same thing, maybe you start a text group with friends and share the deals and the codes so everyone wins. Okay, so now you all are in your own little group and fighting inflation like an inflation fighting squad. I mean, these are the things that we did in the 70s and my parents did in the 70s that we could adapt into today's time to help us all navigate as cost of living is up, interest rates are up, you know, uncertainty is up. All those things, okay, and then. And then habit 12. Habit 12, I think, is one of the most important ones. And is this debt was scary as it should be. Okay? Credit cards weren't an everyday tool. They were a last resort and everything. But yet today, we've normalized carrying balances. We've normalized financing lifestyles. We've normalized drowning and minimum payments. We've normalized all of it. And because we've normalized it, we just think that's the way it is. That's the way it's always been. But it hasn't always been that way. And it doesn't need to always be that way. Okay? Do I have debt? Yeah, I do. I have a mortgage. That's it. Okay? We carry no credit card debt. We have no car payments. We don't do that because I know what it does to the future. Now. Some folks are indoctrinated to it, and you might be too. But maybe we need to start pushing back. Maybe we need to start looking at our life choices, our money choices, our finance choices. And I can hear it. Some people say, well, you don't know what my circumstances are. No, I do. I do. I've been there. I've been where I couldn't pay a bill. I've been where I've been at the edges of my check. But I've also. I also know that there are choices we can make, even if they're difficult Choices, there's still choices we can make. And when we start to make those different choices, things can start to shift for us. Make debt to an uncomfortable thing for you. Again, focus on the payoff. If you don't know how to get out of debt, then I want you to go to get my debt breakthrough calculator. It's free. You'll get a short training, you'll get a template that allow you to do it. Get yourself on a debt payment plan. Go to melabraham.com no debt. Let's get it done. Let's get you out of there. And get yourself away from giving someone their wealth by paying them interest and let's start putting the money to work for you so you someone's paying you interest and building your wealth, okay? Stop treating debt like it's a roommate, okay? I know that's hard. I know that, that it goes against the grain of what everyone's doing and you know, people are trying to just make it. But this is a time to make critical decisions. This is a time to, to look at things from a new set of, of eyes and say, I gotta be real if I truly want that financial freedom, which you deserve. It is your birthright, but it doesn't mean it comes without work, without effort, without discipline. And so what that's gonna require you is to make some different decisions. Building wealth is 80% behaviors. And behaviors are driven by habits and decisions and thinking. So if we can change those behaviors, we'll change your financial destiny. I promise. The math will math out the 70s. They weren't easy, but they were wise. They taught people some things. They taught people to spend with intention, okay? To live within their means, to build peace before status. And in 2025, with inflation creeping back in, interest rates up, life feels more expensive than it, than it ever has and uncertain. So maybe the answer isn't more. Maybe the answer is living better with less. Let's look at it. Let's bring back some of the 1970s habits that kept people grounded and even went in an economy that at the time was upside down. Okay, listen, doing this video as I tried to get ready for brought back a lot of memories. And a lot of them were fond memories, but at the same time they were wake up calls to realize how far we've gone away from that grounded approach to finance, to money, and to our living. And it really is something that I hope that you'll take and look at it and say, huh, maybe I can look at it through a different set of eyes. In fact, What I'd love to do is I'd love to hear from you which One of the 1970s habits hit you and that you're going to put into your life. Drop it in a comment, drop it in a dm, let me know. And if you haven't hit the like button, do that while you're at it. And stay subscribed to this channel. We'll do some more fun things like this, but I think this one really brings home some messages that matter, that if we just make sure that we use our money in the proper way, we can actually build the life we want. Okay, but that means that we need to be discerning, we need to be disciplined, we need to make different decisions. All right? I'm here for you. I'm here to help you on that journey, to maybe shine the light, to give you perspective, to give you a little bit of guidance. And sometimes maybe it's a kick in the butt and maybe this one was all right, but it's done with love, it's done with caring, because it's done with purpose. Because I believe that financial freedom is your birthright, and I want you to go claim it. All right? Until I get a chance to see another one of these or on your road to financial freedom, always, always strive to live a life that outlives you. See you next one. Cheers. Thank you for listening to the affluent Entrepreneur show with me, your host, Mel Abraham. If you want to achieve financial liberation to create an affluent lifestyle, join me in the affluent entrepreneur Facebook group now by going to melabraham.com group and I'll see you. And that's it for this episode of Building your Money Machine, where we help you learn how to master your money, eliminate financial stress, and live a life of choice. If you found this valuable or helpful to you, here's what I'd love for you to do. If you do me a favor, go to Apple, Apple Podcast, or wherever you're listening to this podcast and rate and review the show. It helps us tremendously to keep us at the top of the list this so we can continue to get this information and this message out to people. Because I truly believe that financial freedom is your birthright and I want to help each and every one of you claim it. Thanks so much.