Your everyday shoes are worn out, and you don't have a suitable replacement pair. Should you buy a new pair of shoes or wait another year, to try to stretch your money out? The answer is that you should buy a new pair of shoes, unless old and worn shoes are a conscious part of your image.

Money decisions first have to satisfy the living test. It's no good having money in the bank and starving yourself. That's obvious, and therefore easy enough to figure out; it's in the fine details that we come unstuck. Only you can answer any particular money question that arises, because only you are you. Your decision on any set of circumstances will depend on your lifestyle, your established savings pattern, your love of fine things, your family's needs and a million other considerations. That's why no one set of financial solutions fits everybody. We all have different goals and ambitions, and different ways of reaching them.

There are those who stop me in the street every now and then and throw down the gauntlet, saying: "I don't bother saving. I plan to work my whole life, and by then I'll have a pension and probably some kids who can bail me out."

So be it. It's your life, dude. Wear a giant safety pin through your nose, while you're at it. Perhaps one reason that I am such a proponent of saving is that I have no one other than myself to feed. I'm not depriving my kid of a pair of sneakers if I bang $200 into savings this month.

I have not earned a pension anywhere in the world. So my system has always been to assume that the last chapters of my life would involve me being either too old or too infirm to work. The plan was therefore to put myself into a situation where I would have a choice: have some savings to spend, or live in the gutter. Without a meaningful pension, it'll be my way or living on the highway. This is a mean old world, and nobody loves you when you're down and out. Since I won't qualify to spend my dotage in Bermuda, where kindness still exists, I'm going to be out in the real world, in a place like London, where old people are essentially chum, unless they have some money in the bank.

I'm not trying to scare you. If you're Bermudian, this society will find a way to take care of you, almost no matter what. So many good people do so much good work helping others here, that even the worst case spender, who has nothing to show for a lifetime of work (or equally, of indolence) will get by, if today is anything to go by.

The problem is that the future is unknown and unknowable. Yes, the likelihood is that Bermuda will remain a civilised and charming place where people understand that the welfare of one is the well-being of all. But circumstances change, and a severe weather experience, or a huge mistake by someone in authority, or any one of a hundred other things, might make Bermuda less hospitable by the time you're 65 and hoping to have someone else look after you.

So the smart thing to do is to prepare for the worst case. You needn't let it make you miserable or suicidal. Don't become a cynic. Just realise that bad things can happen, and the right move in almost any situation is to be ready in case a bad thing happens, whether or not you are a Boy Scout.

And if you reach the ripe old age of 100 without anything bad happening, which is possible in Bermuda, then be grateful for it and leave your money to your children or your favourite charity, rather than wishing you'd bought more useless junk and not saved so much. We may all be different, but ultimately, our needs, hopes and fears are all similar. Most of us believe that a lifetime's work for some security in our old age is a fair trade.

Your security will derive in part or in whole from your own efforts to create some savings. Don't sabotage matters by shrugging your shoulders and saying "Whatever". Do the right thing now. Because, hard as it is to believe, one day, with any luck, you'll be old enough and wise enough to understand that we only get one shot at this. Starting to care about your financial situation when you're 50 is OK, and may not be too late, but the earlier you start, the easier it is, and the better life you will have all the way to retirement and beyond.

Saving money brings mental discipline, reduces your fear of the unknown, and even encourages a degree of comfort. Putting a few bucks away every week or month seems like a small price to pay for benefits like that.

crombie@northrock.bm