There appears to be a movement that’s on the rise in America. It’s something that used to be commonplace but fell by the wayside with the advent of cheap goods and labor. With inflation still rearing its ugly head in our post Covid world, more of us are taking advantage of a tried and true method to get things done.
Asking our friends and neighbors for help.
I’m sure you’ve seen the videos of people in the Amish community raising a barn in a day. This not only displays their incredible craftsmanship, it also provides us with useful insight into the power of working together and helping our fellow man (or woman).
Yesterday, my neighbor offered to help me put new brakes on my car. By offering, I mean to say he did the work. I’d love to say I could do the job myself, but unless we’re talking about grass or grilling, I’m out of my element. The brakes themselves cost around $250 and it took him a little under 2 hours to complete the job.
Although I hadn’t received a recent quote on completing a brake job, I have paid hundreds or close to a thousand dollars for the same job in the past. The kindness of a neighbor to help his fellow man saved me a large chunk of change. This will allow me to divert the money I would’ve spent towards something else down the road.
Helping friends and neighbors was the default for most of us in our 20s. The majority of the time this correlated with a lack of spending power. Basically, you were starting out and didn’t have a choice but to ask for help. We can all remember the days of either being helped or helping someone else move into their new apartment or house. You were paid off with pizza or beer and a pat on the back.
As we get older and more financially secure, we begin to rely on paid services or craftsmen to help with such things. Rather than asking your “handy friend” for help fixing your toilet, you’ll call a plumber. That’s not a terrible idea of course, but you may end up spending twice as much for something that can be easily fixed by a friend. Believe it or not, they may actually enjoy the challenge of fixing something on your behalf.
Too often we let our pride get in the way. We’re all good at certain things. Some of us are great at cooking, working in the yard or fixing cars while others are better at building birdhouses, putting together a pergola or general household maintenance. The key is to have confidence in the things you know while also having confidence to admit the things you need help with.
All of this sounds great. You help me, I help you, everybody wins. This is very true on the surface, but it’s important to keep one very important rule in place otherwise you’re reliance on one another will sour.
Don’t take advantage.
Ask for help when you need it, that’s totally fine. If your friend or neighbor is willing to step in and assist in order to save you a buck or two, that’s fantastic. It’s important to either pay them back in kind. This can be in the form of cash, future services you may be good at or by some other means. What you don’t want to do is to rely on that same friend or neighbor for every little thing that goes wrong.
Saving some money when you can is great, but you don’t want to take advantage of someone’s kindness. The last thing you want to do is to lose a friend over something trivial. I speak from experience, it’s not worth it.
No amount of money can replace a good friend.
Some things are priceless.
