Aaron Clarey, author of Enjoy the Decline: Accepting and Living with the Death of the United States, sent me a copy recently of his new book Bachelor Pad Economics: The Financial Advice Bible for Men. It is a 506 page book that lays out a plan for a number of different areas of the bachelor’s life such as Education, Career, Entrepreneurship, Girls, Economics and End of Life Planning. The purpose of the book is to be a reference guide for guys of all ages, to be consulted upon based on where you are in life.
The book teaches guys how to live on a cheap budget, how to pay taxes, understand the market and live in a minimalistic fashion. For example, buy a cheap car. Then you don’t have to worry if someone scratches it or even if it gets totaled. According to Clarey, it’s best to have two of these cheap cars so when one breaks down, you can use the other one to get to work or “need a car with a working heater because it’s January.” In order to maintain your car or house, turn to YouTube. It is full of instructional videos that show you step by step how to fix something. I have to admit this is true. I google constantly to learn how to fix a toilet or even reset my BMW 328i tire pressure monitor.
The book is a fun read except for the part in end of life planning where he tells readers to consider the Smith and Wesson Retirement Plan: “Albeit the most dramatic bit of advice in this entire book, for the love of god don’t destroy your kids’ inheritance, let alone their sanity watching you painfully waste away in a nursing home. Have the decency and self-respect to euthanize yourself.”
Really Aaron? What kind of advice is this? It’s depressing, hopeless and mean-spirited. Committing suicide may scar the kids and grandkids for life and teaches people that being old makes one worthless. And to kill oneself so that the kids can have a few bucks? Really? Older men already tend to feel worthless and suicidal. Why add fuel to the fire? You are a champion of men, why in their final days would you want them to off themselves so the kids and grandkids can get some rent money? I think more compassion for the elderly is called for here. That’s my two cents.
Otherwise the book is engaging and full of life strategies that men, both younger and older ones, will learn and benefit from, or at least get the reader thinking about ways to live more freely and without debt.
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