Thanksgiving Table

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues,
but the parent of all the others."
- Cicero

I often feel that I complain far too much, and my biggest complaints usually involve work or money. This is unfortunate as I know in my heart of hearts that many people in other places and other times have never had it so good. As an exercise in gratitude, I decided to create a different kind of "Thanksgiving Table" this Thanksgiving morning.

I put all of my expenses in a spreadsheet, divided each of these expenses by my annual income, and then multiplied that by the number of minutes in a 40-hour work week. The result is how many minutes I must work each week to pay for each item. Furthermore, instead of complaining about "high taxes", I looked up the services I receive for the federal, state, local, and property taxes I pay, and substituted those in place of the taxes I paid. This was very enlightening. Lastly, for maximum impact, I started the clock ticking on Monday morning and arranged the items roughly in the order of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

This exercise had nothing to do with comparing myself to anyone, so please don't take it that way. I'm well aware that there are millions of people in the world less fortunate than myself, and this post is in no way meant as braggadocio. I'm also aware that there are millions of people with more assets and/or income, and this exercise was also not meant to suggest that my financial situation is anything stellar. This article is not meant as a guilt trip for those readers who are rich, nor a put-down for those who are poor. This post is only a personal expression of gratitude and thanksgiving, but I do hope others will also find gratitude for their own situation, whatever that may be.

The bottom line is that I am truly humbled by how much I receive for such small effort on my part. I hope my complaining in 2008 is greatly reduced by meditation upon what I have discovered. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Day	Minutes	Finish Time	Expense	Comments
Monday		9:00 AM		Before I start the clock ticking, I want to acknowledge that many of the best things in life are free and many of the things I enjoy cannot be bought with money: a loving family, good health, and a free country.
Monday	7	9:07 AM	Water	Only had to work 7 minutes to provide the week's supply of clean water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. Sadly, this most basic of all needs is something many people on the planet don't have.
Monday	114	11:01 AM	Food	By 11AM on Monday, there is enough food for my entire family, and frankly, we eat very well. If we had to, we could easily survive on half our food budget.
Monday	143	1:24 PM	Shelter	Mortgage and all maintenance costs of our house and yard.
Monday	69	2:33 PM	Medical	Health insurance and out-of-pocket medical and dental expenses.
Monday	35	3:08 PM	Heat	This includes heating the house, as well as hot water and cooking.
Monday	4	3:12 PM	Local Police	Wow! 4 minutes of work to provide police protection for my safe neighborhood for the week.
Monday	4	3:16 PM	Fire and Rescue	And another 4 minutes to provide fire and rescue operations.
Monday	9	3:25 PM	Clothes	For the whole family...
Monday	37	4:02 PM	Defense	As near as I can figure, this is what it costs me per week for national defense. Not nearly as much as I would have thought.
Monday	5	4:07 PM	Justice	5 minutes a week to maintain all levels of our judicial protection system, the envy of the world.
Monday	4	4:11 PM	State Police	Additional police protection...
Monday	27	4:38 PM	Electric	Lights. Computer. Air conditioning. Everything you plug in.
Tuesday	99	10:17 AM	Social Security	As I have mentioned before, you will get back more than you probably expect.
Tuesday	33	10:50 AM	Medicare	Of course I'm not eligible yet, but I've had several relatives that were provided hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical assistance after age 65. This is not to be taken for granted.
Tuesday	3	10:53 AM	Unemployment	Safety net for my job.
Tuesday	44	11:37 AM	Local Schools	This is one of the bigger expenses and is also a bargain. Less than an hour of work per week sends all my kids to local schools ranked in the top 5% of the nation. I have been in these schools many times. They are good schools with good teachers.
Tuesday	40	12:17 PM	Colleges	Not a recipient of the college subsidies yet, but hopefully will be one day.
Tuesday	1	12:18 PM	Library	Incredible. One minute to provide for the library for the week. Our local library is huge and within walking distance of our house. My kids have been entertained for hours with literally thousands of books we checked out over the years.
Tuesday	6	12:24 PM	Trash/Recycling	Sure beats hauling it to the dump and the recycling center myself every week.
Tuesday	61	1:25 PM	Household	Soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, trash bags, etc. All the ongoing (non-food) consumables that keep the household running.
Tuesday	57	2:22 PM	Automobile	Depreciation, insurance, gasoline, maintenance. The whole works for two vehicles.
Tuesday	5	2:27 PM	Roads	Combined federal/state expenditures of my taxes for this item...
Tuesday	15	2:42 PM	Recreation	Taxes for local parks. Dues for neighborhood pool. Health club. Bicycles. Etc.
Tuesday	39	3:21 PM	Telecom	Two cell phones. Land line. Broadband Internet.
Tuesday	47	4:08 PM	Dining	Eating out twice a week for the whole family. Often this is a fairly nice place. A luxury to be sure...
Wednesday	78	9:26 AM	Vacation	Another indulgence...
Wednesday	261	1:47 PM	Charity	Gifts to charities and to others less fortunate than myself.
Wednesday	163	4:30 PM	Other Expenses	Things that I either don't care to track or to display to the world, plus taxes where I couldn't pinpoint where it was spent.
Thursday/Friday	990	5:00 PM	Savings	Yes, it's a lot. A little over 40% of gross income, which is our target. Basically, Thursday and Friday wages of every week go to savings.