Why Birds Never Have Any Money

I love birds, bless them, but they are always flat broke. If you ask a bird for a loan, they can’t give you one. If you try to collect for the newspaper you use for their cage, they’ll stiff you every time. Forget about them chipping in for that fancy new bird feeder you just bought. They couldn’t pay you if they wanted to.

Why? Because birds never have any money.

So why are birds always penniless? If you have window bird feeders like me you may know the answer.

You see, when you first fill a bird feeder with a lot of food, they waste as much as they can. There is so much food, they don’t know what to do with it all. They’ll flip their head from side to side and actually rake birdseed from the feeder to the ground. “Isn’t this great?!” They must think. “We have more seed than we could eat in a whole week here! So much I can take a bite and then throw 5 bites on the ground!!!”

Yet then an interesting thing happens. Once the feeder gets down to the last 10% of the seed or so, the wasting tends to slow significantly or even stop. Suddenly, every single seed is picked and eaten. There is no rush to empty the bowl. Birds instead choose to take their time and eat every morsel.

Sometimes the last 10% of a bird feeder can last times longer than the first 90%.

You may be asking why I’m so concerned with birds and their financial well being. The reason is humans often behave in the same way as birds when it comes to money. Many people have experienced the pure joy of balancing the checkbook and finding they made a mistake in their favor. Instead of a negative balance, there’s an extra $100 or so originally thought of as gone. What happens with that money? After all it’s found money. It’s a bonus.

When we get a sum of money higher than what we expect, then the temptation is high to spend the difference. A Christmas bonus might be spent on gifts yes, but we might also use what we don’t on gifts as a bonus and because it’s a bonus, we can blow the extra on non-necessities. Maybe you do some consulting on the side once or twice a year..we can call that “mad money” – Nice, drinks all around – on me! Maybe a rich uncle sends you an unexpected check for a couple thousand. That sounds like cruise money doesn’t it?

However, what do we have at the end of these splurges? How many of us woke up in January after a lot of spending in December to bills that stressed us into wanting counseling – if only we could affordcounseling. How many times have you splurged on something one day and a few days later the car radiator busts or the roof starts leaking? Doesn’t it urk you to struggle with a repair when you had the money just a day or two prior you used to buy that XBOX 360 and 20 game plus packs? It’s not as much fun now is it?

I am not advocating stinginess or not treating yourself. We all need to treat ourselves and our families and friends. But it is important to know even your found money is your money. It’s yours whether you spend it or not. It can be used for enjoyment yes, but do you want to be like the bird where you get down to the last 10% and it becomes ration time? Or would it be smarter to be like the chipmunk who grabs the seed and stores it away and enjoys it all winter long?

I’d suggest it’s better to set aside a percentage up front as your “mad money” you can blow on whatever you want. The rest can be put away. That way you get to both enjoy the abundance and benefit longer term from it.

Birds will always be broke because their little heads don’t allow for much foresight, plus they don’t have pockets. However, we have a choice and pockets. We can choose to enjoy it the way a bird does or enjoy some now, some later. It’s our money, even if unexpected, and should be treated with nearly the same forethought as a normal paycheck.