You know how Internet people always say that the older they get, the more they understand Al Bundy?

I'm at the point where I understand the solitary curmudgeon old guy who never talked to anybody and lived in a small, but oddly well kept house. Then, when he passed, people were shocked to find out he had a million dollars in assets that he'd just casually socked away because he hated consumerism and didn't trust the man.

We thought that guy was crazy when we were kids.

Now I'm becoming that guy, saving a ton of cash*, because I see the consumerism pyramid scheme and refuse to participate.

*By cash, I have cash, precious metals, some bonds, my house, and a very few stocks that I bought many years ago, watching them return nothing to me. Now I'm much more concerned with principal protection and inflation hedging than capital growth. Cash in and of itself is a Ponzi scheme, so you don't wanna have all your eggs in that basket.