Amish Retirement Plan

Over the holidays, my wife and I drove down to Middlefield, Ohio which is like the commercial capital of the Amish in my county. There's a large and growing Amish community around there and we drove through the residential areas on the way. Some of the Amish neighborhoods are mixed, like 75% Amish houses and some non-Amish families.

It's possible to tell whether a house is Amish or not from a mile away without really doing any detailed analysis. I think the obvious difference is in the level of maintenance of the property. The Amish properties are generally well maintained. All the outbuildings are painted, the shingles are fresh looking, the lawn is cut, there's no weeds, etc... The non-Amish houses will have more defects, especially any outbuildings. Like if there's a barn on an old farm property it won't be painted, or will be obviously damaged.

The Amish properties are better maintained because they have huge families and most of the Amish are handy, plus they have more time to invest in those projects. I replaced the shingles on my workshop roof a couple of years ago all by myself. It took several days of backbreaking labor in the sun and heat. If I had three brothers who still live in my area, plus 10 friends in the trades, it'd be a chore that would take an afternoon before a picnic. They have community resources that keep the cost of property maintenance down. For the non-Amish, property maintenance is expensive. In fact property ownership is really kind of a burden for office drone people.

Anyway, I think there's just a fundamental life strategy difference that's manifest in the property of non-Amish people and Amish people. The Amish invest in their own property, their family, and their community. The non Amish believe the system will take care of them.

All the non-Amish resources go into non-productive things like cars and toys, and excess money goes into the system via 401(k) plans, and social security, insurance, and the like. All that stuff is almost exactly like FTX, and all those financial institutions and instruments are run by Sam Bankman Frieds.