[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry's money (was Ron, Harry, Molly, Money)

[Jesta Hijinx]

No: HPFGUIDX 59848


>Felina:
>But given the Dursleys' material orientation, perhaps he overheard or
>witnessed budgeting and planning there.
>
>Even given that, I would think the natural temptation would be to
>rebel against that.  :-)  I'm kind of amazed he didn't go on a
>spending spree right after he opened the Gringott's vault.
>
>me:
>I have to disagree. I think Harry's got a good enough head on his
>shoulders to know this is *all* the money he's got at least until
>he's out making his own money. I would imagine he'd have to figure on
>being prepared for at least 6 months after he leaves Hogwarts for
>some sort of living expenses. I *don't* see him going back to Privet
>Drive after he's finally done with Hogwarts. He does splurge here and
>there, but remember in PoA how much self control he had when it came
>to the Firebolt and buying vs just looking. He probably could have
>bought it and had money left over, but he himself (don't have the
>exact quote) made it a point that he's got several years of Hogwarts
>left. I think he budgets himself and takes out enough money at the
>beginning of each summer to cover his Hogwarts expenses (books, etc.)
>plus a *little* extra for some spending money.
>
Oh, I was speaking a *little* tongue in cheek, Sen - and as another poster 
graciously reminded me, he almost did get a non-pewter cauldron until Hagrid 
reminded him.  And we definitely see that he is tempted by all the wonderful 
things to buy - but doesn't.  Maybe just a sensation that his good luck may 
not last?

You use an interesting and common phrase - "good head on his shoulders".  
Doubtless.  Harry has an amazing amoutn of maturity and self-control, 
without feeling too beaten down, given his upbringing.  It boils down to an 
interesting philosophical question that underlies how some writers write, 
and even how some social thinkers think - "nature v. nurture".  Which is 
more important?

I tend to favor a 50/50 split myself - but it's kind of interesting to try 
to figure out which JKR might think is more important, or whether she thinks 
they're equally important.  ("The choices we make" theme is not really 
relevant to my thought here, since it's an outcome of the balance of these 
two elemental forces.)  Is Harry's parentage and innate wizarding talent and 
the things the Sorting Hat sees in him more important, or is the way he was 
raised by the Dursleys more important to the formation of his character?  
(The latter gave him humility, certainly, a dislike for too much attention, 
a sense of self-preservation - but none of the mean qualities.)

Yes, Harry did calculate that he couldn't splurge on the Firebolt - you're 
right.  I'm just speculating on how he came by the financial knowledge (or 
is supposed to in canon).  My point:  if you don't handle money as a child, 
you don't really understand how it works.  Money management and budgeting 
are *not* instinctive.  I'm not a stupid lady by any stretch of the 
imagination, but I'm not a financial genius, and I've always been way behind 
the learning curve when it comes to finance and such things because money 
was pretty much kept from me as a child, along with a discussion of how much 
things cost - not because my parents wanted to shelter me and see that I had 
an enchanted childhood as much as that, as my stepfather charmingly told me 
when I was 17 and discussing college, they'd gotten tired of spending money 
on kids, and he didn't believe women should go to college and he wasn't 
going to pay one dime toward my college education - although if I wanted to 
go to a "finishing school", that would probably be okay.  They didn't want 
me to know how much things cost because they didn't want me to calculate 
that we *could* afford this or that, they just didn't want me to have it.  
My mom squirrelled away all of my dad's child support payments in a savings 
account for college, but since the payments were fixed almost two decades 
before at a rate that did not kepe up with inflation, there wasn't nearly 
enough,a nd she had this fantasy that I would live at home with her always 
and be doled out tuition payments and book money and "still have some left 
over at the end".  Yet I wasn't allowed to get a summer or evening job to 
make up the difference, because again I was a single girl and shouldn't be 
out, should be home helping with the housework (and no, I wasn't ever paid 
for chores or good grades, not even the token quarter - I was still getting 
a 50 cent a week allowance in high school).  I was told when I broached how 
I might get a used car that "you need to save your pennies - single women 
shouldn't own cars anyway, but maybe when you're about 35, you'll have 
enough, because we'll probably be gone by then".  No discussion of 
financing, loans, how mortgages worked...in short, nothing *practical* about 
investing, things like 401(K)s and such.

Sorry for the lengthy personal digression, but I'm just trying to point out: 
  I had *no* idea entering high school of the relationship between type of 
work and salary, salary and how much things cost, etc. due to that knowledge 
being deliberately kept from me.  I barely figured out stuff like checkign 
accounts and compound interest from classwork on personal finance before 
graduating.  (I had history and AP English and French down cold, however, 
and could play the flute and oboe and lettered in band and drama.  ;-))  I 
did go a little crazy, especially when my mom died, with my first two credit 
cards and some of my inheritance - although give me credit, I used most of 
it to finish college, including a move to another state to a better history 
department - just because there was no one there with a forbidding frown to 
tell me "no".  I do wish I'd saved a little more of it, but I got the degree 
- didn't flunk out or find myself a quarter away and unable to afford 
tuition and books - but it took learning.  Harry is obviously written to be 
a level-headed common sense kid and we're meant to buy that he comes by this 
restraint naturally - so I buy it for the purposes of the books.  :-)  All 
I'm saying is, it really is not something that comes naturally to most 
people (I had a better time of it than about 50% of my friends, in the end).

Felinia

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