Brett_Cameron
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Me too. I'm afraid "smart people" are a dime a dozen. Financially smart people are rare in my experience.
You don't have to be smart to save. You don't have to be smart to live a balanced frugal lifestyle. Just disciplined like maybe some invocations of Boglehead type thinking.
You do have to be financially smart to invest successfully in stocks/bonds and achieve above average returns. And if you invest, you don't know that you made smart (or lucky) decisions until well after the fact. So I guess the test of whether you are financially smart in this way is administered by the markets. And you don't really know until near the end of your life if you passed that test.
P.S. I've enjoyed reading all the other theories and experiences in this thread.
There was woman from MS, Oleola James, I think, that gained a little fame a few years ago. She had spent a lifetime washing and ironing laundry for very little money. She had never finished high School, IIRC yet she amassed enough savings that she established a scholarship fund at one of the state universities with her life savings of between $100-$200k.
She wanted to be an inspiration to young, under educated black girls that they can work hard and be successful.