Win The Money Game with Lessons from Old Ironsides

Posted On 21 October 2021

Last updated on April 9th, 2024

Today, October 21, 2021, marks the 224^th anniversary of the launch of the USS Constitution, or as it is also known by its nickname – Old Ironsides. She is the oldest ship still afloat! As returning visitors know, I enjoy history and I would like to share some lessons from the warship we can apply to our personal finances. First, for those of you who are not familiar with the USS Constitution, let me give you some of the ship’s background.

Congress knew that the recently created United States needed a navy. Due to Barbary pirates seizing American vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, Congress passed the Naval Act of 1794, which allowed for the building of six frigates. During the construction of the ships there was a peace agreement, and only three of the original six ships were ever completed.

These original ships were designed to meet a young country’s special needs. The United States would not be able to match the navies of other countries in numbers. As a result, they had to do something different.

These ships were built to be more durable than commercial ships of the time. Her hull consists of 21 inches of solid oak! This incredibly strong hull is how the USS Constitution got her nickname during the war of 1812. During one of the battles, one of the American sailors exclaimed that the cannon balls just bounced off the sides of the ship as if they were made of iron.

Old Ironsides was longer and narrower than other ships in her class. This allowed her to be more maneuverable. She was also more heavily armed than other similar sized ships. These factors gave the United States Navy an advantage in naval battles.

Design Your Finances

While we are not fighting other countries, we all conduct financial battle against banks, marketers, stores, and the economy. Money is a way that we can keep score and tell if we are winning or losing. When we keep our eyes and ears open, we are able to learn many lessons.

It is our responsibility to create our own personal financial plan, or budget. Call it what you want. We need to decide where do we want to go financially. What things can we do to change our income or expenses?

Increasing our net worth is really simple (although tougher to implement!). When we earn more than we spend, we gain wealth. To improve our finances, we need to either increase our income or reduce our spending. We can do BOTH as well and speed up the process!

If At First You Don’t Succeed…

A ship the size of Constitution had never been built in the shipyard in Boston. Careful planning was done to make sure they could launch the ship. They had to extend the launching way and the wharf in order to accommodate a ship that size.

She was scheduled to be launched on September 20^th. With great anticipation the ropes were cut and the ship slid 27 feet, then came to a stop! They needed high tide to launch the ship and the tide was starting to ebb. Excitement turned to disappointment (and frustration for the ship builder!). Due to her weight, part of the ways had settled half an inch, so workers ended up jacking up the ship two inches and the launch was rescheduled for the 22^nd.

With great excitement, the ropes holding Constitution in place were cut with axes. The ship slid down the ways 31 feet before stopping. Another failure! Finally, they were able to launch the ship on October 21, 1797.

The lesson in the launching of this ship is to have persistence. Things will not always work out as planned. Remember that if you are doing something that you have never done before, there will be challenges and setbacks. People will laugh and ridicule you just like they did the ship builder who could not launch the ship he built. If you stick with your plans (and make adjustments as needed) like he did, you will succeed.

Thick Hull

The Third lesson we can learn from Old Ironsides has to do with her hull. The thick oak hull was a common thickness for warships of the time. When I first learned how thick the hull was, I was amazed! It seemed so incredibly thick. These thick hulls were necessary to survive cannonballs.

This thick, oak hull can be likened to our emergency funds. While they will not chart our course or propel us to our goals, they will protect us during challenging times. These emergency funds are what can keep us from getting sunk when the cannonballs in life are fired at us.

At first sight, the ship doesn’t look as though the hull is as thick as it truly is. The same applies to emergency cash. We don’t look like we have extra cash on hand. It also does not do anything particularly exciting. The point of emergency cash, though, is to keep the excitement out of our finances!

More Heavily Armed

If we want to win financially, we must continually learn. We must develop our financial IQ if we are going to stand a chance in this money game that we are all involved with. Sometimes we set out to learn these lessons, other times they show up unexpectedly.

When we learn what it is that businesses and their marketers do to convince us to give them our money, we start to put ourselves in a position to win. We also need to do our own research. Our financial plan will give us direction and we can make better financial decisions because we have a destination in mind.

Old Ironsides was more heavily armed than the typical ship her size. She was designed to outgun the enemy. We can outgun the enemy through researching what is available, what we can do, and what they can do. Like the boy scouts are taught: Be prepared.

Agility

The final lesson we can learn is to have agility. Old Ironsides was not only heavily armed, she was designed to be faster than most ships. This was so that she could chase (and catch) an enemy, or if needed, she could escape a bad situation.

This agility is something that we can gain from self-employment, side hustles, and multiple streams of income. As a self-employed person, we can add more customers, another product line, or service. With freelance work and side hustles we can add or replace a client or source of income if it is no longer working for us.

Employees that are paid by the hour or are on salary can do very little to increase their income, and as a result don’t have much financial agility. The most effective way they can increase their income is to get a different job, and that can be a challenge.

People are now making it known that they are not happy with some of the working conditions in the US. More and more people are starting their own business, or they are becoming freelancers. This can give people more financial agility in their lives.

Ship and Museum

As I mentioned earlier, Old Ironsides is the oldest ship still afloat. If you are in the Boston area, the ship and museum are open for tours. When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to tour the ship. This is an amazing piece of history I would encourage you to see for yourself.

Even if you are not able to visit Old Ironsides, you can learn lessons from what a young country did when starting its navy. These can then be applied in our lives and our finances to increase our chances of wining.