John Steinbeck and personal finance. Talk about some salacious clickbait! Whether or not you’re with me in the middle of the very niche Venn diagram between literature and personal finance, Steinbeck’s words of wisdom–intended for the experience of wet and dry years for farmers–apply in good times and bad. His accidental personal finance advice is worth remembering on your journey to financial independence.

Personal finance guru John Steinbeck on dry years

From Steinbeck’s masterful novel, East of Eden, the author delivers a gem of a hidden personal finance take when discussing drought conditions in the Salinas Valley of California. The full paragraph is below, but if it’s TL;DR for you Zoomers, the bolded sentences at the end are the money quote. And the words apply to nearly everyone’s financial situation at any given time, especially so lately given the market fluctuations of the last few years.

“I have spoken of the rich years when the rainfall was plentiful. But there were dry years too, and they put a terror on the valley. The water came in a thirty-year cycle. There would be five or six wet and wonderful years when there might be nineteen to twenty-five inches of rain, and the land would shout with grass. Then would come six or seven pretty good years of twelve to sixteen inches of rain. And then the dry years would come, and sometimes there would be only seven or eight inches of rain. The land dried up and the grasses headed out miserably a few inches high and great bare scabby places appeared in the valley. The live oaks got a crusty look and the sage-brush was gray. The land cracked and the springs dried up and the cattle listlessly nibbled dry twigs. Then the farmers and the ranchers would be filled with disgust for the Salinas Valley. The cows would grow thin and sometimes starve to death. People would have to haul water in barrels to their farms just for drinking. Some families would sell out for nearly nothing and move away. And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.”

In essence, whether you’re experiencing a personal period of tranquility or one of great hardship, this too shall pass. While we pat ourselves on the back for “living in the moment,” it’s often to our own psychological detriment when it comes to worrying about our finances. It’s easy get caught up in the frenzy du jour (Meme stonks! NFTs! Barfcoin to the moon!) or the despair of the day (Inflation! War! Aardvark Pox!). As Steinbeck says, it was always that way–even before the internet and social media made it impossible to dodge these headlines. Just as we look to the cloud to determine our daily disposition, farmers once looked to the clouds to just as easily determine the same. Regardless of the rainfall, both our anguish and ecstasy are only temporary.

You don’t have to be perfect

While I’m partial to his take on the impermanent state of our fortunes or failures, there’s another hidden message in East of Eden that I can pluck out of context and apply to the world of personal finance. When it comes to managing our own money, it can be difficult to know where to start. There’s an overwhelming amount of information out there, and rather than risk screwing it up, we humanoids have a tendency to do nothing instead. For those who are FI-curious but are hesitant to take the necessary next steps, heed Lee’s simple message to Abra:

“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.“

Aside from making for a great tattoo, this sentence is music to a perfectionist’s ears. I’ve written about the act of simply getting started before (from an appropriately less-celebrated author), even if your first attempt is deliberately crappy. The personal finance lesson behind this particular line is similar to Ramit Sethi’s advice in I Will Teach You To Be Rich: Don’t worry about getting your finances 100% right when getting things 85% right will yield effectively the same results.

Taking lessons from literature

Twentieth century literary figures and personal finance, the collab you didn’t know you needed. But truthfully, one of the joys of reading literature is in discovering certain passages that resonate with you unexpectedly throughout the text. I’ve never been one for self-help books that hit you over the head with brute-force advice. But a Steinbeck or Ernest Hemingway or Kurt Vonnegut (here’s a vague Vonnegut tie-in to the practice of geographic arbitrage) can trick me into learning something about myself when I least expect it: when a non-fiction book is open and my self-help defenses are down.

So what’s my point with these East of Eden passages other than to show off as a pretentious book boi? Well, mostly I just liked them and wanted to share them. Plus, once in a while I feel compelled to show proof of my ability to read. But even knowing what my tiny brain can comprehend about the market, I’ve found myself fretting over my plunging VTSAX-laden net worth, despite the fact that I have 15-20 years of investing left before I even realistically start thinking about retirement. This uneasiness is quelled by reinforcing the idea that the wet years will return, and the seeds that I’m planting now will grow that much larger in the future.

If you’re weathering a storm of your own–or praying for one–pick up some classic literature and you might just find an Easter egg of information to help guide you through. Or just wait for the Netflix series. In any case, while there will always be factors outside of your control, you ultimately hold the keys to your own financial future.

Have a plan. Stick to it. You control your own financial destiny. It was always that way.