On Saturday, the phone rang, waking me out of my sleep.
It was the 24/7 fraud prevention team at my credit union. Someone had run a $65 charge through a company called City Sightseeing in Washington, D.C. That would’ve been a neat trick, since I live in Washington State and haven’t been on a bus tour in my life.
They asked, “Was this you?”
Ten years ago, I’d have been sweating through my shirt. My rent money would’ve been on the line. Groceries? Forget it. A $65 hole could’ve meant the end of the month collapsing on top of me.
But this time? I told them no, they blocked the card, I made a couple more phone calls, disputed the charge, ordered a new card, and I went back to sleep.
It’s not that fraud stopped being a problem. It’s that my relationship to risk has changed. And that change has everything to do with margin.
The Memory of Panic
A decade ago, I lost my debit card walking home from the store. I had almost nothing in my account, and nothing behind it. The next day I found it on the sidewalk, soaked from the rain, already canceled.
That soggy piece of plastic might as well have been a guillotine. It wasn’t the card itself, it was what the card represented: my only connection to survival.
No card meant no food. No bills paid. No bus ride for transportation. I had no savings. No backup. No emergency cash. If the card didn’t work, neither did I.
That’s what life without a margin feels like: every bump in the road is a free fall.
The Same Problem, Different Outcome
Fast forward to today. Someone three time zones away tested my number for a sightseeing bus. Same kind of threat, different outcome.
What changed? Not the world. Not the fraudsters. What changed was me.
- I’ve got a savings account now.
- I keep $25 emergency cash in my bag.
- There’s another account with its own debit card.
- A bank I can walk to if I need cash.
- Transit that’s free if I have to get somewhere.
Individually, none of these is spectacular. Together, they add up to a margin. And margin transforms disaster into inconvenience.
Buffett’s Guardrails, Lynch’s Street Lessons
Buffett calls it the “margin of safety.” You don’t buy a company at the full sticker price. You build in a buffer so that if the world surprises you, and it always does, you don’t get wiped out.
Peter Lynch would have recognized the same principle in daily life. He built his career by paying attention to the obvious: what people bought at the mall, which restaurants had lines, what brands his kids asked for. He didn’t need a Bloomberg terminal to spot a trend.
Everyday life tells the story if you’re paying attention. Losing a debit card tells mine.
With no margin, the world had me cornered. With a margin, the same fraud call is background noise.
The Blessing in Inconvenience
There’s another twist. Without a working card, I couldn’t order nachos at the Mexican place. I couldn’t swipe for snacks. I couldn’t indulge every craving that popped into my head.
And I realized something: I was fine.
That pause made me see how much of my spending isn’t about need. It’s about impulse. And impulses don’t just drain your account. They show up on your waistline.
Sometimes friction is a gift. When you’re forced to stop before spending, you ask better questions: Do I actually want this, or am I just restless?
It’s the same discipline that keeps an investor from chasing every “hot stock” tip. Most of the time, the impulse trade costs you. Most of the time, the snack isn’t worth it either.
Margin as a Way of Life
What does $25 in cash really buy you? Not much, a meal, maybe. But psychologically, it buys breathing room.
A second account with a backup card? That’s not luxury. That’s stability.
A bank within walking distance and a bus pass? That’s access.
These aren’t riches. They’re rails. They keep the car on the road when things slide.
Buffett doesn’t build Berkshire Hathaway on the idea that the world will be smooth. He builds it on the assumption that surprises are coming. That’s why he insists on guardrails.
Personal finance isn’t different. Life will surprise you. The question is: do you have enough buffer that the surprise is survivable?
Stability > Riches
Stability feels better than riches.
Buffett doesn’t lose sleep over tomorrow’s market move. He owns companies that will be alive in 30 years.
I don’t lose sleep over one fraudulent charge. I’ve built a margin that keeps me standing.
Closing
When the fraud department called, I didn’t panic. I didn’t replay the old tape of “what now?” I knew the money would be refunded, and I knew I could live a week without a card.
That peace didn’t come by accident. It came from layering margin into my life: savings, emergency cash, backups, better transit, discipline.
Life will always test you. Fraud. Bills. Illness. Markets. But with margin, those tests don’t crush you. They remind you how far you’ve come.
You don’t need millions for that. You just need a margin of safety. Build it piece by piece, and one day you’ll look around and realize, the world isn’t out to get you anymore. Even if somebody in Washington, D.C. tries to put a bus ticket on your account.
This blog is read in 50+ countries (and counting). If you’re a student, teacher, or lifelong learner from anywhere in the world, I’m honored you’re here. Economics belongs to all of us.
The Broke College Student 
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