Opa George and his financial ethic, born from an Eastern European immigrant Jewish sensibility, live on every time I take note of what I’ve spent: down to the penny. Perhaps because we Jews believe less in the Rapture and more in the Survival, the chosen people have taken the time to get clear on finances.

Now, I recognize that I’m digging up a classic stereotype in writing this, but the fact is unavoidable that without my grandfather’s instructions to my mother to create a financial log to carry with her everywhere she went, I would not so easily have become the collector of data that I am. His legacy is my ability to truly know where I stand financially–even if I’m slipping a bit over the edge, I know by how much!

Of course every culture and religion has some sort of rescue fantasy: claiming the Promised Land, the Rapture, the Barney’s warehouse sale. (Have you ever been in the basement, where the men’s goods are stocked? Try getting inbetween those fellows and their Burberry cashmere sweaters!)

But whether we like it or not, rescues can’t be planned–they have their own logic and sense of timing. In order to handle our finances, we must look explicitly at the numbers we’d rather avoid. A rescue implies a faint, a fall backwards into oblivion: someone or something else is steering the vehicle now. Sounds great to me: until you factor in the bill collector, your hunger.

The Jewish people–of which compose less than half of one percent in the United States–have a great legacy of survival against the odds. That’s our miracle. Money matters, we can all count on.