Another famous German saying about money is “wer den Cent nicht ehrt, der ist des Euros nicht wehrt” witch roughly translat into “ the one who doesn’t honors the cent is not worthy of the euro” and I think that shows again that Germans really care about their money
I'm a 19 years old german and the most valuable lesson I was taught was the following: never buy anything that you can't afford right now. only exception to that would be a own house. any loan or tariff, for a new phone for example, is unacceptable, unless the required total is safed up right now.
@@KurtesolWafelosi Or unfortunate enough to have so little money that you have to be really careful about what you spend it on. Keep in mind, every time you go into dept, you have to pay more back than you initially loaned. Of course, it's a diffferent situation if you have to go in debt for essentials, like food and rent, but in that situation you're pretty much fucked already.
Interesting. I do not have a problem with dept especially these days when inflation is on my side, but we all have to follow at least this rule (I follow strictly) "Never take a loan for staff which will not last at least so long as you will paying back that loan"
@@stanislavbandur7355 Is inflation really on your side though? I'm pretty sure that whoever loans you the money is keeping inflation in mind as well, which is one of the reasons why interest rates go up during inflation
That shot of you talking about the germans saving money while doing the laundry...socks... is genius. Wether planned or not,ever heard of "sparstrumpf"? A good wide smile was had 😃
The American attitude was once summed up with this: "Buy things, that you don't need, to impress people who you don't like, with money that you don't have." Very different from "save - save - save - built a house". When I was a kid (1970s - sorry, but I'm OLD) - the local Sparkasse held special events to teach us how to save money. That planted the savings-idea deeply into our minds and almost 50 years afterwards it's still in me.
Yeah. It does kinda depend on the individual though. Lots of people literally do not care whatsoever. You can tell if you just sit down in a city or store and people watch. Other nations are also like this. I hear it can be pretty bad in some Asian countries to the point your socially required to look and have certain items or such or your looked down on. But like I said with a Americans there are no doubt people who don't care.
Another factor is that Germany is an export oriented economy by necessity. And that type of economy benefits from a high personal savings rate to finance the export industries.
@@ThomasVWorm : The money that is saved in a bank is NOT withdrawn from the economy. It is used as credit for companies. To take a debt for a holiday or consumer products is ONLY benefitical to the bank, not for the economy and not for the normal people. To take a debt for an investment like a house or a car (to get to work) is OK. But to take a debt to go on an expensive holiday cruise or buy the newest IPhone is just extremely stupid.
Interesting; the Swedish word för debt is "Skuld" and is the same as guilt. But it presumable came from German language, and both forms has been found written down in document from the early 1500 (in year 1523 and 1524). Ernst Wigforss (politician i Sweden) wrote 1932 "Den som är försatt i skuld är inte fri" that can be translated to "He who is in debt is not free". It seems like Germany and Sweden got the same mindset in several areas.
It is the same in Latin, so the concept is not restricted to Germanic languages. Debt stems from debitum. Dimitte nobis debita nostra = forgive us our trespasses.
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@@louismart Thanks for beating me to it. They want to blame us Germans for literally everything lol
Actually, Germany has in its constitution the Schuldenbremse (debt brake), which means the German government is not allowed to spend money they don't have and get in debt as a country. They made an exception since 2020 because of covid and the war but for 2023 they are planning to put it back in.
Of course we are already deeply in debt as are most countries. The idea of the Schuldenbremse is to not make more debt (but also not repay the old). We also have the Schuldenuhr (debt clock) and it shows more than 2 trillion Euro (+ 4800 every second).
But the government just allows a lot of Sondervermögen so it’s not a part of the years debts but it’s still debts 😂 it just not count for the schuldenbremse
Another secret: Discipline and control. German housewives often use a book where they write down what they have and what they buy. This is called a "Haushaltsbuch". I heard that something similar is also very common in another region of saving, Japan. I am not so sure how much this is a common thing in the USA....
Growing up in Germany as a military dependent, I remember when our maid had a party and invited us to her new home. She and her husband had been saving over their lifetime and @ age 45, they were able to buy their home...for cash. No Mortgage. She was a maid (she helped my mom clean and she ironed, as I remember) and her husband was Hans, The Beer Man. He delivered Beer and Cokes and bread and eggs to American Families on a regular weekly route. He also always had Gummi Bears candy in his Lederhosen pockets, for children, who had been "good."
@@mats7492 As he wrote, they didn't need a loan because they saved up all the money they needed for buying their home ;) So that would still now be possible, when you don't need a loan you don't need a down payment ;) What he describes was not that uncommon in Germany some years ago and goes with the mentality "You only buy it when you can afford it" and avoiding debt at all costs.
That's really crazy, cause I'd say homes and cars, the really huge things people accept mortgage or down payment. Especially cause homes may gain 5-8% in value each year, and your interest on savings is only 1-2%. So you can never catch up, you are actually loosing value each year you wait.
he talks about a double income. at the time it was common for women not to work. but if she worked, they could save her entire salary to buy a house. that was nothing special until about 20 years ago.
Your videos are getting better and better, not only the filming but also the scripting. They are so pleasant to watch and the research you do is so interesting!
I agree 100%. I discovered this chanel a few months ago and his videos are recommended to me every once in a while and they are always such a pleasure to watch.
"German's and their money, what a weird relationship." Notice the slow pull back of the camera just after the very beginning, revealing the man and woman having a warm relationship of their own. TSGO
What I notice is the extraneous apostrophe. Lissen folx, they are in short supply! If you use them all up gratuitously on plurals ("plural's") then our children and grandchildren will be suffering from apostrophe shortages!
@@ericminch I realized my mistake too late, after the Nalf gave me a heart. He did that in spite of gratuitous usage in the middle of an apostrophe shortage.
This was a great video. Not all Germans hate 'Schulden', my husband for instance, was happy each and every time he was okayed for a credit card here in the States. I, on the other hand, was having sleepless nights about the credit card debt we now had. I turned it around, cut up all cards and we are now schuldfrei! It was really getting out of hand. Thank you for the research and info.
Right on! The funny thing is, many people squirm when they think of countries where video surveillance in public places is used extensively, but they fail to understand that using cards instead of cash is just the same when it comes to their finances!
I also don't carry a lot of cash, but cash is important. Cash means freedom and privacy. A society without cash could turn very problematic very quickly.
@@Timo-qb1gf all your transactions are recorded in multiple databases. Easily hacked.. or in some cases back doors given to some governments. You may have not noticed any issue yet because your in a very good country, but it would be laughable to think your privacy is intact in Russia, US, uK, China, etc…
Yes, cash really means freedom and privacy ! I don't want anyone to have a track record of my purchases ! And i don't want to have only digital money that can be easily controlled/manipulated etc. by bad politicians and central bankers.
@@feprivat yea this is I guess the historically driven difference in culture and thinking I just cannot understand. For me it sounds like paranoia and total lack of trust in the society. For you probably perfectly healthy scepticism? 😅
As I've stated before in comments paying with cards lets many people lose oversight over their finances and I personally love the anonymity (electronically nontraceable transactions) of paying with cash. Don't live beyond your means. Save for a rainy day (or get insurance). Only borrow money for the right purpose with value (e.g. a house). Pay back all your loans on time (or even early). Ever heard of a Bausparkasse? Typical German form of investment and mortgage managing.
Yeah I was on a roadtrip with 2 friends who lets say, earn a little bit more than me, after that week, i looked at my bank account and was a bit shocked. It just adds up and I would have noticed it much earlier if i had had all that money in my wallet
@@eberbacher007 you write down how much money you have to spend. Every time you buy something you write it down and take it off of the money you have to spend. I only use credit cards, but I NEVER EVER go over my means. (I get money back on every purchase i make. I dont pay a yearly fee either. I had the card for 3 months and I already have $1,000 waiting to be cashed out. You don't get this luxury with cash). I add up about how much groceries are in a week (I get paid weekly), bills that have to be paid that week, $20 goes to a rainy day fund, $20 goes to a vacation fund, and the rest of the money gets divided up evenly between my husband and I. It isn't difficult to budget when only using credit cards.
I never understood this argument, how can you lose oversight of your finances when every transaction is tracked and saved for you to go back and analyze, sure using cash would leave you with more ambiguity on your financial habits
Oh my god, Nick! 100K, congrats! When I started following you about 2 years ago, it was about half. I immediately started rooting for you to reach this milestone, because I honestly think you are one of the best persons out there, and seeing it has finally happened feels incredibly good. Much love to you! I'm glad you kept making your videos.
Found myself (as German) in this description… 😄 Very good explained. 👍🏻😉 Another saying here in southern Germany is „Über Geld spricht man nicht, man hat es“, roughly: don’t speak about money, just have it. 😉
Maybe you could also make a video on why a lot of Germans love their cash money and why they feel controlled by the authorities if they couldn't choose between cash or card.
I am all about cash. It gives me safety over my savings (as a feeling and for real). I even use non-cash-sytems like a cash system. My PayPal works like a prepaid account. So I only can spend what I had stored beforehand. Or I walk in a store and buy these cards (10-50€) for stores like Steam. Sometimes I use the PaySaveCard System. Cash for life :)
It's funny that it became the opposite for me: as long as it's a number on the internet, I can watch it, I can track my spendings. But as soon as my record says: "100€ withdrawn" then I don't know where these went.
I would like if monero was out main curerrency then i could have elctronic payments that are anonym and have accounts for food, subscriptions, insurance, free time etc.
@@dieuris97 no the ezb is creating a digital euro to surveil our transactions. Also it's not decentralized crypto. Banks can stil just print money if they feel like jt.
Speaking of saving, there were recent pleas from the government to save on power, water, gas, and fuel this winter. My mother made the following remark about this: "Those of us who grew up in the GDR are used to saving and rationing. It will be much harder for the West Germans and the younger generations."
I am used to sitting in my underwear in the house. Usually there's 23 to 25 degrees (I have relatively little control over it). I'm not worried, we're spoiled. It would not be a big deal to wear some shirt, pants, maybe something long sleeve on top as well. We're very spoiled, it's not that hard to go to a bit lower standards again, if you ever did it (I grew up in one of the worst communist countries and we were poor ion the 80s, even 90s). I can imagine people that are used to just having stuff all the time, would have issues, even adults... and their spoiled kids...
I was quite young when the GDR still existed. in the meantime i got used to sitting at home in a t-shirt and taking long showers. Somehow I had to remember my childhood to get back into a less wasteful mentality.
@@wolfgangloll2747 I didn't live in the GDR myself but my parents did and because they are also very conscious about protecting the environment I was raised to save energy wherever possible. Most days of the week only the kitchen is heated and the bathroom in the evenings, and then we don't heat more than up to 20-21°C at most in there. Also no showering for half an hour or washing half full washing machines or dishwashers. And doing whatever is possible by bike or public transportation and not car. Now with the situation at hand I'm very grateful for that kind of upbringing.
She is only half right...my mother is from the after war generation, and she has adopted this habit of having everything on storage just in case there is a shortage from her mother...and I have adopted it from her. As a result, we actually have three options to heat our home, but frankly, the only thing which needs to get heated are the main rooms.
@@bencze465 the big thing is that we should have started saving energy decades ago because of climate change. It just shows how litte people care about their future and other people.
I am German and really love your videos. It helps me to understand me and the society I life in better. And it opens my eyes to be more grateful for the great things and opportunities we have here in Germany (e.g. The free educational system, infastructure, healthcare). Keep up the great work!
I'm 23 right now and I actually like cash. There are two effects cash has on me that I like. 1. Spending small amounts of money: If I spend anything less than 20 Euros, I don't really care about it, I don't want emails, anything in my bank account or anything, I want to spend that money and never think about it again. I like to document bigger spendings so I remember them, but buying bread and some apples, I don't wanna know about that apple 8 years later. 2. I know what I have: If I got 100 bucks in my wallet, I got 100 bucks, I can't spend 2000 bucks like I can by card. It sets a limit and I like that. I'll never understand how people are in debt for a new iPhone or a car. Don't spend more than you got, it's that easy. Sometimes you just can't get everything you want. It is what it is.
Congrats on 100,000 subscribers Nick, looking forward to you getting your plaque from RU-vid! Oh and congrats to little bro Andy and the Cal Bears on their victory over U of Arizona this past Saturday, 3-1 on the season so far! 👏👍✌😁
When I started school more than 40 years ago they would cooperate with the local Sparkasse - every Friday we could deposit money with the teacher and got little pictures in exchange which we could collect in albums - a bit like the football sticker albums nowadays. The money would then go to a savings account (our parents had signed us up for) in our name. Yes, I am one of those infamous swabian housewives ;-) . Rumor has it that we Swabians were once Scots, but they evicted us from there because they could not stand our stinginess any longer 🙂
Again, excellent video: Interesting topic, very well researched und presented. With the Unicorns located in SHA I was somewhat astonished that a certain Bausparkasse was not mentioned. Congrats, btw, for crossing the 100,000 subscribers mark.
For me personally, no credit card is an option.I don't give banks any fees that I can easily save with cash payment.There is a saying in Germany 'nur Bares ist Wahres'.That means only cash is real money and counts.
one thing i know as German is, and this is what my grandma taught me, you ALWAYS have enough money on the "high edge" (hohen Kante) to live a small time from it. The reason why is, you never know when something bad hits you like you smartphone broke, your pc explode or in times like this your gas bill get up to 50 euros more a month. So even now were i am unemployed i still save the little bit of money i have, to save me against bankruptcy.
hi, Nalf 6:12 do you heard of a "Sparstrumpf" ? sillicon valley mindset on taxes is: don't pay them. Please Nalf , if you make promotion, please announce them with a sign in your video, although you maybe get in trouble. during that part write in the left or right corner "advertising"or "Werbung". Then you are save! Take care!
I'm brazilian living in Berlin, for me one of the most diferent aspect of how germans threat money was on change. They give you literally every cent back, literally, this was so confusing and anoying on the first year, but I get used to it and whenever I'm not a germany and buy something i het this screwed up felling for not receving 7 cents back.
Don't know if it's because I'm German but even as a young adult I always told myself the only Things I would go into debt for are buying a car and House. Why should I buy a big TV or such and pay it if in for example 24 monthly rates? If I can pay it I can buy it. After these 24 month there will be newer Tech that I can buy.
hey lord nick, like always a fantastic video. very informativ, memorable presented in a syphatic humorous way that leave me with a smile in my face. and it needed again an oregon import to makes me searchin for that berlin exhibition instea of playing a stupid game! THX for that! Michael/Hannover
I would definitely avoid sponsors for any financial product. I dont think that's ever a good idea. Not just that the sponsor is very unlikely to actually be the best option, but also because you as the one doing the advertisement share some of the responsibility for bad financial choices. And nobody can guarantee that future profits will be similar to profits in the past.
also advertising for financial products while doing an information video on finances, is according to german law also something that is quite regulated. hope he is not in hot water with this
I am so very happy I grew up like this. 40 years ago at school in Germany, we were taught on how to save and we even had a "Stock market game" were we had to get a newspaper every day to look at the stock market and "invest" money on paper. Today, I have no debt, have a credit score way above 800 and can "survive" years without touching any savings. My family on the other hand is totally different. Everybody has debt and my grandson, being in 12th grade, has no clue about stock market, crypto, investing or saving in general. He wants an iPhone, Earpods and a Dodge Charger and no matter what I teach them, they will not listen for a second. I feel so bad for them as they will have a hard live but I tried many times.
I wish i had someone to teach me this things 😊 i know how to handle money , i try to make no dept. But i dont know anything about investing. I try to teach myself but not that easy.
nothing more frustrating than trying to pass on your collected wisdom, only to have it fall on death ears. I experience it all the time with my younger workmates.
Your conclusion sums it up nicely. That is still very much true, although is slowly changing among the younger generations. Regarding cash, while most people I know, mostly pay with debit (not credit!) cards, pretty much everbody carries some cash for emergencies or to pay at small stores, street vendors etc. that are cash only. I personally alway make sure to have between 20-50€ cash in m wallet every time I leave the house.
All this "No cash" Guys are the one`s i have to pay for, when sitting in a restaurant and there is no payment per card possible. I don`t understand why it is sooo difficult to carry 50 or maybe 20€ inside the mobile phone case.
In the 90s and early 2000s a lot of banks offered incentives for minors when opening a youth account like 20-30 USD balance or gifts like a backpack or something. Also youth accounts still remain [mostly] free of monthly fees and are locked that you can't go in debt.
We had that in Belgium too. In the 80's they already had big add campains too for youth to open a bank account. I remember when I had my first bank account at 14-15 (1986-'87) is was completely free and so was the bank card and the use of the bank card.
I, 23M, German usually carry at least 100€ in cash everywhere and only use my EC card if absolutely necessary. Why? Among other things (but the most important) anonymity. When you pay cash no-one can track your purchases. If you use cards or worse Payback points then every purchase you make is recorded and I do - not - want - that - at - all, even if just buying groceries...
Hey Bro, normally I don´t comment on RU-vid but I had to here. I´m a german living in Hamburg, and from a german perspective I REALLY enjoy your videos. In most parts they are very precise and eyeopening even for germans grew up here. Keep up the great work of breaking down or remaining senseful stereotypes about us.
Great and informative video,Nick! Awesome glasses too! Congrats on 100K ! I wonder why you upload a video and take it down and re upload it? It seems to happen on most videos.
The thing is, my parents told me to save always, but they never allowed me to spend money (better save it for when you really need it). And that's what brought me into a weird relationship with money. I never saw the point in saving if I wasn't allowed to spend it. So I usually just spent it. I guess I was around 30 when I first saved for an iPhone and it was amazing to just be able to pay it because I saved up. Nowadays I have trouble saving because I never created a buffer.
In the 80s and 90s the Sparkasse had a kids savings club where you could get a free piggy bank and also a small quarterly comic magazine made by Sparkasse. It’s Name was “Knax Club”, I am sure there are some traces online
Thanks for this perspective. As a 46-year-old German I largely agree. Two points I’d like to add: 1. about carrying cash: you interviewed guys roughly in their twenties. I think the younger generation is drifting away from cash while people my age and older tend to stick to it more. However, since the Covid pandemic, it has become more common to pay even small amounts with your debit card, for example at the bakery. Debit cards are much more common in Germany than credit cards - which is a good thing, I think. One of the main problems with credit cards, I think, it that you easily lose track of your spending whereas with cash or debit card (and a banking app which gives you daily access to your account balance) you can keep on top of things more easily. 2. About the statistic at the end (country-level): I don’t know much about macro economics but I think that handling money (debt, spending etc.) is vastly different on the country level than on the personal level. For example, many economists (even German ones) thought that Angela Merkel’s and Wolgang Schäuble’s “Swabian thriftiness” was a bad idea while it might be a good thing for an individual to be thrifty.
As a german italian, normally I carry about the necessity of the day around with me, which pretty much means that if I know I'll go and eat somewhere with an estimate of 15 euros, I'll bring 20 with me. The reason cash generally is a neat choiche is because if I go and buy something cash has no extra costs for me/company for the transaction fees and if you buy something, often the waiters don't run around with the lil thingy for cards and need to go and get it for the payment, this means that it's pretty much faster paying in cash.
Before Covid every german kid went to their local savings bank on a special day in october (Weltspartag) and when they hand in their savings to put them into their bank account, they get a present and a helium balloon 😃😁
The "Glückspfennig" is when you pick up a 1 cent coin. It is supposed to give you luck. "Glück" = luck, "pfennig" = one hundreth of a Mark (old german currency). This I think is also worth metioning. From what I know it isn't common to pick up coins in the US.
Americans also have the tradition of the lucky penny. "See a penny, pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck!" is a familiar rhyme (well, near-rhyme). Some people say a penny is lucky only if it's heads up, not tails up, though.
there is also a saying in Germany: wer den Pfennig nicht ehrt, ist des Talers nicht wert. In English it is: Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.
07:30 You seem to have missed the actuall point. It is more work hard, bild house, rent it someone, stay in your small flat, work more, buy a second house, rent it to someone, work more, die, leave your kids a huge pile of wealth but they dont need the houses. They have build their own one (or two). Thats how a lot of small "dynasties" developed that is some cases own huge portions of the housing markets.
Just a little hint: in Germany you've to indicate that you're doing a product placemant. You've to write it that way, that every person is be clear that this video contains a product placement. This topic is really complicated, but notice that there is a watermark with the words ''Produktplatzierung'' (or smthg. like that) in the video. Such ''little things'' are punished with high fines. If I'm wrong, please correct me.
I'm a credit card person. I get money back on every purchase I make and there's no yearly fee. I pay off all of my credit cards ontime or early. The only debt I have is my house. This will stay this way until I die because I get a chunk of money taken off my taxes because I have a mortgage. I never go over my means. I sit down every week look at what my husband and I made for that week (we get paid weekly), then divide the money up in categories. There's cost of groceries for the week, any bills that have to be paid that week, vacation fund, rainy day fund, and then the rest is split between my husband and I. Every time we spend money on something we take that money off of whatever the category is. If we don't have the money to spend on a specific category oh well.
I usually only wear cash around when I buy something, otherwise the wallet stays at home. The thing is here around not every place accepts a card so I tend to pay with cash and when it's like below 10 Euros then it does not seem worth either to pay with a card
As a Dane, I find that the things you talk about with Germany often apply here as well, of course with a "Scandinavian twist", and this video is no exception. I guess we are neighbours after all.
The thing about the 1920s, though...it actually _was_ them. In fact, the very same finance capital has been responsible for unstable economies to this very day.
A traditional explanation in the immediate post war period was that money (and in particular having a stable currency) mattered because of the hyper-inflation (and the fact that savings got wiped out). As the video kind of pointed out…
Aren’t there tons of coupons in the States? Last time I visited back in 2010 every store had coupons. When I came back I started to use the Cashback system Payback but it never came close to the buy one get one free coupons the US stores had.
nick read the law/Rules regarding advertisement (Werbung) in RU-vid videos (i did not recognize any mandatory signs) this could get you in trouble(would not be the first youtuber/influencer if i just missed the hints towards comercal my bad but if you dont got them inegtrate them fast or something(im not an expert)(but advertising without marking it can be expensive(even if it is for your own movie)) kind regards
I only buy expensive things with credit card. 60€ in cash a week for normal stuff like food. It's just easier to keep track of how much you spend each week.
A trick for saving(or getting a better overview of) your Money is to get for example 100€ on Monday every Week and only use these 100€ for Grocery Shopping and all the other Purchases that fit in the "Buying Daily/Weekly" Category. It helps me a lot with setting my Budgets and also saves me Money because when paying with Card there is no Physical money going directly away from you.
The picture at 4:42 shows the market place and the Old Town Hall of Göttingen with the Johannis Church at the back. Very beautiful city of 130.000 inhabit. with about 30.000 students. ;)
For a German there are only two reason to go into debt: build a house or start a company. And the later is to much risk for most people. There is maybe a third reason, if you are a bit reckless and the love for cars gained the upper hand. I do not think I know a German who is in debt for any other reason.
When coin in coffer rings a soul in Purgatory sings. Luther left the Roman Catholic fold over selling indulgences. My German family never trusted banks. Literally , stuffed it into the mattress. Had money to purchase property during the Depression. We were taught to save and invest in stocks and land.
Another interesting statistic is a country's Net International Investment Position (NIIP) which is basically what a country is owed by others minus that country's national debt. That is headed by Japan which has a surplus of $3.375 trillion but in 2nd place is Germany with an extra $3.05 trillion. The USA comes in last owing in total $22.675 trillion. GDP wise Germany could go on a 9 month holiday before the money runs out while the USA would have to collectively work 7 months of unpaid overtime before it breaks even. Norway could go on a 2 year and 7 month long vacation... (based on 2021 numbers)
How to treat money like a German (as said by a Swiss): Don't use money if not absolutely needed and always complain about how expensive everything is... Just a small side story to this: I once went to Norway for a semester during my studies. As one could assume, there were many Germans. The very first thing i heard one of the Germans say was: "Oh man, it's just so expensive here..." First thing, just complain about how expensive Norway is... come on! If one goes to Norway for a semester or a year, that person does know how expensive it is. Everybody there is a student and it's expensive for everyone. So don't complain first thing about how expensive it is.
On point. But the tendency to view things as gambling that Americans tend to view as investment, does not end there. For example I would never have gotten a higher education if I had been forced to take out as much loans as most Americans are forced to take because of tuition fees. I treasure education in itself but I would have regarded it as too much of a gamble whether it really pays off economically in a way to be able to pay off such loans and be better off in the end. Not that I had no education debt. But if you only have to use that to exist in those years and with the terms being really forthcoming, it is a whole other story.
Don't forget the "Notgroschen"! Its 2-3 times your income you keep on your bank account to have back up money if a large sum comes up, like car repair or car check up, dentist etc
Maybe, it's the other way around: The word "Schuld" might cone from the fact that someone who wronged to me kind of ows me a kind of compensation. However, for debts we mostly use the plural form ("Schulden") which _only_ means debt whereas the singular form ("Schuld") mostly stands for guilt.
Same goes for the Dutch. When we want to buy something, we look at our bank account, know we have to keep some buffer for less fortunate times, are replacements, how much our account will go down and whether what we want is worth it. Sometimes we get the impression Americans add up the available space they have on all their credit cards to see if they can buy it.
