Mitzi Perdue

David Copperfield’s Secret of Happiness

Frank Perdue was a big believer in the David Copperfield Secret of Happiness.

(By the way, we’re not talking about my favorite magician; we’re talking about the book by Charles Dickens.) A character in the novel David Copperfield proclaimed: spend less than your income and you’ll be happy. Spend more, and you’ll be miserable.

Frank Perdue lived that happiness secret because he was to the core a frugal man, and he always lived astonishingly below his income. Our home, for example, was a comfortable ranch house with neighbors that included retired teachers and a guy who ran a grain elevator. Trust me, millionaire’s row it was not.

I have a favorite memory of this. One day in the late 1990s, Owen Schweers, the Perdue Director of Packaging, was to bring an important businessman to meet Frank at our Salisbury home. As Schweers pulled up beside our house, his VIP passenger started laughing heartily.

“Okay, that’s a good one!” he chortled. “But you’re not going to get me on this. I know Frank Perdue wouldn’t live in that little ranch house!”

Schweers stopped his car near our front door. “No,” Schweers insisted, “this is Frank’s house.”

“Sure, right,” said the VIP, still guffawing.

Suddenly his laughter stopped because there was Frank, opening the door and then stepping outside to greet his guests. “Oh my God,” whispered the VIP to Schweers, “Frank really does live here!”

Living in an unpretentious house was typical of Frank. He had no interest in a McMansion, and the fact is, most status symbols left him cold.

As an example, when we travelled, which we did a lot while visiting overseas buyers, we could have used a chauffeur-driven limousine in whatever city we were in. Instead Frank made it a point to use the local subways.

This happened whether it was New York, London, Moscow, Tokyo, or Beijing. He preferred being with average people, that is, people who use public transportation. His ego didn’t require a limousine.

Once in 1995, we spent six weeks driving form Maryland to California and back Where did he, the head of Perdue Farms, and I, a Sheraton heiress stay? Motel 6, every night. We did it because this chain was clean, always friendly, and the check-in procedures were wonderfully rapid.

Frank continuously encouraged his kids in this kind of thinking. As he told his children in one of the family newsletters in which he was encouraging them to live below their means: “It’s not fun to be worried about whether you can pay your bills.”

Frank was frugal, and the money he didn’t spend generally went to philanthropy. He felt a deeper and more lasting pleasure supporting, for instance, United Way, than spending money on himself. He really did live the David Copperfield message of spending less than his income.

Could avoiding status-type spending add to your happiness? Would the David Copperfield approach be right for you?