Infinitive Splitter

The New York Times on Saturday published a column called “More Advice Graduates Don’t Want to Hear,” a very suitable headline which, of course, prompted my parents to forward it to me.

It begins:

Last year at this time, as college graduates walked out into the world, I wrote a column giving advice on how they could save money.

In droves, parents sent the column to their children. And some of those children wrote to me to vent. What I suggested was impractical, many said. How would you like to try to live on $40,000 a year in Washington or San Francisco, several asked.

(I would love to try that!)

What I was proposing was not radical. It was mostly the simple things my mother had drummed into me. It was advice like diverting 10 percent of your income to savings before anything else and ignoring raises and putting them into savings, too. Learn to cook, I said, and never borrow money to pay for a depreciating asset.

This last rule is likely to leave most of the column’s audience on the wrong side of things, since it would seem to rule out automobiles and bachelor’s degrees.