Everybody Loves Your Money

Okay.  A couple things to note.  Sorry if you aren’t using IE.  If you aren’t, you probably can’t see the video player below.

If you are easily offended, don’t watch the video.  Don’t get me wrong.  This video doesn’t have a bunch of people jumping around with no clothes on or anything, but it does have one word in it that might be offensive and a bit of the subject matter is just a touch offensive.  Consider yourself warned.

If I had a nickel for every time someone snubbed their nose at me for my saving habits I could probably retire now. For some reason people like to offer their point of view in small ways. If you are a saver, you’ve heard them too:

“You don’t have caller ID? It’s only $5.95 a month. Dude. Don’t be so cheap”

“What are you saving for?”

“You need to live a little”

“Don’t be such a tightwad”

“You shouldn’t deprive yourself”

It’s really unfortunate that being a “saver” also earns the brand of cheapskate. And why is it a negative trait if you choose not to be a victim of the billions of $$ spent each year on marketing that tries to convince you that what they have, YOU NEED. Even more ironic to me, is who is doing the “labeling”. Most people that offer their comments aren’t so good with money. Some are absolutely terrible. You know what? They aren’t very happy either. They tend to have far more tension in their houses than we do in ours. It’s really funny if you think about it. Many of these people claim that we spend too much time focusing on our money. We really don’t. I spend time looking at our investments/savings/expenses etc because I enjoy it. What’s ironic to me is that I believe they spend just as much time focusing on their money, but in a completely different way. While we look at the money we have saved, they look at the money they have spent in the form of credit card bills, empty checking accounts, interest charges, and figuring out how to pay their bills when they come due. That’s attention on finances that I’d care to avoid.

It’s really all relevant. When I look at how much money we spend each month, once in awhile I think, “Yikes. We spent a fortune on frivelous things this month. My PF blogger peers would think I’m crazy”. A couple other times, I’ve found myself wondering why so many of our friends think we don’t spend enough. It’s a great example of why you can’t base your life on other people’s input. All of this is a personal choice. When others offer their input, it’s really just them putting their nose where it doesn’t belong. It’s just one more way that keeping up with the Jones’ can creep in to your lives if you aren’t careful.