I'm not jealous of them spending their money stupidly, quite the opposite, I'm glad that we can handle an emergency without freaking out. I'm currently really jealous of people who make stupid choices and then have people constantly jumping in to help them out when emergencies come. Shit is raining down on us and we barely get a second glance.
But I'm, admittedly, in a really bad place right now. Any other time in my life and I'd be a lot more ambivalent.
I hope things turn around quickly for you guys, heygrey. ({)
I have several friends like this but I don't judge because no matter how close we are, I'll never truly know their financial situation. Maybe they received a large inheritance from a relative years before we met, maybe they saved early on and feel comfortable cutting back the savings at this point, maybe they are sitting on a large savings account, who knows. I have enough time worrying about my own finances and savings to care about what my friends are doing with theirs.
Post by sillygoosegirl on Jan 6, 2013 13:44:04 GMT -5
Our financial priorities are what they are for a reason. I'm really looking forward to retirement and I would not be jealous of a friend with a new car, since I would truly rather be able to afford to retire at my target date. If you find yourself really jealous of the choices your friends are making, then maybe your spending isn't inline with your values.
That said, I am really jealous of my independently wearily friend who is in his late 30s and doesn't work anymore because he doesn't need to. And unlike the people featured in articles about extreme early retirements, he isn't making huge lifestyle sacrifices... lives in a million dollar condo and so forth (though I'm sure he'd be much richer if he had not retired). I wish I had been that lucky in my career...
Sometimes I'm envious that people can be so 'carefree' with their $$ but I realize that its probably a terrible mind-set long term. Although, some of my friends who are pretty lax on saving and big on spending have fantastic pensions (Canadian teachers and police officers).
I actually wish DH would be a little MORE carefree. He's over the top with saving and sometimes he needs to let loose!
I may get flamed for this but I don't look down in people that don't put money away to pay for there children's education. (Not saying I won't) I just think that people that stress about paying their children's way through school is just dumb.
We will help out our children with school and such but we will not put it above some things that you ladies would consider "extras".
/Signed by someone who worked their ass off to pay for her own schooling and finished with no loans.
You're Canadian, right? Our post-secondary education is so, so cheap here compared with the US. It's still quite possible to "work your ass off" and finish with no loans if you only need to come up with 15-20k per year for tuition + living expenses. If you had tuition of 40k/year like some schools in the States, that would be a lot harder.
Yes I am. I never really thought of it that way.
That makes a little more sense then. I might try harder to save if I lived in the states.
I wouldn't call it envy, but sometimes I do think how nice it would feel to be 22, not know what a 401(k) is, and consider anything in our checking to be spending money. It would be nice for a little while.