Sometimes the Rules of Thumb blog from MoneyThumb discovers a subject so fascinating that we can't help but share it with our readers. Today the subject is why other people concern themselves so much with how you spend your money. We were prompted to discuss this subject after reading the newsletter of Financial Samurai, where there was a link to this exact discussion in their forum.
We have taken the liberty of sharing a small portion of what one forum member, Polama, had to say on this subject since it really does put things into perspective:
"There are three traits that I think all of us are guilty of from time to time, but that maybe 15% of the population is just terrible about.
The first is an inability to see things from a different perspective. If buying something would be irresponsible for you, it must be irresponsible for everyone. If you had advantages in life, then everyone must have those (and those who fail must be morally bankrupt). If you had disadvantages in life, then anyone who succeeds must have cheated.
The second is a tendency to substitute people in our past life in for others. Perhaps you had a boor of an uncle who droned on about all his stock-picking prowess. Perhaps you got cut off in traffic by a fancy luxury car. Now suddenly anybody with a fancy car is a jerk, or anyone actively trading stocks in a loudmouthed idiot.
The third is good old cognitive dissonance meshed with a poor grasp of uncertainty. If you say I should do one thing, and I recently did something different, one of us must be wrong and it's not going to be me. And the more you make sense, the wronger you have to be to balance out that my choice was the right one.
Those three points make a lot of sense about why other people concern yourself with how you spend your money. As with most everything in life, it just goes to show that the majority of the time, what someone else thinks or says about you is usually about them, not you. A good lesson to remember for a much happier and calmer 2019: Don't concern yourself too much with other people and their opinions. Just keep doing your best every day, but try to be smart when spending your money.
To help with that, the Rules of Thumb blog from MoneyThumb has listed some good spending habits below that each of us can get behind:
- Give yourself a solid reason to spend wisely
- Live on a budget
- Actively practice gratitude
- Research before you shop
- Avoid your spending triggers
- Find an accountability partner
- Don't shop while you wait
- Develop Patience
- Always be saving
- Anyone can be an investor
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