3592: Why Keeping Up With The Joneses Will Make You Broke by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner of Making Sense of Cents

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[00:01:00] This is Optimal Finance Daily. Why Keeping Up With The Joneses Will Make You Broke by Michelle Schroeder Gardner of MakingSenseofSense.com. I'm sure almost everyone at one point in their life has felt the need to keep up with the Joneses. Whether you're 5 years old and want that new toy everyone's playing with, or you're 50 years old and are feeling the need to upgrade your house or car, everyone has experienced it.

[00:01:26] The problem with this is that keeping up with the Joneses can actually make you broke. Very broke. When trying to keep up with the Joneses, you might spend money you don't have. You might put expenses on credit cards so that you can, in a pretend world, afford things. You might buy things that you don't care about. The problems can go on and on. This can then lead to an excessive amount of debt and potentially set someone back years with their financial goals, if not decades.

[00:01:56] Keeping up with the Joneses will make you broke and unhappy because You will never be happy no matter how much money you spend. You will constantly compare yourself to everyone. You'll go into debt because that's the only way you feel like you can keep up. You'll have a loan payment for everything because that's the only way you can afford everything. And you won't have any money left over for retirement, an emergency fund, etc. Because you're spending it all on things you don't need.

[00:02:25] Here are some things to think about if you want to live your own life and start ignoring the Joneses. Number one, are the Joneses broke? Who cares? You'll never know how rich or poor the Joneses are. And honestly, it shouldn't matter to you. You don't know the whole story behind the Joneses. They could be rich. They could be poor. They could be anything. Maybe they won the lottery. They were given the item for free as a gift or something else.

[00:02:52] Maybe they coupon their brains out and that's how they afford the things they have. They also might just be putting everything on a credit card. They might be drowning in all different kinds of debt. The house, car, student loans, etc. And putting on a happy face for show. Just because someone has a lot of material items and or spends their money frivolously does not make them rich. Stop wondering how they're paying for things they have.

[00:03:18] Start living your own life and stop trying to live someone else's. The fact of the matter is, is that you don't know what their financial situation is. It shouldn't matter to you anyway because you're supposed to be living your own life. Number two, figure out why you want to keep up with the Joneses. One question that everyone needs to ask is why you want to keep up with the Joneses. What makes their life so much better that you feel the need to put your life on hold to mimic theirs?

[00:03:47] Figuring out the answer to this question can help solve a lot of financial mysteries. Once you figure out why you have these feelings, you can come up with an action plan to stop. If you don't, it will most likely just turn into a vicious cycle that constantly eats away at you until you become broke. Number three, think about your own life and your own goals. What do you care about? You should only do what makes you happy.

[00:04:15] Just because another person loves buying the newest iPhone the second it comes out or loves having a new car, it doesn't mean that you have to as well. Everyone is different. It doesn't make your decision better or their decision better. It's all about what's best for you and whether or not it can fit in your budget and if it lines up with your goals. Number four, jealousy won't get you anywhere. I used to be a fairly jealous person.

[00:04:42] I would come up with excuses for why things weren't working out for me and why everyone else had all the newest things. Then I realized something. Being jealous wasn't doing me any good. Instead, I was wasting time and wasting my own happiness. Being jealous about the things that other people have isn't going to get you anywhere. Don't be jealous that your neighbor has a nicer house than you. Don't be jealous that your best friend just bought a nicer car than what you have.

[00:05:08] And don't be jealous that your cousin just went on a fantastic tropical vacation. You don't know their circumstances and you have to realize that everyone values different things. Focus on yourself and bettering your own situation. Don't be preoccupied with tearing others down and making them feel bad. If you want something, then save up money and reach your own goals. And number five, live within your means.

[00:05:35] The point I'm trying to get at with this whole entire post is that you should always aim to live within your means. Have your own budget, spend money on things that you can afford. I don't care if your neighbor can afford it, even if you work just as hard as them. And create your own financial goals. You just listened to the post titled, Why Keeping Up With The Joneses Will Make You Broke, by Michelle Schroeder Gardner of MakingSenseofSense.com.

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[00:06:32] Monarch has completely taken the mental load of tracking my finances off my plate. And their weekly AI recap can even catch a spending spike before it becomes a problem. It's like having a financial advisor in your pocket. The AI assistant is a game changer. I can ask, how much did I spend on travel last summer? And get an instant answer. Use code OPTIMAL at Monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50.

[00:07:00] That's 50% off your first year at Monarch.com with code OPTIMAL. Choice Hotels get you more of what you value. Comfort in, it's calling your name. Save on the stay. Oh, and free waffles are yours to claim. Book direct at choicehilletales.com. I think it's easier to not play the game of keeping up with the Joneses if we're not hanging out with them.

[00:07:29] And that may not just apply to the people we surround ourselves with in the real world. Social media has a funny way of making us feel inadequate. When we see a carefully curated presentation of another person's life on Instagram, for example, it's easy to forget that that's not the whole picture. The grass may not actually be greener for those people. Perhaps what you're seeing is just an Instagram filter.

[00:07:53] I also think the key to not feeling a need to keep up with the Joneses is to develop a deep appreciation for what we already have. Just imagine what would happen if we spent just as much energy being grateful for what we have as we do comparing ourselves to other people. I think that's part of what it means to have an abundance mindset. It's letting yourself be so consumed with gratitude for your own good fortune that there's no mental bandwidth left for comparisons.

[00:08:21] Most of us are surrounded by incredible abundance, and we don't even see it. I also think we make assumptions about how happy others who have more than us actually are. I had the pleasure of having dinner with a friend the other day who just moved into a gorgeous house, nearly triple the size of her previous house. As she was giving me a tour, she shared with me the stress of maintenance for a house that large.

[00:08:45] Rather than feeling jealous, I felt a sense of appreciation for my cute little house that has been a breeze to maintain. Bigger is not always better, my friends. And that will do it for today. Have a great day and start to your weekend if you're listening in real time. And I'll be back here over the weekend where your optimal life awaits.