Do you ever feel like you are trying to keep up with the Joneses? It seems like everywhere I turn, a big purchase is happening to someone I know. A massive 3 story house, nice cars, fancy vacations, a new iPad every other month and everything else.
When a friend goes out and buys the next greatest phone or buys a new car every couple of months, it kind of makes you wonder, and maybe it makes you jealous?
I’m not going to lie, the jealous monster takes over my life every now and then. This is something that I am working on and something that I need to change in my life. Am I the only one? Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person who is jealous and no one else has these crazy feelings. Since my extra income seems to be continually increasing, sometimes I feel the urge to spend it.
Maybe the jealous monster has taken over your life as well and you are trying to keep up with the Joneses.
We know someone who isn’t showy with his money, he is careful with how he spends his money. He doesn’t buy all the latest gadgets that don’t mean anything to him. Instead he spends money on his family, vacations, making his house into a home, family gatherings at his home, and other things that truly mean something to him.
He is the perfect example that just because you “might” have money to spend, it does not mean that you should. Buying all of the newest things all of the time doesn’t always mean everything in life.
Before you buy the next thing that you might not need, definitely think first.
Do you absolutely, positively NEED to buy it right now? Do you need that seventh flat screen TV when there’s only two people living in your house? Will moving into that bigger house really bring you that much more happiness? What will you do when the next person you know buys something better slightly better than you? Are you house poor but still feel the need to keep up (read further on this post on Forbes).
This is where you need to really think about what makes you happy. Constantly being in a race with your friends and people you know about who has the best things is not the best way to live life. Things will just continue to eat at you and I don’t think you can truly ever be happy if you’re just always try to one-up everyone.
Determine why you truly want that next gadget or why you want that new car.
Can you even afford to have it? If you can’t afford it without accruing tons of debt that you cannot ever pay back, then please do not do it. Buying a $50,000 car when you only make $15,000 a year is not realistic.
This is a Keeping Up With the Joneses and also crazy things people say and do post, so be ready 🙂
Do you want to buy a new house whenever someone gets a new house?
Maybe you start thinking that your current house is too small and that a house that is an extra $50,000 won’t hurt your budget too much. WRONG. What was wrong with your house last week? Nothing most likely.
A family friend recently bought a nice house and moved into it. Our houses are similar, but all of a sudden I felt like my house was “old” and that I should get something new ASAP. This is my problem! I normally wouldn’t be thinking like this because I know that we want to save and buy a new house next year most likely, NOT THIS YEAR.
Are you upside down on your car because you buy a new and better car whenever you get the chance?
I know someone who is very upside down and that is because they bought 3 new cars in one year. WHY? I don’t know! I know for a fact that he could not afford a single one. His mom co-signed on every car and he owes around $40,000 on a $20,000 car right now.
I know a lot of guys like this (sorry, I’m trying not to stereotype) and even W is like this. Him and his friends always want a new car and W himself has personally gone through probably 9 or 10 cars (and almost ALL of these were nice cars: Porsche, Mercedes, classic truck, brand new Jeep, among other cars).
One of W’s friends was saying it was time for him to get a new car because he likes the factory tires that are put directly on the car when the car is brand new. UM WHAT? If someone would like to explain this in the comments below, I would greatly appreciate it.
Is your credit card balance so high that it would take 1,000 years to pay off?
Do you feel like you’re always charging your credit card so that you can always buy the latest and greatest thing? Credit card debt can add up quickly, and before you know it you can amass thousands and thousands of debt.
One of W’s friends bought the new iPad and apparently it still came with the old charging cord. And now the new iPad comes with the new cord. You can kind of guess what he did. Just weeks after he bought the new iPad (he has had every version now), he bought the newest iPad only because it had the new cord and he wanted the latest and greatest electronic out there. Weird right? Someone can explain that for me to.
Have you ever felt the need to Keep Up With The Joneses?
What do you do to ignore/cope with it?
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