So payday happened, and the total of all my accounts went past $100,000. That’s so exciting! So I shared it on Facebook. Except…
Generic User: Hey, everyone, here’s the tacos I ate today! [picture]
*Like*
Generic User: Hey, everyone, my relationship is great!
*Like*
Generic User: Hey, everyone, check out this great hike I went on! [200 pictures]
*Like*
Me: Hey, everyone, I’m winning with money!
*……………………………………*
Two likes. Tough crowd. Forget that I shouldn’t be looking for validation on Facebook, but I started to worry throughout the day. Did people not see it? Did I word things wrong? Does everyone just hate me?
I mean, I mentioned it wasn’t easy, because if you tell everyone it’s easy, it’s like a slap in the face to the people who find saving any money really hard. I mentioned that not everyone can do it, because if you say everyone can do it…it’s like a slap in the face to the people who find saving any money really hard. You try so hard to make these appropriate concessions, but the panic still comes: “Oh, shit, does telling them it isn’t easy and not everyone can do it actually, really, make me sound like an arrogant prick?”
Panic! Death! Hell! Chaos! All my internal fears of being hated.
Eventually I just had to let it go.
Money is more taboo than politics, religion, and health. So I’ve come to believe. I have no shortage of friends open to arguing about these three subjects, but nobody dares to talk about money (at least not online), even though it is one of the most import subjects in life. Honestly, that’s one of the biggest reasons I talk so much about it.
There are a lot of great things about the “stealth wealth” in the church, people hiding their success and doing good things with it. But what pisses me off is that it’s like they are just hiding how they became good with money and hoarding this knowledge to themselves. I’m like, “Dammit, let’s talk about this, let’s bring it up, let’s ruffle some feathers, this topic is so important!” And I guess if that means being the arrogant prick who dares to share he has $100,000 and that many others can do exactly what he did, so long as it actually gets people to start thinking harder about money, I guess mission accomplished. Heck, I got called arrogant when I shared that my 401k reached $20,000, by somebody whose combined family income was significantly higher than mine at the time and still is. I just wish I felt I had more people behind me on this.
“I make pretty good money as a software developer, and there are tons of software developers in this world. But instead of spending my extra bucks on nonsense, I saved my money, and look what happened!”
Could it be that this is actually offensive to people? Or I could just be projecting this in my mind, which wouldn’t surprise me. Or does all of this hint at some deeper vanity? Incidentally, I started this blog a year after my best friend moved away. I used to share my stupid economic thoughts with him, and I guess after a year without him, I had to share those thoughts somewhere. As far as I’m aware, few people even read this blog, so I’m definitely not writing for some vestige of popularity. This has been a real passion of mine for a long time…but it does feel lonely.
Maybe I should just go post some pictures of tacos.