I’m sure many of us who read financial blogs, own one, or simply have a passionate interest in personal finance understand the idea of quantifying our finances. Here are 2 examples of this:
- Tracking Expenses. This should be a low-maintenance activity at this point, with the available options (such as Mint, for example) that are out there.
- Preparing Personal Balance Sheets. This entails looking at your assets and liabilities, to determine your net worth. This can be done periodically, to give you a snapshot at a given point in time of where you are.
I personally do both at this point. To me, it makes sense to know where your money is going, and how you’re doing overall in terms of money.
With respect to the later, the idea of tracking expenses has seemingly become a bit more mainstream, or at least so I thought. After all, as I mentioned it’s so easy to do – and quite responsible to do as well. The chatter on personal finance blogs – including this one – tends to support this view.
I had a conversation the other day where I brought up the topic of tracking expenses. Now, I’m pretty sure I bring up the idea of saving money more than the typical person out there, even though I’m not completely conscious of it at the moment. It’s just second nature, and a part of how I think.
There person with whom I was having a conversation looked at me and said “Seriously? You actually take the time to micromanage your money to that extent?”
At first I thought she was kidding, but I then stated that yes, I do actually micromanage money to that extent, and it also doesn’t take much time to do it either.
Her response: “Oh, I could NEVER do that. It takes the spontanaeity and fun out of shopping, I would think.”
I was stunned for a moment, finding it hard to believe that someone who was bright and well-educated could actually be stunned for the opposite reason: that I took the time to track expenses. It was almost like a totally foreign concept to her that she had never heard of. It was someone reminiscent of the epsoides I documented in a post I wrote on crazy things people said about money.
Anyway, It got me thinking that there is some real value to ignoring what many people might say about personal finance, even if they think you’re foolish for something you believe in.
It’s apparently not mainstream to do things such as track expenses. Who knew?
However, even if someone teases you for being frugal, measuring your financial performance, side hustles, personal finance blogging, or whatever – don’t sweat it. Ignore them. Do what you think is responsible!
They’ll be coming to you years down the road for advice anyway 🙂
My Questions for You
Have you ever encountered someone who basically rejected good personal finance habits?
What do you do when you have a discussion about money with such a person?
What are some financially responsible habits you have that you think others you know might not understand?
I haven’t encountered anyone like you describe. I have encountered people who frequently earned more money than me, wonder how I could save so much for retirement, or know what to invest in, or even wait to buy something until I’d saved for it. Actually, in response to the person who felt shopping should be spontaneous and fun, I get a lot of pleasure saving up for something and anticipating the day I’ll walk into the store and lay down cash for an item I’ve lusted for, for so long. There is a lot of fun in that.
That sounds more fun to me, I agree!
I run into this all the time, you’d be surprised at the amount of people that are struggling with their money. I never talk down to them about their approach, I typically turn the tables and talk about the success I have had with my money habits, and see if they can see the difference.
That’s a positive approach, and sometimes people can be motivated by hearing about others’ success.
I learned a long time ago that you have to be open to change in order to influence someone’s behavior. When I encounter someone who acts irresponsibly, I ask them questions to determine if they are just complaining or really want to change.
Sometimes people do get set in their ways, and don’t want to change. One would think that life experience would teach folks some lessons – I know it has taught me quite a few!
My sister-in-law gets snarky with my wife from time to time about the budgeting and tracking that we do. She’s made comments like “I can’t believe you worry about $10 here, what difference does it make?” It bothers my wife more than it bothers me, because I know the answer to that in that it really does add up to significant amounts. I honestly just shrug it off and move on.
I wonder if those comments she makes are a manifestation of her own denial? As in, denial that being carefree about money has consequences.
I usually don’t talk about money topics with most of my friends. But I think I’m on a fairly similar frugal mindset with most of them anyway. If someone tried to say I had abnormal personal finance habits I wouldn’t take offense because I don’t see anything wrong with what I’m doing. I’d probably be annoyed at them though lol. We can’t please everybody right. As the saying goes, take care of yourself first before helping others.
That’s a good approach, to not take offense because you don’t see anything wrong with what you’re doing. If you know that your approach is right for you, that’s most important!