1st Reason For Not Sharing Financial Information
Money Is All Encompassing! I hate to say this, but money is much more than the tool I like to make it out to be. Having money can define ourselves in the role we plan in the societal position in our community. Being rich can even invoke feelings of inadequacy in others that lack it.
It’s sad, but if you are much more successful than your peers, you can to some degree, even hurt their feelings by telling them how rich you are while they are so much poorer in comparison. Anything nice that you spend your money on, you have to realize that your friends and neighbors will think something along the lines of “Oh, they are rich, they can afford it”. Meaning that they can’t because they themselves aren’t rich.
Another concern with telling your friends that you are rich could be that it changes your friendship in some way that makes it different. Wouldn’t you hate to lose a dear friend because they despise you? Or have the relationship change from one of mutual respect, to a more confrontational or subservient role? Sometimes it’s better to leave well enough alone!
2nd Reason For Not Sharing Financial Information
Gossip and news travel quickly! If you tell your friends that you are rich, a small or neighborhood community knows about it quickly, and sometimes for the worst. Time and time again, I hear stores about someone’s house getting broken into and things stolen because the family has riches in the house.
Oh, for the most part, I don’t believe your friends are doing the breaking in, but as the information that you are rich grow in your area, that puts you at risk for being a victim. Perhaps you tell your son that your family is wealthy, then he tells friends and it just grow from there… This is an excellent reason that parents shouldn’t really disclose to their children that they are rich. Especially when the are young or teens.
Tell your kids that you have done well when they are young, but don’t give them and exact amount that you may have in the bank. Often time, kids assume you have much less than you may have, especially if you’ve lived a frugal life all along. If someone asks you about it, you can explain that your child thought having $1,000 made you rich…
Educating Your Family With Financial Information
If you decide to try to teach your kids the actions you’ve done to become successful, perhaps only show them a small part of your wealth. That way, they get the lesson you are trying to teach, but not going to tell everybody and their cousin that their parents are loaded!
What do you think, do you brag that you are almost as rich as Warren Buffett to everyone, or if you have money, do you just enjoy the charms of small town living without making it complicated?
MR