Hi Everyone,
It baffles me when people get financially jealous. This is what I mean.
Decades ago, my daughter and I were living in a co-op. We had a great townhouse with a huge backyard. We also had the luxury of geared-to-income housing also known as RGI, rent-geared-to-income. It was amazing and amazingly almost everyone who lived there had that luxury too. If someone was laid-off, or had seasonal employment, they could maintain their lifestyle because they were only paying 33% of their gross income or what they received from the government. (According to the Toronto Community Housing website the RGI is now 30% and about 89% of Toronto Community Housing tenants pay rent-geared-to-income).
Now you would think that because almost everyone had the same economic advantage that people would not be jealous if someone had something that they didn’t. I mean not everyone has the same taste, or style so of course there were going to differences in what people had. But there was always an assumed price that was paid. Or an ease of how things were acquired.
Anyone who lives in reality knows that the TV show Bewitched is not real. People don’t snap their fingers, wiggle their nose, or nod their head for what they want, or have only to receive them Nano-seconds later. Only Samantha and her TV show relatives could do that! We mere mortals have to actually do something. Like go to work, make financial choices that may or may not include sacrificing something for something else. Saving money also falls in that category at some point. And that is the point. Some people wouldn’t save money whether they had a job or not. That also means that people made poor financial decisions that keep them poor!
It is really hard to save money when you are spending all of it on beer! Or on cigarettes, pot, or pizza! One broke guy broke down and got a job only because he wanted to beat his 15-year-old son to it! Before that he was partying on his and every patio for years. There was a revolving door of people who could keep him and others company.
Idle hands, idle minds, idle mouths.
Unfortunately, I am of the belief, that even the people who were gainfully employed were starting to get a bit jealous of those of us who were more frugal. One man, whose son I was watching, entered my home for the first (and last) time and said, “Must be nice!” Taken aback I remained silent. What does anyone say to that? He moved out a few months later.
Getting financially jealous of what someone else has is ridiculous. If you want to be better with your finances, read books or listen to audio books about money. The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy, by Thomas J. Stanley, Ph. D. and William D. Danko, Ph. D. is a great book. I highly recommend it. If you don’t want to do your financial homework, don’t complain, or compare yourself to those who do. And whatever you do, don’t bitch about being broke!
Thank you for reading, A. Rebel’s Rant! ;D
P.S.
Just for the record in all the years I lived at that co-op, there were only a few months I was unemployed. At one time I was a temporary employee for Social Services. My job was to file and process all the paperwork, some of which belonged to my neighbours. That was interesting.
I hope I never have to live in a co-op, or the like again.
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