This guest post was written by Jason, the proprietor of Live Real, Now, a blog focused on spending–and saving–in the real world. It was written for a blog swap run by the personal finance blog network to answer the question “What is your biggest financial pet peeve?“
I have a lot of friends and family in different financial stages in their lives. Some are deeper in debt than I am, others are just starting to dig their own pit, still others have paid off every cent of debt they’ve ever used. That’s okay; as they say, it takes all kinds to make the world go round.
Out of all of those, the only ones who irritate me are the spendthrift whiners. These are the people who spend 28 days a month struggling to make ends meet and complaining about how hard their lives are. They make snide comments about how easy other people have it, and act like they are being cheated out of their birthright whenever anybody does anything fun that they can’t do because they are too broke.
The other two days—or sometimes three—of the month, are payday. These are the days the spendthrift whiners try to make themselves feel rich for 24 hours, while wondering why you aren’t willing to hit the fancy restaurants and expensive vacations with them. This is the day they will buy a dozen movies, or a new home theater system, or a big screen TV. It’s the day they will drop a non-refundable deposit on an exotic vacation, or shop for a new car. Before they know what’s happening, the money is gone and they are broke again until next payday, condemned to whining about their horrible situation, while their spendthrift-whiner friends and neighbors complain about the injustice of having to go without luxuries while our hypothetical spendthrift whiners have a big screen TV and an exotic vacation to Dubuque booked.
These people give no thought to the future. Their life savings consist of depreciating electronics and a fancy scrapbook. What do they do when life catches them by surprise? They come begging for a loan, or charge the emergency to a credit card while complaining about the cost of interest. Ultimately, everyone who plans ahead and sets some money aside is obviously trying to rip them off, because nobody can actually do well for themselves without being crooked.
They are absolutely convinced that life is too hard to succeed, and they refuse to examine their own behavior to find the cause of their problems.
Until payday.
What’s your biggest financial pet peeve?
Jason runs the blog, Live Real, Now. Please take a moment to go over there and check him out. Thanks!
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Yeah, I know people like this – always too poor to do anything until payday.. They’re often the ones being rescued by parents, or a credit card – and end up finding themselves in a huge debt hole. If only they would plan ahead!
Proper planning prevents poor performance…
I love this Tim! Well said! I know a lot of people like this who complain all the time! It takes work for us to budget and save! I would love to go on a shopping spree every payday, but to live debt free, I can’t! Maybe more people will realize what it takes to live comfortably without debt!
Thanks Candiss! Unfortunately we’re at a place where it’s ‘normal’ to have a lot of school debt or a big mortgage…but it really isn’t.
Jason/Tim, excellent post. I live almost as “poorly” now that I’m employed as I did when I was a bum for 6 months because I divert 15% of my earnings straight into my 401k and put another pretty good amount into my emergency savings account, leaving me with little available cash beyond what it takes me to pay my bills. I have no sympathy for the whiners making poor choices, although many of them expect me to pay for their poor choices in the form of entitlement spending that comes out of my taxes, which also swallow up a lot of my income. I find that many of the whiners have plenty of money for booze, smokes, and brand name foods (rather than identical generics). A buddy of mine with the same degree as me from the same institution has $60k in student loans over his head, just pays the minimums, and burns through cash like nobody’s business as he now lives the high life prematurely. I hope that doesn’t bring him trouble later, but I bet it will.
http://www.russellhollander.com/blog
Yeah, I don’t really mind that they are messing up their own finances, but do I have to hear the whining? Do something to fix the problem man, don’t just complain about it. Get a second job if you really want more spending money.
Jason, AGREED. I was getting irritated just reading about those annoying folks. I HATE WHINERS! I have no patience for those that abdicate responsibility.
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