I just got home from having a nice lunch with some friends of ours- people we’ve known for a few years now (in fact, he is how my husband and I met). We talked about a lot of things, but danced very delicately around the subject of money. It got me to thinking- how with some friends I talk about money quite openly, and others not at all.
So, the subject of this Tell Us Tuesday is Friends and Money. How much do you talk about money with your friends? Are there some you tell more than others? Or do you play your cards close to your chest with everyone?
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{ 8 comments }
Hi Kelly,
My husband has spent a lot of time (over several years) reading and learning about finance so our family and friends kind of see him as the go to person for advice. He loves to share what he's learned and enjoys teaching people who want to become more finance savvy.
But as for discussing our own financial situation, we are fairly private people and so tend to play our cards close to our chest. I'm interested to hear what others say.
<abbr>Sherri (Serene Journey)´s last blog post..Love Is A Verb</abbr>
It totally depends on the friend and why we are discussing money issues in the first place.
I worked in accounting for eight years so occasionally friends will ask questions regarding financial matters. Usually in those situations, I just make up examples instead of using specific numbers, unless they want to talk specifics about their finances.
Sometimes, I will talk about certain bills, such as how much the electric bill was this month, or how much the satellite bill was this month. However, I don’t think my best friend could tell you what our monthly income is.
Amanda´s last blog post..Bake ‘Em and Take ‘Em
I enjoy discussing money and budgeting and am quite open with any friend or family member who cares to talk about these things. I follow their lead, however, to respect their comfort level in this area. But I seriously love to glean from others and share my own successes and struggles.
Some friends I talk with money about and others not. I have one friend who I helped train to get out of 40k worth of credit card debt and now he's almost as frugal as I am. that's a success story that never would have happened if we didn't talk about money. Another friend is almost a lost cause. She's so far in debt and doesn't want to talk about it. OK. Still my friend but it turns my stomach when she pulls the CC out for frivilosity.
<abbr>Gizimmick´s last blog post..Make It Painful</abbr>
I am very private about our finances, and my husband can be quite open. I find this frustrating because I don’t think there is any reason to mention specific numbers to people, just out of privacy. I have mentioned a high gas or electric bill before with my close friends or family, but other than that I try not to discuss the subject in detail. Most of our friends are in very different places in life than us financial, so that’s my main reason for privacy.
Kara´s last blog post..Getting into running
My husband and I are currently a part of a discussion group that is watching Dave Ramsey's DVD series on financial management. While we all openly discuss HOW we manage our money, we never talk about specific numbers. The reason we are private about this is because we think it's personal and sometimes people react in strange ways when they find out things like how much money one makes.
<abbr>Sarah H.´s last blog post..Meal Plan Mondays: 3-16-09</abbr>
It seems like money is one of those things that hides in people’s bank accounts never to be spoken of. I don’t know whether it is because we all have some competition in us and t is the “keeping up with the Jones’” mentality that we don’t want anyone else to know how much we are spending to keep up with some imaginary ideal. Or perhaps it is just trying to be polite not to mention how well you are doing when you know your friends don’t handle their money as well. No matter which way you spin it, it seems that no one likes to put their cards down on the table. Even growing up when I was learning about finances (my mom and step-dad were bankers), it would have been nice to have seen their money as an example case (for better or for worse) to see how they handled their own finances and what they wished they had done differently instead of just generally speaking about savings options and other things in general terms. With our parents, we are open with everything but with friends we don't generally use specific numbers unless they want to know how much something cost but otherwise we don't talk about what's in the bank.
I am pretty open about money with my friends, but I think this is because we’re all in the same boat right now – recent college grads just trying to get by. Once we start getting more stable and we’re on different financial pages, that may change, I don’t know. However, I’m pretty sure I’ll always talk about money with my best friend, because she and I have similar money ideas and are not ones to judge each other about this sort of thing.