There are always those people that kill your vibe. The ones where, when you explain some things you’re doing, they instantly retort against it. Sometimes, certain topics get more of an adverse reaction than others. Personal finance is one of them.
Talking about money makes many people nervous. Money management, saving, making more, and investing aren’t talked about much because for some reason it was decided to be a hush hush type of topic.
It’s interesting (and sometimes heartbreaking) when people brush off the discussion of money. When it comes to the naysayers of personal finance and money talk, I’ve experienced and learned of the different kinds of people who are so resistant to talking about money. Let’s take a look at them.
1. The Yolo (You Only Live Once) person
This is a big problem with millennials and people my age (I’m 21). Whenever the topic of saving and budgeting comes up, the YOLO person throws up their arms.
“You only live once! I want to enjoy my life, not have to restrict myself! I could die tomorrow for all I know!”
Yes, you could die tomorrow, but there is a greater possibility of you living much longer. Don’t you want to make sure you have a good financial foundation to enjoy your later years as well?
They make lots of impulse purchases and cover with the guise of “treating themselves” or “buying things that they need”. These are the “treat yo self” people. The type of people who may need to get better at being more intentional with their money and seeing the long-term.
The YOLO person fails to see money management as an opportunity rather than sacrifice [LINK]. They don’t understand it’s possible to live a good life and financially prepare for the future. These two are not mutually exclusive!
2. The “Thanks Obama” person
The title doesn’t have much to actually do with Obama, haha, it’s more discussing a particular mindset. A “thanks Obama” person is someone who complains about their situation and attributes their problems towards other things rather than focusing on actively working to better themselves.
They’re the ones who would rather hope for getting on a loan forgiveness program rather than look for ways to pay off their loans. They’re the ones who don’t know how to take the meaning of something and and shift it to fit their needs and goals.
How often have you read articles on income reports, people paying off big amounts of debt, working lucrative side jobs and so forth? On those articles, there is usually always someone in the comments who says how the situation won’t work for them.
I have three kids and a mortgage, there is no time for a second job!
I only make $12 an hour, there is no way I can pay off my debt faster!
This person paid off 8,000 of debt in three months? That’s not possible for me!
This type of person focuses on the exact details of the above example stories, rather than focusing on the overall lesson: having a reason behind doing what you’re doing and making a plan that works for your situation.
3. The “On a better day” person
Most often known as a person who always says “I’ll do it tomorrow”, a “on a better day” person waits to get started. They believe things in their life aren’t in order at the moment and they will focus on their financial goals “on a better day”.
They constantly talk about how they don’t have this or that to get started or are too busy right now. Often times, they cast this mindset on others and try to guilt them.
“You run your own online business? Well I could run one too if I had a fancy laptop like yours.”
“You maxed out your Roth IRA this year? Well I have too many bills, I couldn’t possibly do that. Maybe when I start making more money…”
4. The Overly Optimist
There is no need to build a good size emergency fund, right? Things will work themselves out. That debt will eventually be paid off. A big experience I had with this was when I was in college and talked with other people about their student loan debt.
“Oh, I’m not focused on it. I’ll worry about it when I graduate”
Besides rolling my eyes at the statement, my college self thought maybe it was just people not being exposed to the real world as the reason for this overly optimistic attitude. Nope! Being out of university now, I realize even lots of people in the real world do it.
They don’t pay their credit cards in full every month, they don’t make bigger payments towards their student loans, and they don’t focus on building up a bigger emergency fund. I mean, having $1,400 in a savings account is a good enough emergency fund, right? Right…
These types of people can bad for your finances. They may be great people, wonderful friends, and so forth, but they’re bad with money. How can you do about them?
Explain your ‘why’ and provide an example.
The types of people above don’t have a definite ‘why’ behind their personal finance, so that’s why they see things like saving, investing, and making more money as not something worthwhile to focus on.
You could tell them your reasoning in dealing with personal finance and what you hope to get out of what you’re doing.
“I’m practicing frugality in terms of cutting my cable bill and limiting dining out. Nothing too extreme. I want to use the money I save to take that vacation to France I’ve always wanted to do.”
“I’m working a second job as an Uber driver. I’m using the extra money to pay off my student loan debt. I want to pay it off faster so I can focus more on my passion project of painting, without having to worry about debt.”
“I made a budget for myself. I want to see where my money goes every month so I can see where to save. I want to use the saved money to put towards a down payment on a house.”
A lot of times, people just need to be explained why something might be beneficial to them. They may see personal finance as some daunting, big task. It doesn’t it have to be.
Everyone starts somewhere. It all starts with one thing. Doing one thing every day and working towards building a more solid foundation.
Have you encountered naysayers of personal finance and money management? What did you do about it?
