I’m doing everything I can to ensure Girl Ninja and I are well taken care of, not just in retirement, but throughout our entire life. I know if I work hard, spend diligently, and save consistently, we can live a comfortable life. Heck, we might even end up being rich.
Funny thing is, being rich scares me…bad. I was reading through an article on CNN the other day titled “Secrets of Extreme Savers“. In the article, eight different families are highlighted for being crazy awesome savers, often banking 50% or more of the their take home pay. Their savings habits have, over the years, made them wealthy. I enjoyed reading each families story. It reminded me hard work pays off.
While I enjoyed the testimonies, I was totally caught off guard by some of the comments people left on the article. Here are a few that stood out…
“Show average Americans saving…not lawyersbusiness owners people making six figures or a couple pulling in 250k a year.”
“Apparently the point of this article is that, if you make well over a 6-figure income and live in a low cost of living area, you can save a lot of money. Glad to see CNN worked hard to find something relevant to the majority of the population.”
“All these people make an excellent living. I found this article completely useless. Except for the one woman who has multiple streams of income. That is a useful idea.”
“I just love it when they post articals about wealthy people that are able to save 1/2 their pay. LOL!! Any idiot can save 50% of his or her income if their banging down 200k a year, UNREAL..”
Let’s play a game shall we. It’s called “I spy.” Ready? I spy with my little eye something bitter, something jealous, and something pathetic. Do you know what it is? If your guess was those four commenters, you’d be 100% right.
While I understand the majority of people don’t make a six figure income, I hardly beljeve that rendered the article useless. People seem to write off the fact that even though these people made a lot of money, they chose to save most of it, instead of spend it. I find that encouraging and motivating.
Articles like these scare me. They make me think twice about amassing a small fortune. Will people appreciate the fact that I worked hard, and saved/invested a ton to get rich? Or will they say I’m not relatable and a poor example of financial responsibility since I have so much more money than them?
I’d ask why there is such a resentment towards the wealthy, but I don’t feel like opening up that political can of worms. All I’m saying is this, If someone works hard (aka goes to law school or starts their own business) and ends up making a generous salary, we should be excited for that person and excited that we to have the potential to do something similar. No bitterness or envy necessary.
What do you think? Do you side with the commenters? Did you find those stories motivating or annyoing? Why is it a bad thing to be wealthy?
