When Friends Obstruct Your Way To Becoming Rich
Your friends are important to you. Fun times together, enjoyable conversations and the knowledge that you can count on each other are a perfect recipe for a great friendship. Still, it takes all kinds to make the world. You may have friends who don’t share your own perspective on money and financial planning.
Maybe you feel pressured to join them in their over-the-top spending habits. But wait! Don’t give up on your own good financial planning intentions to protect the friendship. Here’s how to handle some sticky situations.
Friends Roadblocking Your Financial Progress by Their very Presence
Hanging out with a particular type of friend can profoundly impact how you handle your own finances. A shopaholic friend can encourage you to spend more and a financially savvy friend can inspire you to spend wisely. Most of all, being with a particular friend can lead you to compare yourself subconsciously with everything related to her or him. This is one of the main reasons why you should find friends who have a good influence on you.
If you feel like your friend is better than you in one or many ways, you’ll invest more in yourself to try and measure up to her or him. This is a common reaction among all human beings, as a feeling of inferiority leads us to believe that we occupy a lower position in society. If you feel that you don’t look quite as attractive as your friend, you begin spending more on improving your appearance. If you feel that you lack luxurious possessions in comparison to a friend, you start to purchase more even though you may not need them.
The best way to overcome these rather complicated issues is to learn to exercise self-control. You must remind yourself of your own worth every time before meeting up with your friend. One highly effective strategy is to look at your bank account balance. Your well-padded account will lift your ego for sure!
Friends Roadblocking Your Financial Progress by Their Social Activities
Socialising with a rich, spoiled friend can be financially detrimental for you unless you take some precautions. Friends who believe in shopping as a way to hang out together are not the best match for you. If you see her or him posting details of a wonderfully luxurious life on social media, you may feel compelled to reach for such opulence yourself. You will inevitably yearn for an expensive round-the-world trip, that amazing new car or that gorgeous gown just like your friend has – at any cost!
Hanging out with such friends may oblige you to spend more money than you can afford in front of the friend, even though you know you can buy the same item at a lower price elsewhere. The reason you behave this way is because most human beings feel content when they know they are respected. Spending more in front of your friend, rather than appearing to be a miser, becomes important because you do not want to lose her or his respect.
Read: Budget Hacks to Boost Your Savings and Improve Your Life
All these issues can be easily tackled using your skills of persuasion. You need to convince your friend to hang out with you in ways where neither of you is compelled to spend too much money. Neither of your longings for “retail therapy” will rear their ugly heads if you avoid having to spend money. Start by simply convincing your friend to come over to your house and spend time with you. Plan fun activities and meals that you can enjoy at home. Have a barbecue in your backyard, a picnic at the beach/park or watch a movie at a nearby cinema!
You will no longer feel anxious about having to show off your spending capacity in front of your friend to gain her or his approval or attention. Taking the money factor out of your relationship will establish a true friendship based on personality rather than socioeconomic level. You’ll need to try to overlook your friend’s self-glorifying activities on social media by understanding that no one’s life is as perfect as it appears online. It’s only the positives that get posted while the deficiencies are ignored. In reality, there might be more negatives in your friend’s life than in yours.
Friends Roadblocking Your Financial Progress with Their Financial Decisions
The financial decisions your friend makes may not always be right for her or him. It follows that you should not always base your financial decisions on your friend’s judgement. Sometimes your friend may be approving of your decision to purchase a long-desired expensive product because she or he doesn’t want you to be denied any happiness. It may actually be an unwise decision to purchase that particular item, but your friend wouldn’t want you to misinterpret her or him as being envious.
In other cases, your friend may not practise good money habits. She or he might be a recklessly big spender. Just as an alcoholic or smoking friend may encourage you to follow along so that she or he can justify an action, a shopaholic friend would want you to shop mindlessly in the same way. This can have negative impacts on your financial standing.
Such hurdles can be bypassed by understanding your friends’ personalities. Once you have figured out which particular friends will be positively or negatively influential in your life, you can determine whose advice to follow and whose advice to ignore. You don’t have to eliminate the negatively influential friends from your life, but you can certainly let them know about your financial concerns.
Friends Roadblocking Your Financial Progress – Accept Their Support
You must remember that if your friends are true, they will always understand the thoughts and concerns that you have. That’s why you must always be honest with them. They may be unintentionally roadblocking your financial progress. Let them know in no uncertain terms about your own financial objectives. This will help circumvent any financially awkward situations involving your friend and you.
Related: How To Save $10,000 A Year By Making Small Changes
Recommend0 recommendationsPublished in Relationships
