So I started reading this book “Your Money or Your Life”and I just about shot myself.

Maybe it’s because I’m reading the older edition (remember how i got this book for “Free” since they shipped me the wrong one?), but my damness it’s so B-O-R-I-N…. zzzzzzzz. It’s so sad because i was really excited to read it! Maybe i just haven’t gotten to the good parts yet?

Anyways, so I decided to pick up a non-personal finance book this time for a nice change of scenery. And funny enough it brought me right back to finance. It’s not THAT crazy i guess cuz money plays a part everywhere in life, but it def. caught me off guard and got me zoned right back in again :)

The book is called “The Pleasure of My Company“ by Steve Martin (yeah, THAT Steve Martin). It’s a fiction/comedy about the musings of this super smart/obsessive compulsion type guy. At one point he’s looking out his window at these apartments for rent, and he relays the following to us:

“…twenty minutes later I saw a couple in their thirties, Porsche-equipped,pull up and park half in the red zone. Oh, I can read them like a book: too much money in the Porsche, not enough left over for the rent. This is a young hotshot three years into his first good job, and the one thing he wants is a Porsche. Sort of the boyhood dream thing. Finally he gets the car and has a strong attachment to it. The wife came later, but dang, he still loves his Porsche. So they think they have plenty of money for rent until they start checking into prices and find that their affordable number of bedrooms has shrunk by 1.5″

I love these types of generalizations because that’s all they really ARE – generalizations. This one happens to go against the common thought, but it really depends on who you ask. You’ll have some people saying/thinking “oh yeah man, that guy is LOADED! look at that hottie car and that blonde bombshell next to him”, while others, mainly those in the PF mindset, will think “No way, that guy’s totally in debt – what an idiot! Doesn’t he know that if he invested that $60k in XYZ stock at 9.3456% he would have $82.50 right now?!”

I, personally, take a little reasoning from both sides and formulate my own little mix. It goes a little somethin’ like this, “Wow that’s a hot car! He must really like it cuz he just blew alotta money on it. You’d never find me driving it, but I can appreciate his choice of style…I just hope he’s not in debt! Maybe he just won the lottery? Or maybe he just lives on the edge?” I never like to say one way or the other whether someone’s an idiot or not without knowing the facts ;)

The beautiful thing about this stuff is that it fosters such great discussion. Everyone has an opinion and can back it up with a million reasons and experiences, but there’s never a clear cut answer. So everyone wins! I guess you could always walk right up to the person and flat out ask what’s in his bank account, but even then i doubt you’d strike the total truth ;) It would certainly add more fuel to the fire though!