Is Your Family Wealthy But You Are Not? (brother, relatives, cousins)
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When I was a trucker I met a man at a metal recycling facility in PA. Nice guy.
We got to talking and he told me of his sister who had married into a family of vast wealth in Texas. He said they live like the people on "Dallas". Oil money.
The man I met had accepted the fact the he would never really ever make any money. He was working for retirement. From the looks of him he didn't have all that many years to go.
And boy, did Sis and her husband share the wealth! My friend said his kid's college education was prepaid, there were cash bonuses sent to him every year, and when he took vacation, the rich relatives would swoop by and pick him up in the plane and take him to wherever they were all going.
He truly loved his sister - and her husband, too, I'm sure - and felt like the best way he could ever repay their generosity was to do the work he had at hand and keep his job.
I came away with a new admiration for some people I never met. And one that I barely knew.
I have some family that are wealthy in another country, but I could care less. My husband has some family that is wealthy and try to flaunt it, but again, could care less.
Hubby and I live well within our means, so we are happy.
If you are embarrassed then look to change your situation. Perhaps ask them to get you a job with their company!
I would not waste time feeling ashamed or embarrassed for my lack of money. Try to be happy for them and proud of your own accomplishments. Maybe cut back on your Facebook time. It's great for staying up with family and connecting with old friends, but from what I've read here on C-D, it can also cause a lot of jealousy and strife. And remember that everyone has their troubles, but they don't usually put them on Facebook. Think about what really makes you happy, and try to bring more of it into your life. I don't mean to be a Pollyanna, but happiness in life has little to do with money. I think it has more to do with finding your own purpose and meaning and taking joy in the little things.
Oh I don't worry me and my wife have traveled done some fun stuff, we have figured out how to never pay rent but spent bulk of our Married life living in a Shack middle of nowhere. Never had a lot of money but never did without.
Our kids put us down but only one of them has money that he worked for.
No offense intended, but when I read about your family's flagrant display of wealth, I wondered if they were members of the Mexzican drug cartel! Ostentatious displays of wealth turn me off. Maybe if I had that kind of money, I wouldn't think twice about it, though. Maybe.
I became disabled after a long illness and ended up losing just about everything I had. Now I get by on a tiny disability check. Before this happened to me I was comfortably middle class, but most of my family had far better incomes than I did even then. That difference didn't bother me until I became really poor. My cousins post pix of their huge vacation homes and boats on FB. And don't forget all the expensive clothes they are always showing off and the jewelry and the cars, etc.,etc. Once when my illness had gotten so bad that I was going to have to sell my house to pay medical bills, I wrote my cousin asking for help. She was president of a MAJOR State University at the time and her hubby was a very successful businessman. Her response was to send me a box of old clothing that she'd been planning to give to Goodwill. Go figure.
Sure, I'm human and the wealthier members of my family can make me envious. But why allow my thoughts about them to make me feel unhappy? Money alone doesn't make them better than me or anyone else. Money hardly makes a person a better human being either. As they say, comparing your insides with someone else's OUTSIDES is a good recipe for unhappiness. I suggest you spend less time on FB and more time doing the things that REALLY matter to you. I unfriended my cousin a year ago and I'm glad I did.
Yeah, the majority of my family ALL do better that we do; but I ignore it.
It does annoy me sometimes when some of them make offhanded comments about my almost 20 yr old truck, and thrift store clothes; so I have started replying with, "If you care so much, then give me some of your money to move up a bit."
You never know, some of your seemingly rich relatives could be up to their eyeballs in debt.
I wouldn't worry about it. Live your life and be happy...figure out how you can do better for yourself, and don't worry about what others have or don't have.
My husband and I started off without two cents to rub together when we were married. We were using a card table for a dining table and a couch with no legs in our tiny apartment. Once he got established in the real estate market and he opened his own business(took years), we lived/still live very comfortably.
I have a hateful sister in law who worked hard all her life, (now retired) but has let herself go physically: obese, which caused diabetes, and needs a knee replacement from carrying all that extra weight around.
She is obviously very unhappy, but does nothing to improve her situation. Will not even CONSIDER going on a healthy diet and eats a lot of fats and carbohydrates.
That woman can't give a compliment to save her soul, and I know it is because she is jealous and unhappy. She refuses to be happy for other people who have done well for themselves.
My husband and I built a new house last year in a rural area which we were very proud of. When I was showing it to her and my brother the first time, the ONE and ONLY comment she made about our house hurt me very badly. We live on a hill with a panoramic view of the city in the background. Just below us in the foreground is a cemetery. She stood at our large picture window and exclaimed: WHAT A NICE VIEW! yes, you guessed it, the next thing out of her sarcastic mouth was "of the cemetery" followed by an evil laugh.
I bit my tongue, but it cut to the bone and I cried tears of anger after they were gone. The next time she was here, she again said something similar about the cemetery but I was ready this time. I said, well ........., I'd far rather have that view which I think is beautiful, rather than yours, looking at a house across the street, a house in your back yard, and a house on either side of you. I dislike being nasty and bending down to her level, but she got my point and it shut her up in a hurry.
Like the old saying goes: if you can't say something nice, don't say nothin at all. Very true.
Yep, loved my rich uncles. Even though they were cheap they gave good gifts at Christmas. Loved going to visit them at their vacation homes. I never thought about not having one myself, we were middle class like most people. I don't get the envy. Coveting is not cool.
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