Contents:
The concept of remaining frugal in light of achieving financial freedom is not new.
Frugality is coupled with humility. People consider the rich person who lives frugally to have discovered a sense of understanding which not many rich people do. They’re considered to be winning the battle against their ego, and are seen as properly aligned with the deeper meanings of what it takes to lead a meaningful life.
Whether these people are right or wrong in their act of living frugally upon attainment of wealth remains unknown. This article aims to discover some of the perks in doing so as it relates to their influence on people in their day to day lives.
Protection of Facets Outside the Financial Realm
Some may view the act of a rich man driving a Toyota to be an attempt at protecting their financial stability. It may appear that they do not want to entice others to target their success and wealth by way of showing off what they have. They may not want a potential home invader to follow their vehicle all the way to the home in which they live. That reason is a valid one for not driving a fancy car around town. There may however, be other reasons for not advertising a fruitful way of living.
People who have a goal of attaining wealth in life will be reminded of where they stand in achieving those goals once they see you getting out of a luxury car. They will justifiably view you as being ahead in your attempt at striving for the same goal. It will logically be difficult for them to justify that they are ahead of you in attaining wealth, thereby reminding them that they’ve not achieved their desired goal. Rather than illogically comforting their sense of loss in the domain of attaining wealth, they may be likely to investigate and exploit areas of life which they are more successful than you in.
The reason seems to be that in order to keep their hopes of attaining wealth strong enough, and their motivation unhinged, they seek evidence of them being equal to you as a human being. If they’re better than you at A, B, and C, then their hope of attaining the same, or greater, level of wealth becomes more believable.
The ones who communicate their level of wealth through the decisions they make in showing it to others, are thereby susceptible to people consistently measuring themselves against them. The domain in which they’re measured against however, often deviates from the financial one. People attack facets of their life they have not had a chance to practice or protect. Attacks come as surprises from those they know nothing about. The many forms of deception and unnecessary competitive acts this line of thinking gives birth to can comprise a long list.
This article is not answering whether making it publically known that you’re rich is right or not. It simply aims to examine the behavior of people who are exposed to the information about your wealth, and arm you to make a better decision.
Protection of Authenticity
This one is rather obvious, but should still go on to be mentioned. There will be people who, at the moment of recognizing the level of wealth which you possess, begin to think of ways that they can benefit from it themselves. It is in the nature of a human being to exploit avenues for a better way of living, so do not take this behavior to heart. The realization of how fickle seemingly respectable individuals are as it pertains to attaining monetary reward is a painful one.
Driving a Toyota as a millionaire will encourage those who don’t know you to remain authentic in their communication toward you. The server at the restaurant will be as kind to you, as they are to others. The policeman who pulls you over will not be distracted in his attempts at enforcing the law, whether that be good or bad. The people you treat to dinner will not sway from what they would normally order upon hearing that you’re covering the bill. In other words, you will not be subjected to all the changes in behavior which are motivated by information of your wealth being public. Whether you want this to be the case is your decision to make, it is neither right or wrong.