The Case For Showing Off Your Cash

We know it’s taboo to talk about money in anything more than generalities. Money is one of those topics that even the best of friends don’t usually get into specifics on. Some people are embarrassed about how little they earn while others carry a sense of guilt because they earn so much. Both individuals with a mountain of money in savings and those with next to nothing have concerns that they will be judged differently if the people around them uncover their financial secrets.

What’s interesting is that there seem to be no rules, especially in the social media age, about letting anyone and everyone know how we spend our money. Have you ever had a friend tell you about the new car he just bought? Was he excited to show it off to you? Take you for a ride? Has a neighbor ever remodeled their kitchen and given you the tour pointing out the new tile, lighting, cabinets, and appliances? Most of the time these types of events include a discussion about the bargain your friend got on the deal. We consider these interactions to be totally acceptable and aside from a healthy bit of jealousy, we’re even happy for our friends and their new upgrades.

Even without our friends giving us the details on the costs, our guess as to how much they spent on their new ride, that European vacation or dinner at that expensive restaurant is usually pretty close. Through an accumulation of publicly shared purchases, eventually, we can form an opinion about how much the people we know might be earning or saving by how much they spend. While we generally don’t want to tell people how much we make, we really don’t have an issue with showing people through our spending and we don’t have much of an issue with them showing us.

I’m not condemning the spending of money, at least not in this post. Most people are out there working hard for what they earn so there’s no reason why they shouldn’t enjoy it. It is important to understand the reason behind spending one’s money though. Here’s the thing, it’s a fundamental human need to feel significant and one way we can feel significant is by earning a decent income. However, if it’s not socially acceptable to tell people about your income, how can they know how “significant” you are? Instead of talking about how much we make, we buy new cars, upgrade our backyards, or take expensive trips, then our friends and family know how well we’re doing and we feel a sense of significance without breaking the rules.

Now, imagine a little bit of a different scenario involving the neighbor who invited you over to tour her newly remodeled kitchen, but instead of new cabinets, a new sink, shiny appliances, and new counter tops, she walked you over to a pile of $30,000 cash. That’s about the average cost of a kitchen remodel these days. Imagine your neighbor going over the details of the different bundles of money in her pile. Some of them are hundred dollar bills, there are a few stacks of fifties, but most of them are twenties. She points out how crisp the hundreds are and even lets you touch them. What would you think of this garish display? Is it really much different from showing off the flooring, cabinets, etc.? The money is all being shown to you in either scenario.

If it was acceptable to show off our money without spending it, for example, show a friend your emergency savings account statement or post to social media the amount of a recent 401(k) contribution, maybe more people would get that feeling of significance without having to part with as much of their money as they do. If the social rewards for setting money aside were as great as the attention we get for spending it, we’d have a lot more financially secure people out there. The next time you’re on the track to make a feel-good purchase, take some time to consider if setting that money aside or investing it could make you feel just as good as spending it.