I was out with some friends the other night and one of the girls in that group is kind of well-known for being a bit of a "painful drunk" in that she starts antagonizing conversations with people when she has been drinking too much. This doesn't do her very many favors because she isn't hot enough to be such a pain in the ass and have people deal with it and while I know that is not nice to say there are a lot of irritating women out there that are tolerated just because they are good looking. It is a real thing, trust me.
But the other night when this annoying drunk decided to make her way over to me that spread her abuse she started talking about how I don't spend a lot of money and was also suggesting that this is somehow a bad thing.
I am not stingy. I don't try to get out of paying a bill and there are not a lot of things that I will decide to not do that I should do because of the cost. I pay my bills and if something is important to me, I will spend good money on it to make sure that I get a quality version of it.
Now that being said, I also am one of those people that doesn't waste money and also doesn't like to go to places that are fancy and overpriced. This was how the conversation or I suppose I should call it, "the argument" with this girl began the other night. She is always spending big money on things and events and also will spend a lot on something that I really think is stupid like a pair of shoes when she already has 35 pairs of shoes.
She also doesn't really have any savings and has wealthy parents who would bail her out if she ever were to have any problems. If her parents were not wealthy, she would probably always have big problems with money.
I was not raised that way. One of the things that we spoke about before the conversation became and argument was what our first jobs were. I told her that my parents encouraged or kind of forced me to have a job at a very young age and this taught me the value of money, and how you have to work to get things that you want in life. She told me about her first job was after college and it was something driven by nepotism and if you don't know what that word means it means that you got the job because you or someone you know decided to give it to you. In this instance it was her parents that knew the owner of the company.
I'm not opposed to treating family special, if I had that sort of connection I would use it as well. But I do have a problem with someone who has never had to worry about money giving people an argument over something that the clearly don't really understand. This girl is frivolous with money because she can be. She knows that if she runs out of money mommy and daddy will just give her more. For me, if I run out of money I don't really have anyone that I can call to get it from and I wouldn't do that anyway.
I kind of pride myself on being independent and "safe" as far as finance is concerned but one of the main reasons why I am financially safe is because I don't spend money on things that I do not need.
I'm not rich, but i am also not worried about how I will get money. If I lost my job tomorrow I would be just fine for several years without working. I cannot say the same for this girl that I know who was an annoying drunk. In fact, I would say that most of the people that I know over here in Thailand, especially the younger people, are probably 2 or 3 months away from completely running out of money.
If me having a "nest egg" and protecting it by not spending money on silly things that are overpriced makes me stingy in this girl's eyes, then I am ok with that. I am financially sensible, and I think that is becoming more and more rare these days when lots of people think that it is a good idea to just spend and spend and spend without any concern for the future.
I hope that people that live like this do have wealthy family members that can take care of them, because if not they are going to be in deep trouble when they themselves get older!