I have a lot of friends and family in different financial stages in their lives. Some are deeper in debt than I am, others are just starting to dig their own pit, still others have paid off every cent of debt they’ve ever used. That’s okay; as they say, it takes all kinds to make the world go round.
Out of all of those, the only ones who irritate me are the spendthrift whiners. These are the people who spend 28 days a month struggling to make ends meet and complaining about how hard their lives are. They make snide comments about how easy other people have it, and act like they are being cheated out of their birthright whenever anybody does anything fun that they can’t do because they are too broke.
The other two days—or sometimes three—of the month, are payday. These are the days the the spendthrift whiners try to make themselves feel rich for 24 hours, while wondering why you aren’t willing to hit the fancy restaurants and expensive vacations with them. This is the day they will buy a dozen moves, or a new home theater system, or a big screen TV. It’s the day they will drop a non-refundable deposit on an exotic vacation, or shop for a new car. Before they know what’s happening, the money is gone and they are broke again until next payday, condemned to whining about their horrible situation, while their spendthrift-whiner friends and neighbors complain about the injustice of having to go without luxuries while our hypothetical spendthrift whiners have a big screen TV and an exotic vacation to Dubuque booked.
These people give no thought to the future. Their life savings consist of depreciating electronics and a fancy scrapbook. What do they do when life catches them by surprise? They come begging for a loan, or charge the emergency to a credit card while complaining about the cost of interest. Ultimately, everyone who plans ahead and sets some money aside is obviously trying to rip them off, because nobody can actually do well for themselves without being crooked.
They are absolutely convinced that life is too hard to succeed, and they refuse to examine their own behavior to find the cause of their problems.
Until payday.
What’s your biggest financial pet peeve?
This was originally a guest post written for a blog swap run by the Yakezie personal finance blog network to answer the question “What is your biggest financial pet peeve?“ It ran on Faith and Finance.
Yeah, people who whine like that need to get a clue and some perspective. Nobody needs to look at payday as a time to splurge and then complain until the next payday. Entitlement and lack of self-discipline by such people can be a drain on the rest of us!
Ha!! Exotic vacation to Dubuque — love it! The (one and only) museum is a real experience, and of course, there’s the shortest, steepest railway ever. Overall, pretty fancy living!
I agree, people shouldn’t whine about money. Unless they’re missing out on a trip to Dubuque.
Entitlement is my biggest pet peeve. Spend any time in a welfare office and you will see person after person complaining they have to fill out this form and this form in order to get benefits.
If those who whine spent as much time being productive, their situation would change drastically and quickly.
My pet peeve? Seeing people who believe it is a great thing to get a tax refund. It was their money to begin with, and the government got to use it for free.