Do you ever talk about money, income and the like with your friends? I hardly ever do, and I often feel uncomfortable with sharing. Being the first friend out of all of my friends with a career and a steady paycheck, they often ask and I’m usually uncomfortable with answering. Usually I just throw a ballpark number out there.
Even though me and my friends share nearly everything about our lives with each other, money is just a touchy subject with me. My family is so dysfunctional and not normal because of money arguments in the past, so I prefer just to not talk about money at all.
One of my friends has no problem talking about money, even though she always claims that she doesn’t like talking about it. For example, she bragged that she received money from her dead grandmother, which I thought was extremely wrong of her to do so. And then she also wanted to talk about my inheritance from my father after he passed, which is extremely uncomfortable no matter what I think. Don’t get me wrong, I do love this friend! I believe her and I were just raised completely differently though.
So how do you and your friends handle dishing out financial advice to each other? Do you and your friends ever talk about money?
I am the one out of my friends who is the most comfortable with it. But people are funny about money, and most of them get uncomfortable talking about it. There are occasional conversations about expenses but not so much about salaries.
Most of my friends are not too well off so I feel bad about making a good living, though I shouldn't. One is a single mom and has made some poor choices and another is a starving artist. So I don't talk about $$ unless someone else brings it up.
I don't have issues talking about my money with my friends. Most of them know about my journey to debt freedom. I don't have an issues discussing my finances with family and friends. But I have noticed for the most part others don't feel as comfortable discussing their finances. That's ok. I don't ask questions, I just leave the floor open if they want to talk.