tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26277603.post-76896994172203531292007-05-24T13:02:00.000-05:002007-05-24T13:02:00.000-05:002007-05-24T13:02:00.000-05:00a) Do you see your friends and family as being transparent in their general financial situation? <BR/> You know, some of my friends and family are pretty transparent about their financial situation but I would say most of them are pretty closed mouthed about it. I general can tell if they are doing well or badly depending on their attitudes towards certain things. I think we are talk it is rude to discuss religion, politics or money so people don't. Although, I always thought my parents were doing way better than they actually are. Recently my parents took a trip over seas and they gave me all their account information and things like that in case something happened. I thought they had well over 1 million bucks by now, but no, barely half. So in my experience you never really can speculate accurately, so unless some one tells you, you just don't know. I have friends who live like millionaires but they do it all on credit. I bet most people would think that my husband and I are poor because we drive very old but paid for cars, life in a modest townhome, only shop sales, and clip coupons. The truth is we only spend my paycheck every month and save all of my hubby's. We do this because we have bigger goals that awesome cars, big houses, and fancy clothes...but those are the things people often try to judge wealthy by. We are putting our money into stocks and retirement so we can travel and live the good life later. <BR/>b) Do you keep financial secrets, good or bad, from your friends and family?<BR/>Honestly we do keep "secrets" from our family and friends. I noticed when I was being transparent with my finances this would sometimes get tense with certain people. In some cases in may have been jealousy and in others it ways people wanting to interfere thinking they know what is best for us. For instance, some friends of our are constantly trying to get us to go on expensive vacations, have expensive nights on the town, and raz us for driving old clunkers. Because they know how much we make they feel we are just cheap and COULD afford these things if we wanted to. So if we say we can't do it they get ticked and think we are fuddy duddy's. Because the money is already allocated for something else we truly can't afford it. Its not in our budget. It is much easier for us if people just think we have no money. Only a handful of people know our real status. <BR/>c) Do you attempt to keep secrets from yourself?<BR/>No, I think we are very open and honest with ourselves and each other.J.E.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13805968728682626119noreply@blogger.com