EXCESSIVE FEAR OF POVERTY ..leading to ''material wealth ''

Zero_Sum

Anno88 wrote: »

Yes .... Its very evident in both my family and my spouses, and has unfortunately been linked to very un-balanced behaviour on both sides.

My set of ''careful ' parents produced someone quite spendthrift, whereas my partners more financially reckless upbringing has produced the opposite.

We are proof that opposite attract, initially , but the extreme attitudes have produced a very stressful existence.

If only one had more insight into oneself when younger!!!

Similar to me. My parents were careful with money & was very much brought up to know the value of it. And ive pretty much followed suit. My OH was brought up living payday to payday with a circle of debt & it become normalised. Her & all her siblings have had money problems.

I think she now sees the benefits of deferred gratification & realises that my way is better.

I wouldnt say i had an excessive fear but the 'what if' question is always in the back of my mind so i tend be careful in what i spend

kuratowski

Yes I believe this is a well known phenomenon from studies of historical events e.g. the great depression. This research has been referenced by Bank of England, etc, in trying to understand and predict the effects of the 2008 financial crisis. Experience of such events statistically tends to lead people to live more cautiously and thereby inadvertently accumulate unintended levels of wealth. As with all such statistics it's a macro trend, and any one individual's experiences may be vastly different.

Moving from the general to the individual - I was at a formative age in the 1990s recession with mid-teens interest rates and widespread negative equity - this has definitely shaped my risk attitude towards property and is a reason why I was late into the housing market - ironically (given the title of this thread) it has made me less wealthy than I would be, if I had jumped straight onto the property ladder at the earliest opportunity

Zola.

Its pretty common for some of the world's wealthiest people to come from a disadvantaged background.

You are shaped by your environment

maxie014

Got to be a happy medium somewhere.
One person i know maxed the credit cards out on all kinds of crap,nearly lost their house through it and is now on a loan consolidation plan for the foreseeable.
Another told me another 100k saved up and im finished work! but it wouldnt matter how much he has as he is that tight fisted he will be scared to spend any of it.

Zola.

maxie014 wrote: »

Got to be a happy medium somewhere.
One person i know maxed the credit cards out on all kinds of crap,nearly lost their house through it and is now on a loan consolidation plan for the foreseeable.
Another told me another 100k saved up and im finished work! but it wouldnt matter how much he has as he is that tight fisted he will be scared to spend any of it.

Possibly tight fisted because their end goal is so close? Or maybe just tight fisted :rotfl:

maxie014

Zola. wrote: »

Possibly tight fisted because their end goal is so close? Or maybe just tight fisted :rotfl:

Just plain tight fisted:)

Fatbritabroad

I still get pretty stressed about finances but am working on relaxing more as I'm in a good position for my age. A few recent deaths and illnesses for people in their 50s reminds me to enjoy at least some of the fruits of my prudence and hard work

Alexland

Fatbritabroad wrote: »

I still get pretty stressed about finances but am working on relaxing more as I'm in a good position for my age.

From your other posts you are in a good position so what's your stress about? Provided you stick to a sensible, low cost, long term investment strategy your likely range of outcomes are all good. The more money I accumulate the less I care about short term losses caused by corrections and crashes even though they are bigger numbers as I am more confident it will probably all be ok eventually whatever happens. I would be more stressed by your rock climbing hobby where the probably of going splat seems high.

Alex

droopsnoot

I'm in the same position as several others who have posted here. For me, the defining moment was being in work with a credit card debt (a few hundred, not the thousands that people have "these days"). Work then announced it had cash flow issues and would have to pay us irregularly. Up to that point I hadn't worried about just putting stuff on the card and (generously, I thought) paying off twice the minimum payment each month. From that point on, I started paying it down at a higher rate (couldn't afford to just clear it in one go) and once it was eventually cleared, set it up to pay in full each month. After some years a change of card meant that could be done by direct debit, so it was.


But now, several decades on, I've got so used to the mindset of not spending money and hanging on to it "just in case" that I find it difficult to spend any significant amount now, unless I can really justify it to myself. Mentally I'm always trying to think about how long it will take me to earn the money back again if I spend it, and my current situation means that's usually quite a long time.


I'd hate to be too far the other way, just spending money regardless of whether I can afford to, but somewhere in the middle might be nice.