You Should Keep Up With the Joneses

Everyone always tells you that you shouldn’t compare yourself to other people. Especially when it comes to money, keeping up with the Joneses is a very bad thing.

This makes sense.

We probably shouldn’t compare ourselves to people in our neighborhood who lease brand new SUVs. We definitely shouldn’t compare ourselves to the people who are building a 5,000 square foot house on a lake.

However, I think that we actually should try to keep up with the Joneses.

Well … sort of …

Meet the Joneses (circa 1999)

Their television

The Joneses always makes sure that they get the finest electronics. Therefore, they were one of the first people to have a new, high-definition television. The Joneses purchased a 32 inch, HDTV for only $8,000.

We should definitely try to keep up with the Joneses when it comes to TVs.

Fortunately, a 32 inch TV that is even better than the one the Joneses purchased is on sale on Amazon for $129 right now.

Their car

The Joneses only purchase brand new cars like the “posh and stately” Jaguar S-Type. At a cost of only $51,000, their car has 210 horsepower and can go from 0-60 in only 5.3 seconds.

I think that we should buy a car that is at least as nice as the Joneses’ car.

Luckily, we can get a 1999 Jaguar S-type for only $2,000 on Craigslist. We could probably even double or triple this price and get a car that was made this century.

Their cell phone

Obviously, the Joneses would never go anywhere without their cell phone, the brand new Nokia 8210. At a price of only $200-300, this phone represents the latest in cellular technology.

Luckily, for a price of $200-300, we can get an iPhone 7 ($210) or an iPhone 8 ($330). You could even get a used, Nokia 8210 for only $49.99 (although I wouldn’t recommend this).

Comparisons

Obviously, I am using a lot of satire when I suggest that we should try to keep up with the Joneses, circa 1999. I don’t really want you to buy the same TV, car, or cell phone as the wealthy had back then.

What I’m really doing is trying to warn about the dangers of comparisons.

There will always be someone that is smarter, wealthier, better looking, and stronger than you and I. Just as you wouldn´t compare the technology from 1999 to today’s technology, it doesn’t really make any sense to compare yourself to other people who are not in your peer group.

For instance, I wrote about running my first 100k trail race earlier this year. I did pretty well and finished 6th out of 96 people. Even though I did well, I still finished about 16 miles behind the woman who won. I could probably run 100 miles per week and still never surpass her extraordinary running ability.

So should I compare myself to her?

This comparison would probably mean that I would never be satisfied with giving my own personal best effort. I would always be looking at someone better instead of focusing on myself and people that I could actually beat. Of course, I could (and should) learn from her, but I should only compare myself to others that are in my peer group. Better yet, I should compare the results from races that I run today to results from races that I ran in the past.

Comparisons to fake purchases

The other tough thing about comparing yourself to other people is that you probably aren’t even making a fair comparison. I used to wonder how people were able to afford brand new cars, expensive furniture, and constant overseas travel.

But then I realized that they actually can’t “afford” these items.

The car was financed. The furniture is accumulating interest on a credit card. The travel was paid for with a home equity line of credit.

In other words, many people are getting into thousands of dollars of debt just to afford the lifestyle of the Joneses. If they aren’t in debt, then maybe they are receiving help from their parents or from an inheritance. Or maybe there is something else that we don’t know about.

It just doesn’t make any sense to compare ourselves to others.

The correct comparison to make

I usually tend to read the articles that show how my net worth, income, or debt levels stack up against my peer group. Maybe I do this to feel good about myself or maybe I just want to peek inside the life of the average person in the United States.

However, as I’m thinking about this now, I realize that it probably doesn’t make much sense to worry about which percentile of net worth I’m in or to compare the size of my debt to other people’s debt. Instead, it only makes sense to compare myself to myself.

• Has my net worth increased since last year?
• Am I a faster runner than 5 years ago?
• Have I grown as a learner over the past several years?

As we see our financial numbers improve and our physical and intellectual traits develop, it also makes sense to ask ourselves this (tougher to quantify) question:

Am I happier now than I was five years ago?

And …

What can I do to become even happier over the next five years?

Out of all the comparisons that we could make, these two comparisons will probably be the most useful.

How do you compare yourself to yourself? And do you find it beneficial to compare yourself to other people? Let us know in the comments below.

And thanks for reading!

~Nathan

Let’s keep living a great life … with the help of money. So what’s next?

• You can travel for free by using rewards credit cards.
• You can get motivated and get out of debt.
• You can check out the next post or the previous post and continue to learn.

But no matter what you decide to do, let’s leave the ordinary behind and take action today!