Would You Rather....

Live Beneath Your Means?
Keep up with the Jones's? or
Be the Jones's?

Pick one of the three and explain. This ought to be a fun discussion.

Which one falls into the I love nice things that are quality and I can afford them...?

I try really hard to live within my means.
I don't feel the need to keep up with anyone, but there are things I want and wish I could afford right now.

live beneath my means

Posted by lnana04
live beneath my means

same here. We live beneath our means.

I travel on foot, bike, and train/metro, and freeze most of our food. My husband hates anything more than a day left over food, except for Chinese food. Lmao! Chinese food: take out and keep for one more day.

OMG. The Scorp and I LOVE Chinese food. haha. We eat it at least once a week.

I love to live comfortably but within my means & with the stuff I could afford. I don't care what others have, though. They have their style , I got mine & the two are never ever the same. Most people copy ME instead lol. Like my taurus friend for an example, she likes to buy the exact things I have & she is richer than me lol- I'm talking clothes here. We are NOT twins 1st of all so..eh?

Posted by Nemesis

Posted by truecap
Live Beneath Your Means?
Keep up with the Jones's? or
Be the Jones's?

Pick one of the three and explain. This ought to be a fun discussion.

strip the jones`s bare of all - let me see what lies beneath.

click to expand

Most likely a mountain of debt!!

I'd rather live beneath my means.

That doesn't mean I want anything cheap, I'm just going to save up for it and not go into debt to get it. Why pay the credit card that interest when you could be paying yourself that interest or socking it in the bank.

I'd rather have the security of financial freedom than the insecurity of paying off debts.

Posted by cowpuncher
I would much rather live beneath my means.

I see way too many people I know taking on more and more debt - new cars, credit cards, etc in order to finance an image. I'm much more interested in being debt free (other than a home mortgage when I buy a place in the near future). Even when I buy a place, I'm going to have a big down payment, and pinch pennies for a couple years to pay it off asap.

Driving a used vehicle doesn't bother me a bit, I learned how to shop wisely and identify a good one from a bad one. (Smell that transmission fluid folks, if it smells burnt at all... run away.... take it for a test drive for a few miles then get out and look at the oil.. is it black opaque and nasty, does it have itty bitty little flecks of metal in it, or does it look clear and new?)

Being free of debt, or having very low debt, along with a healthy savings account, equates to freedom from worry for me. It's worth it. I'd much rather have peace of mind and a used truck than a bunch of debt and worry.

Cowpuncher, if it weren't for the aqua, you'd be my dream guy. 🙂

Posted by PVAF
Be the Joneses

Ha!

Honesty. 😛

If the Joneses are just well-to-do (not buried in mountains of debt), then I would opt for this, too.

Ah good topic =D. To be honest I believe everyone deep down wants to be the Joneses ( Me included ). Everyone knows more is better than less, specially when speaking of money. If I'm interpreting the term correctly and it illustrates social mobility and the yearning to be ??That neighboor?? I guess it's more a question of wether you??d be confortable basking in ellegance while the majority wallows in poverty. Anyway, if the question is aimed to see if you would strive for the social status brought by material goods, then I choose to live below my own means (I feel anyone that requires validation through material posessions is weak).


Please let me know if I totally missed the point of the question 😕

Posted by StillWater
WHO ARE THE JONESES?

Ever hear that phrase "keeping up with the Jones's?"

It means someone is living beyond their means and trying to have what everyone else has. Like the Jones's are fictional neighbors who get a new Mercedes. Then the neighbor feels like they have to get a new Mercedes. The Jones's put in a pool, now you have to. Keeping up with they do and either copying it or topping it.

Posted by StillWater
WHO ARE THE JONESES— THIS IS A SERIOUS QUESTION.

... GOOGLE.... or you can always call IT to have them fax you the information.... >.>....

Posted by StillWater

Posted by truecap

Posted by StillWater
WHO ARE THE JONESES?

Ever hear that phrase "keeping up with the Jones's?"

It means someone is living beyond their means and trying to have what everyone else has. Like the Jones's are fictional neighbors who get a new Mercedes. Then the neighbor feels like they have to get a new Mercedes. The Jones's put in a pool, now you have to. Keeping up with they do and either copying it or topping it.

OH ok...thank you for not being like other annoying people who say, "google it".

Now I can answer the question...

I like living within my means...but i love luxury and hopefully it will be within my means. I definitely don't like to compete for material stuff though.

click to expand

...... 9:47am was when you first asked who they were... You mean to tell me you would rather ask twice, and wait HOURS for the answer than do a simple google search?....

Posted by capgirl69
OMG. The Scorp and I LOVE Chinese food. haha. We eat it at least once a week.

Lol. That's a luxury for us, if it's 1x a week. I usually cook chinese or morroccon (did so tonight), and thai, (if it's not too spicy) hubby doesn't like spicy. Cappy mother in law doesn't mind spicy, she's a world traveler, so spicy is fine with her. She traveled to Burma by herself (with a company) but she of course, enjoyed the food there, traveled to India alone, (has family there but she did her traveling on her own on the streets) ect.

I understand the theme of the thread though. Once, my Scorpio aunty (she's super old now, around 80s) but still keeps her expensive cars. Her and her hubby have two luxurious cars, and one pick-up truck which hauls things around. One time, I was given the "keys" to her brand new pink topless Mercedes Benz, to drive to the garage and back. Oh my god. The feeling of it was SOOOOO luxurious. I felt like those rich, hoity-toity girls on Beverly Hills. To feel the feeling of such luxury....it's so SINFUL.

*shakes head*

Posted by StillWater
Yes, because I don't trust google and I don't want to expose myself to nonrelevant info.

*gets paranoid about google now* O_o

*is afraid of googling about serial killers now, google might think I'm a psychic detective or something* O_O