Ever feel like you work just as hard as your friends and neighbors but have less to show for it? Their houses are bigger and their cars newer. Meanwhile, you’re just getting by.
Take heart. Things are not what they seem, says personal finance writer Shira Boss. In fact, that’s the basic premise behind her first book, “Green With Envy: Why Keeping Up with the Joneses is Keeping Us in Debt,” published last month.
Envy fuels this desire to keep up with how those around us appear to be doing and it’s what keeps Americans overspending and in debt, said Boss in a recent interview.
“We know about the debt problem in America intellectually, but we don’t think it applies to those around us,” said Boss. “We think it is a problem (somewhere) out there.”
The book opens with intrigue surrounding Boss’ new next-door neighbors on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Rumor has it the couple, whom Boss calls John and Tina, bought their apartment with cash. They take a tropical vacation and go antiquing. Tina quits her job and takes up shopping.
Meanwhile, Boss and her husband, who struggled to pull together their down payment, have to watch expenses because they are living on one income – hers. Her husband has just lost his job, not that Boss will admit that to friends or family. They just took on six-figures of debt so her husband could go to business school.
By the looks of things, they assume John and Tina are wealthy and don’t have to worry about money. Boss later finds out the couple are over their heads in debt and their biggest worry is money. They didn’t pay cash for their apartment but rather had repeatedly tapped their home equity line of credit. Her book idea is born.
But this is no New York-centric book. Boss travels to the ‘burbs, finding a couple whose move into an upper-class gated community took them from frugality to bankruptcy. She visits with politicians who describe the pressure of maintaining a certain lifestyle.
Boss’ book is voyeuristic for sure, but it’s nicely backed up with a slew of eye-opening facts. She points to Federal Reserve surveys in which households say they have about $4,000 on average in credit card debt. But based on figures from lenders it stands to be more like $12,000.
Her bottom line isn’t about scaring or shaming readers, she said. She simply wants people to know they can improve their financial lives simply by considering how they think of money. “So much of our happiness or satisfaction or comfort is based on how we think of things,” Boss said.
To get to the psychology of money she cites intriguing studies. In one, more people say they’d prefer to earn $50,000 a year if everyone around them makes $25,000 than earn $100,000 when their peers make $200,000.
Amy Baldwin covers money-related topics for 20- and 30-somethings in “Out of the Red.”
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