Today’s guest is Mary Beth Storjohann, CFP®, Founder of Workable Wealth, and author of the book Work Your Wealth.
As I was reading through her book, one thing stuck out to me: the financial frenemies we all have, and how to deal with them in a constructive way.
What’s a financial frenemy? They’re the people in your life that are sabotaging your efforts to improve your net worth.
Sometimes they’re friends, sometimes they’re family, and other times, they might just be people that have no business asking about your financial situation in the first place.
Whoever they are, we’ve all known one at some point or another.
In fact, I bet one of these sounds familiar:
- The Entitled Frenemy: “Can you spot me? I’ll get you next time!”
- The Budget-Buster: “You deserve it, you should buy it!”
- The One-Upper: “You got a $1,000 bonus? Nice. I got a $10,000 bonus.”
- The Priers: “How much do you make?” “How much did you spend on that?”
- The Green-Eyed Monster: “Must be nice that you can afford such a big house.”
- The FOMO Frenemy: “You can spend your money just this once!”
Navigating conversations with these financial frenemies can be tough, but Mary Beth has some awesome advice on how to do it and not feel bad about your words.
Even though it might sound scary, honesty is the best policy.
While saying, “I don’t feel comfortable answering that” means enduring a few moments of awkwardness, the alternative is answering truthfully and proceeding to wonder if your “friends” are judging you…every single time you interact with them.
Finally, we need to realize that what they’re saying isn’t a reflection on us – it’s a reflection on them. If they’re jealous, feel the need to one-up you, or discourage you from your financial goals, that’s on them, not you.
Mary Beth offers other great tips on how to deal with financial frenemies in this episode, and we even role-played a scenario to give you a script to follow.
Resources Mentioned:
- Workable Wealth
- “Work Your Wealth” on Amazon
- Mary Beth’s Twitter & Instagram
Enjoy!
— Paula
