The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Answering Dave Ramsey’s Most Popular Questions

Today, I’m talking about the secret that millionaires don’t tell you. Here’s the gist of what Dave Ramsey has to say about the secret millionaires don’t tell you. Most people who are millionaires don’t drive ferrari’s or fancy cars, they don’t carry around purses that cost thousands of dollars, or the flashy vacation that’s all over their instagram…

These are very seldom actual indicators or wealth, up to the first level of wealth. Dave classifies this as a net worth between $1-10 million dollars. If you have $1-10million, they are typically understated. 

They enjoy nice vacations, buy reasonably priced clothes, the Christmas presents under the tree are unimpressive and the valet is seldom impressed with the car.

My favorite quote from this video is this: “The people who achieve that first layer of wealth, that $1-10 million dollars, the way they did it, is they didn’t do it for you. They’re not mad at you, but they don’t care what you think. They were not living their life to impress others.”

I love this insight, and I wish that more people would realize this sooner in life. Too many of us spend too much time and energy worrying about what other people think, keeping up with the Joneses, and instead of saving enough for retirement, I see people spend way too much on the right clothes, the right car, and the right Christmas decorations. 

I even fall into this temptation myself. I love to decorate for Christmas. It’s the only season I really well, deck the halls for. Every year when I pull out my Christmas decorations, I can’t use them all and last year I even purged and sold an entire box of decorations that I was no longer using for like $25. I vowed to keep it simple, adopt a less is more mentality, and decorate with less this year. 

Well, that didn’t happen. I ended up spending about $200 on new decorations this year. I bought more flocked evergreen branches, a couple new stocking hangers, some pretty white bells, a new rug for my front door, and fairy lights for my mantle. I didn’t need these things. I do enjoy looking at them and making my home festive and cozy, but if I’m being honest, part of what influenced my decision to abandon last year’s vow of celebrating Christmas with less decorations was caring what other people think. 

Ugh, I hate admitting that out loud! I would say on the spectrum of caring what other people think, I generally fall to the less side, but I do still care what others think and have this disordered desire to impress other people. 

I like hosting during the holidays and having friends and family over, and I want them to enjoy the decorations and feel cozy, warm and festive in my home. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, but  if I’m being honest, a part of me also wants them to be impressed and I want the love and admiration from their fawning over my cute little white bells. 

If I cared a bit less about what others think of me, I would have just kept the perfectly good front porch rug. There’s a good chance that no one will notice it or mention it anyways. I do love the cute strand of white bells though. Well worth the $10 I spent at Target for those. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance