Blogging for Change

Are you shy about your financial accomplishments?

by Kim McGrigg on
3/1/2010
in Personal Finance

My husband and I just paid off our second car.

There.

I said it.

But it wasn’t easy.

The moment we hit “send” on that final payment was really exciting for me and I thought about sending a tweet announcing our accomplishment. Then I got shy about it. While I felt like celebrating, the questions in my head kept me from sharing. Would people think I was bragging? Would I make someone facing financial difficulties feel bad? Is the information is too personal?

A lot of us grew up in households where money issues were not discussed. In fact, a 2008 survey by Golden Gateway Financial, found that half of all seniors surveyed said they had never had an in-depth conversation about their finances with their adult children and most of those don’t ever want to. The younger generation might not be doing much better. Twenty-seven percent of parents with younger children surveyed by ING Direct said that when it came time to talk to their children, they would rather talk about the birds and the bees or dating than money and finances.

This isn’t intended to be a post about the importance of talking about your financial troubles (although I think that is a very worthwhile topic for another day). Instead, this post is intended to make the argument that it is okay to share some of your financial successes.

I am not suggesting that you share every little detail about your financial situation with everyone you meet. In fact, that would be weird. But is it such a crime to tell your close friends and family members that you’ve achieved a financial goal? If you do share your financial successes, are you quick to dismiss them?  I have to admit that my first draft of this post started with: "My husband and I just paid off our second car, but...."

But nothing!  (Brace yourself for a pep-talk.)  If you achieve a financial goal, your close friends and family should be happy for you. Maybe you just need to give them a chance.  You might even inspire someone to set and keep a financial goal of their own.

As you can tell, I think people should stop celebrating financial successes in silence. Whether small (like setting up a budget), big (like paying off a debt), or in between (like starting a savings account), I, for one, would like to hear about them.  In fact, I am asking people who have overcome major financial problems to share their stories. It is my hope that during the month of April (Financial Literacy Month), this blog will be filled with financial success stories. My goal is to give credit where credit is due and to inspire us all to make positive financial changes.

Do you have a financial success story? Don’t be shy! Please share it though the comments section.

Kim McGrigg is the former Manager of Community and Media Relations for MMI.

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