Written by: Dina Harbour Women Obtaining Wealth, Women Financial Empowerment W.O.W. on Blog Talk Radio (Every Sunday @ 6P EST)
Can someone please tell me where I can find the Joneses? I’ve been hearing about them all my life just like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. How is it that we get so caught up in these notions and adopt them into our belief systems?
While married I noticed that my husband was always talking about the material things we needed to buy. We purchased our house after being married just one year and I was trying to turn “our house into a home” but things started getting very expensive. My Mom explained to me that everyone starts off slow in the beginning and decorating a home takes time and money.
So I exhaled a sigh of relief and took my time. Why did I feel so pressured to rush out and buy things that I could not afford? I think I was trying to compete with the Joneses, people I’ve never met.
Now that my mind has been renewed, I notice other people’s conversations and the lifestyles they portray. Sad but many of those same people are loosing or have lost their homes, are in a mountain of debt, and/or getting their cars repossessed. Whew! Thank God I left them Joneses alone and just stayed the person that I truly am. Are you related to the Joneses?
Definition by Wikipedia:
"Keeping up with the Joneses" is a popular catchphrase in many parts of the English-speaking world. It refers to the desire to be seen as being as good as one's neighbours or contemporaries using the comparative benchmarks of social caste or the accumulation of material goods. To fail to "keep up with the Joneses" is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority. A related British phrase is "keeping up appearances"
