Friday, September 02, 2011

Overheard at the Gym

The women's locker room at my gym is the best place to overhear interesting money-related conversations. (Actually, I suppose the men's locker room could also be a good place, but I haven't had the chance to find out!)
This morning, I caught snippets of a chat between two women who seemed to be discussing the boyfriend of one of them, or perhaps of a friend of theirs. They were saying that the boyfriend always seemed to brag about his money and status, even in the most unlikely situations, for example saying his office had had a leak during Hurricane Irene, but having to specify that it was some kind of executive suite office, not just "my office." But though they seemed to be saying the guy was sort of an insecure jerk, I caught the phrase "Marry him! Marry him!" I guess because he had money.
Then one of the women seemed to be bemoaning the fact that she'd never have a rich boyfriend. The other woman tried to console her by saying "but at least you're already living the life! I mean, Florida, the Hamptons, here [NYC]..." The first woman responded, "yeah, well, I do a good job looking like it," or something like that, saying that she worked in book publishing, where no one gets rich, so she was just keeping up appearances while being broke.

The whole thing was sort of funny, but also really depressing. I'm embarrassed on behalf of all women when I hear people like that talking about their plots to hook a rich husband, and off-handedly acknowledging that it's more important to them to look rich than to save any money in the hopes of actually being rich, or at least financially stable someday.

6 comments:

MtnMama said...

It IS deplorable. I came of age during the (last)women's movement, and I cannot believe the absence of awareness in many yonger women these days. Good grief! Where is the desire for independence? Where is the knowledge that freedom means greater choices? On several fronts, this depresses me.

Anonymous said...

And at any time, you might end up like the lady in this video...

I spoke on the phone today with a 30-year old woman who "once was rich but very unhappy"... material things are NOT all there is to life!

Andrea @MoneyMastered said...

I joke all the time about finding a terribly wealthy man to marry, but that's more because I'm cynical since my divorce, love is a ripoff, etc. etc. I can't imagine actually making it a goal to find a guy with money.

I don't know what fairy tale world women live in where they would pin their hopes on the mythical Mr. Perfect instead of learning to take care of themselves!

Anonymous said...

I thought that the funny thing about you overhearing that conversation is that you are in book publishing too, but your ability to save will make you rich, possibly on the same salary of the woman who is going broke to keep up appearances!

Dude said...

Maybe a reflection of a "Me First" shallow superficial pop culture society where people are judged by appearances money and nothing more. Sounds like Real Housewives. Kim Kardashian - no brains, no talent, no substance. What some call beauty is only skin deep and she too will sag, wilt, and look frail in only a few years. A bookie made a wager that her marriage will fail in less than 18 months. Honestly its embarrassing and sad that the conceited self-serving nature of pop culture is embraced by the media for all the world to see. It's appalling that these characters would humiliate themselves in front of the whole world.

RyanLoos said...

It is embarrassing that some ones self-esteem it still wrapped up in who can I marry that has money. What happened to hard work and being OK with whatever you worked for. Money is not the answer, contentment is. I see far to many clients that think that "if i only had more money" things would be fine. Not true, money does not solve the problem, especially when it is a character issue.