Looking wealthy or being wealthy?

[Animallover87]

AIBU to think there's a difference between looking wealthy and being wealthy?

I think understanding the difference, between being wealthy and looking wealthy, is key to changing your financial situation. Our culture today almost encourages looking wealthy as being the ultimate aspirational target.

With beautiful Instaperfect homes, 2 shiny new cars, amazing garden makeovers, £1200 phones, and £200 trainers being shoved down our throats, many people desperately want a piece of that. Reality TV and social media encourage us to have that perfect lifestyle and it can be really difficult to avoid the trap of looking wealthy.

But while some can afford this lifestyle, many of these "Joneses" simply cannot. They might look wealthy, however, they are anything but. Many of them are up to their eyeballs in debt, are continually spending more than they earn, and constantly worrying about how they can afford to pay their bills.

Have you ever felt the pressure to spend to keep up with others? Or are you able to resist the spending but feel jealous of others?

There's a huge difference between doing 60 hour weeks when wealthy and doing 40 hours when not. You can use your wealth to free up time and ensure it works efficiently.

I regularly do 50 ish hour weeks around the children (so working late at night etc so I can do school runs). Not for a moment am I really wealthy but I know I am fortunate to be able to afford a reliable car, a cleaner twice a week and food deliveries and private health care and tutors for my children etc. I wouldnt be able to do the same juggling act with same results if I was managing on a lot less. It's just not the same battle at all.

Also for all the people who have worked their butts off to become wealthy, there are at least as many who just had it handed to them on a plate.

Are you looking for case studies OP? Because it sounds like you are writing an article. In which case best to just say so.

@Luredbyapomegranate I've already said no I'm not.

I've dealt with lots of very wealthy people in my business.

Many of those who are particularly wealthy (old money) dress as though they don't have any. It can sometimes be those that want to pretend they have it who try to impress by buying expensive items!

Designer clothing is made so the average person could look wealthy. It’s a clever marketing scam. Most genuinely wealthy people don’t walk around wearing Gucci or Chanel. If an influencer wears it, a wealthy person won’t. They have brands that most of us have never heard of. So if you want to look wealthy don’t buy expensive clothes.
You also don’t know how much debt a person is in. So unless someone is a billionaire you usually can’t tell.

I change my mobile phone case every so often so for all I know it may well look like a brand new phone. Most phones look almost identical so it's baffling to me that someone can look at a mobile, determine that it's "the latest model" and judge that the person is rich, in debt, doing OK yada yada yada.

Honestly, what is it with all this shallow crap! Utterly ridiculous.