‘Pocket watching’ is a term used for those who monitor or speculate on another person’s lifestyle and money habits, usually out of envy.
I may be wrong, but we’re all so closely connected and have access to other people’s perceived personal lives. I’d say most of us pocket watch to some degree thanks to social media. It’s normal but not healthy for our own self-esteem.
Monitoring another person’s money habits can be a façade, to say the least.
Unless you know those people very closely, there is no telling how they fund their lifestyle. That extends to friends and family members.
There are lots of successful people online, so it seems, but we also know access to credit is highly available, especially in the Western world.
It’s easy to borrow and live as if you’ve got it all, but you could be drowning in debt.
A great example of this is high-earning individuals who have the societal pressure to match that great income with an increased appetite for materialism. This is how people trap themselves from building substantial wealth.
Another example I’ve experienced of pocket-watching was indirectly from my own kids. My oldest visited a friend’s house who happened to have it all. The latest toys, a great big bedroom fit for a princess and even a cute puppy.
While she played with her friend upstairs, I sat with the parents downstairs, and they expressed how difficult financially things were for them. This really shows that not everything you see is what it seems.
We shouldn’t play the comparison game with other people’s pockets.
A personal experience highlighted the deceptive nature of pocket watching. I knew a guy for many years who drove the same run-down car and dressed casually. Little did I know that he owned multiple investment properties. His modest lifestyle masked his true financial success. This example reminds us that not everything we see is what it seems.
I’d say the only pocket to watch is your own as it affects your standard of living.
Own your financial reality and set goals that benefit you and your family’s future despite what everyone else is doing. I recently had this conversation with my wife as she compared our old Nissan Juke to a neighbour’s brand-new shiny SUV. Deep down I’d love to have that SUV, but a new car doesn’t currently align with our overall financial goal this year.
The less your eyes wander on other people’s things, the more attention you can focus on building wealth for your household.
