‘Rich’ 22-Year-Old Asks If He’s Wrong For Hiding His Wealth From Everyone He Knows
Should money be a private matter?
Jose Calsina | Shutterstock If you had a million dollars, how would you spend it? Some would sequester it away in savings, while others wouldn't hesitate to spend it all on things they want. The real question, however, is whether you would share it with your nearest and dearest?
A young Reddit user has recently received a large amount of money, but has decided not to share the news with most of the people in his life. Now, he's questioning if he's doing the right thing.
A 22-year-old Redditor is wondering if he's wrong for not telling anyone about his wealth.
The young man turned to Reddit, worried that not telling his friends and family that he has a significant amount of money made him a bad person. He explained that, though he works a low-paying job that only pays about $53,000 per year, he lives in a state with a low cost of living and has basically no debt.
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However, he also said that he inherited over a million dollars through a trust after his grandparents passed away. He lives well below his means by renting a friend's spare bedroom for cheap and saves most of his money. Additionally, he has a substantial emergency and retirement fund and is just waiting for his girlfriend to finish school so they can travel and start their life together.
Sounds like a pretty perfect scenario for a young man. Apparently, he's facing a bit of a moral dilemma, however. He would love to spend money on his girlfriend and friends, but he doesn't want them to know about his windfall. Essentially, he's worried they will try to take advantage of him financially.
Most people felt he was entitled to his financial secret, but warned him that keeping it from his girlfriend could cause problems.
Overall, commenters thought it was fine for the young man to keep this secret to himself. One commenter said, "It’s no one else’s business. As long as you contribute and pay your portion of things, you’re doing fine. That and avoiding being a penny pincher, barring necessary situations."
Others mentioned the fact that his friend gave him a good deal on rent and suggested offering to pay more, but the man clarified in a later edit to the post that "My best friend is the one I live with. He is well off, and if he wanted market rent, it would be some rando (which he does not want) He enjoys my company living with him and is one of the 2 people that know about my situation outside of my mother."
More importantly, however, were the commenters who brought up his relationship with his girlfriend and the future complications that could arise from keeping this secret. One wrote, "If you do get married, she will find out you had money the whole time while she was maybe stressed/broke. How you treat her now could doom the marriage. I think you should lean towards being generous, but not enough to generate suspicion/lifestyle inflation."
The fact is, financial compatibility can make or break a relationship. That's why, if he truly sees a future with his current girlfriend, they need to do what Erin Lowry of Broke Millennial affectionately termed "get financially naked" with each other. She told NBC News, “Sharing our numbers didn’t mean we suddenly swapped ATM pins and ran to get a joint bank account. Instead, it provided a foundation in which we could create hypothetical scenarios about how to handle money if we decided to get married (an important conversation to have after [several] years of dating).”
That's certainly sound advice, especially if the happy couple follows their traveling dream together and he's suddenly ready to splurge on hotels while she's on a hostel budget. As Lowry noted, he doesn't have to disclose his bank statements, but letting her know that he is in a position of little to no debt and has started a healthy retirement savings is a smart move.
Though the user has a decent amount of money now, he will only maintain his wealth if he makes smart money moves.
Though this kind of money would be life-changing for many people, one commenter makes a solid point that "a million isn't the same at 22 as it is at 75. It's life-changing money, but not never-need-to-work-again money."
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NerdWallet shared valuable tips on how to manage money in your 20s, starting with controlling your spending. It's typically recommended to spend 50% of your income on necessities and 30% on unnecessary wants, and put the remaining 20% away in savings. To get a better understanding of your spending habits, consider tracking your purchases and avoiding impulse buying.
You don't have to be a penny-pincher, but allocating a certain amount of money each month to put into a savings account, retirement fund, or emergency fund is a good idea. A high-yield savings account can also maximize the amount of interest you earn on your money, and it won't cost you a dime.
Ultimately, this young man has some thinking to do. First and foremost, however, he should worry less about being taken advantage of by others and focus more on making smart financial decisions that ensure long-term growth and retirement potential. Perhaps instead of worrying about how his friends might try to hit him up for cash, he should build up the confidence to say no if put into that scenario. The harsh truth is that if his friends and girlfriend truly care for him, they would never.
Kayla Asbach is a writer currently working on her bachelor's degree at the University of Central Florida. She covers relationships, psychology, self-help, pop culture, and human interest topics.
