I don't know about you, but I don't like the Joneses.
This is evidenced by all the posts I've written about them throughout the years.
I've never had anything positive to say about the Joneses.
A few examples:
- Are the Joneses Keeping You Broke?
- The Greatest Detriment to Building Wealth
- Financial Appearances are Rarely What They Seem
- Actual Versus Acceptable Debts of Americans
- Are You Prone to Magical Thinking?
I guess it's the fact that I don't like trying to keep up with them. After all, they spend, spend, spend, so trying to buy what they buy could make a person go broke!!!
Ha!
By now you know I'm talking about the well-known phrase "keeping up with the Joneses." It's been an often used saying to symbolize trying to spend (or out-spend) someone who lives extravagantly.
Did you know they were a real family? They were! And their 1850's mansion just sold. Yahoo has the details:
The now dilapidated mansion that is believed to be the inspiration for the phrase just sold at auction for $120,000. It was built in the 1850s in Rhinebeck, New York, as a summer getaway for New York City socialite Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones.
The 7,690-square-foot home, called Wyndclyffe Castle, was so elegant and over the top it prompted neighbors to build even bigger houses in an effort to “keep up with the Joneses.” It boasted nine bedrooms, five bathrooms and four fireplaces.
Well, well. You can see why the Joneses could spend -- they must have been LOADED! Too bad the house is crumbling now. It looks like it was so gorgeous at one point in time.
Anyway, consider this a friendly reminder that none of us needs to try and keep up with the Joneses. They have too much money and if we attempt to roll with them, we'll kill our finances.
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