On other financial sites, you’ll find folks bragging about the hot stocks they own and the prescient market calls they made. But here at HumbleDollar, we favor a different sort of boasting.
Instead of trumpeting their market savvy, HumbleDollar writers and commenters are often looking to signal their financial prudence. How do they do that? Here are eight of my favorite HumbleDollar boasts:
- How quickly folks paid off their mortgage.
- How many consecutive years they’ve maxed out their 401(k).
- How they paid cash for their latest car.
- How foolish they were in their 20s—and how they’ve been ardent indexers ever since.
- How infrequently they look at their portfolio or make investment trades.
- How they’ve never paid a penny in credit-card interest—but collected heaps of card rewards.
- How many miles are on their car’s odometer.
- How many years they’ve lived in the same home.
Great list.
i would add something regarding volunteering or charitable donations like:
how many hours did they volunteer
how much they gave to their favorite charities
Thanks Jonathan – this feels like a pretty accurate list!
I think that it is also good and healthy for us to counter these (often frugal) brags with examples of how we have been generous to others, or taken our family on a memorable holiday, or share a regular dinner out with our spouse.
After all, I hope we’re not just saving for the sake of saving!
Exactly Greg, “Die with Zero”!
HD folks are sensible and generous, and I am glad to stumble on a folk remedy for my financial anxiety: “A minute on HumbleDollar a day keeps financial sickness away”
I did pretty much everything wrong at one point or another and still muddled through pretty OK. Is that a humble brag?