From social media to personal finance blogs, money conversations of varying degrees run rampant on the internet.
Do casual money conversations over beer or coffee exist in real life? I know I’m not the only one out there but I feel that unless you are with a significant other, having serious money conversations with someone can be awkward. We can have our money conversations in the blogosphere (thankfully) but rarely with the people we spend the most time with.
It rarely seems to come up in conversation. It tends to die off and never resurfaces. I try to find ways to include it in the conversation, but there never seems to be an opportunity unless I was to just mention it right then and there. It seems like it’s the last thing people want to talk about, when clearly we know it’s the most important thing we need to talk about.
Take for instance, my wedding.
How come nobody ever asks me about the financial details-such as how much my budget is, am I on track, how much did I spend on this, how much am I setting aside each month, etc. I suppose everyone thinks that it’s none of their business, but I’m sure it will come up in peoples’ conversation during cocktail hour and the reception.
I knew the moment I decided to have a somewhat traditional wedding, I would be judged on certain, if not all aspects. Heck, I do it. Don’t lie, you probably do it too.
So this seems to be the only conversation I’ve been having lately, which I know is expected, but I wish the conversation could change to something else. Why can’t we talk about what I love talking about?
Money. Saving. Investing. Learning as much about these things as possible.
In my post about my second investing class, I mentioned that the instructor had an investment club and it got me wondering/thinking/researching.
I looked up on meetup.com to find social money groups and investing groups because as far I know, most of my friends and family would never bother to talk about that kind of thing. At least to me. A lot of them do exist and the idea of meeting people who have the same questions, concerns, attitude towards money would be intriguing just as how it was in my classes. There just doesn’t seem to be a lot of them in my immediate area.
The big difference though is that it would be social. A social club. Like a book club, except people would discuss financial topics. Well, they could probably still discuss books, but just finance books.
Cue scary music now. Or crickets. The sound of crickets seems kind of scary.
I found this article on Business Insider that gives you tips on how to start a money club but it seems geared more toward starting a money club with your gal pals. I was thinking more along the lines of the meetup.com premise.
I’ve joined clubs in high school to make myself seem like the well-rounded student: the newspaper, student council, various sports teams and the dance team. I did get invited to join the math club, but of course, in high school it wasn’t cool, so I went for one meeting and then bailed.
I tried joining clubs in university but for some odd reason with every club I tried to join, I got that feeling that everyone knew each other already.
What.
The.
Hell.
How come I’m the only person who came by myself and doesn’t know anybody? Meet new people my a$$.
Ok, so I have this weird aversion to clubs. I’m not even a member of Costco anymore. Although my fiancé and I may look back into jumping on that bandwagon again in the near future.
My crazy idea is that in the near future when I have more time (or I will try to make time) I will organize some sort of Money Club/Investing Club where people in my area can gather and discuss topics that I talk about in my blog. It will be held during the week, once a month, or once every other month at some location. Maybe I’ll even go as far to have guest speakers in the industry or fellow personal finance bloggers in the area.
(Note to self: Must keep networking).
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Maybe there will even be pizza.
At least some sort of snacks. So that shy or quiet or introverted people like myself will have an area to hover over and be able to keep themselves occupied until the session begins. Or at least until someone more outgoing strikes up a conversation with them.
Not everyone will know each other already. Icebreakers won’t be necessary. Food is the best icebreaker of them all.
We will possibly pay club dues to pay for that pizza. I will be head organizer/president. We will have a catchy club name.
(End crazy idea).
I wrote a blog post about something very similar to this! I, too, wish we could have more frank conversations about money in person – I just started a new series called “Money Conversations” where I describe recent conversations (regarding money) with people… in person. I think a Money Club is a great idea! I’m not in a position to be thinking too much about investing (and I’ll probably just do index funds when it’s time), but a debt-payoff group would be fun!
I know Lauren from Lbee and the Money Tree has a video series called Awkward Money Chat where she chats with people about money. It’s great that bloggers are having money conversations with others. I am hoping one day these money talks will be normal and part of regular conversations with non-bloggers as well.
I know isn’t it crazy how taboo money is to talk about for most people. My wife and I talk about money all the time and are very open discussing very intimate details. We do have some older and wealthier friends that we love getting together with because they are also very open to talk about money.
That is a big reason why I started my blog is to be able to freely talk about money and let people know that it is okay to talk about the one thing we all use to enable the life we live.
Good idea on the money club. I have been using meet up to meet like minded folks as well. But maybe I should make my own money club.
Cheers!
The main reason I started this blog was more to make money rather than have a place to talk about money. But I’m glad I stuck with it so I can keep talking about money. Aside from my mom and a few friends, there aren’t that many people with which I can have decent money talks in real life.
I think you should too and let me know how it goes. 🙂
Btw, thanks for subscribing to the comments!
Forgot to subscribe to the comments 🙂
Now I will know when you respond.
I know what you mean about joining a club and feeling like the oddball who doesn’t know anyone because everyone else already knows each other from ages ago. It just takes time and finding the right fit. You sound motivated so I think you should go for it and create your own local group through meetup.com it’s worth a shot. I did that a while ago for a music meetup and it was fun.
I kind of want to, but as of right now I can’t make the time for it. I’m hoping maybe the end of this year. I’d be worried though that nobody would come. Lol.
That could be a compelling reason to why we write about money. It is our attempt to reach out to like-minded individuals out there in the world. While I do have a few close friends who have somewhat similar goals (financially and life in general..), I do think that the personal finance community that we’ve developed here provides the kind of “financial mental” support that we lack in our lives.
It’s kind of sad though that there’s not enough “financial mental” support in the real world.
This was actually why I started blogging … what, nearly ten years ago, now? I only had one friend offline who I freely discuss money with, and it just wasn’t enough. Through the blog, I’ve made like-minded friends who are at various stages in their lives but are all open about money goals and issues. I was never much of a club person, other than a volunteering club, but maybe that’s because none of the clubs were compelling enough to overcome the awkwardness of needing to socialize.
I’d be open to joining your club except you’re in Canada so it wouldn’t be an easy commute 😉
I was more of club person in high school. At my university there were SO MANY different clubs, it was ridiculous. The few that I tried though turned me off of clubs in general and I decided to just socialize with people in my program instead.
I will make you an honorary international member of my non-existent, (but perhaps will in come into existence eventually?) club. 😛
Karen,
Where my brother and I live in Southeastern Ontario, there is very little in the way of real money clubs. There was one that had a single meeting in the two years we were “part” of it. The meeting consisted of a salesperson selling real estate shares and seemed… questionable. The presenter referred to investing as a “rollercoaster” no less than eight times throughout. We left during the Q&A period and haven’t been invited back.
It would be great to have a group of people to actually meet in person and discuss the topics we blog about. I’ve never liked the taboo around money topics. No wonder so many people struggle.
– Ryan from GRB
I do not think there are too many money clubs in my area either and I’m in the southwestern suburbs of the GTA.
It’s funny how money is such a huge part of our life, yet is considered taboo. People are probably more comfortable talking about sex than talking about money. I think for now, our best bet may be the Canadian Personal Finance Conference.