People often get self-conscious about their finances because they think other people have more money than them.
They see the fancy dinners, vacation photos, big house, new truck.
But of course, what you don’t see is the bank account balance.
You don’t see the truck or mortgage payment. The credit card bill. The TFSA contribution room going unused.
You don’t see the size of the gift received from their parents for the down payment. You don’t see the late nights or the early mornings or any of the other sacrifices made.
In short, you don’t see the full picture. Not even close.
Appearances can be deceiving. Sometimes the person who seems the wealthiest in fact has the least. Or sometimes the wealth was earned through sacrifices that would make no sense for you to make.
Either way, I get that it’s hard to not compare yourself to your neighbour, or coworkers, or good friends. It’s basically impossible to stop it altogether.
But you can try to make those comparisons more fair, or at least acknowledge the ways in which the comparisons are unfair and keep in mind how very little you actually know.
It might help lessen the self-consciousness or sense of shame or embarrassment that you feel. And that might make it easier to make progress in your own life.