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For comic relief, I occasionally turn to a YouTuber called Infinite Elgintensity or IE. IE has created a nice little business for himself lampooning YouTube fitness gurus, crossfitters, and ego lifters. Check out two of his videos below. They’re hysterical. But be warned, IE has a penchant for salty and politically incorrect language.
I especially like it when IE roasts ego lifters. Flabbatar the Last Bar Bender at the end of the first video is my favorite IE mock. The guy getting his eardrums assaulted while he’s assaulting his own vertebrae (second video) is my next favorite.
When I was into lifting weights in my salad years and did most of my lifting in a gym, I couldn’t take ego lifters. Every gym I ever joined had them, and they were invariably guys. I wanted to slap them upside their heads and yell, “Nobody cares how much you lift. Nobody wants to hear your screaming. Just lift a weight you can actually lift with proper form.”
I was hoping that the ego lifter was just an 80s thing, something that died out with boomboxes. But alas, that doesn’t appear to be the case. The ego lifter is alive and well and I pity any normal person who has a gym membership.
Ego Lifting and Personal Finance
Don’t ask me why, but while I was watching one of IE’s gym-idiot videos, it suddenly occurred to me that the personal finance arena has its own example of ego lifters. If you equate expenses to weights, there are a lot of Americans lifting things they shouldn’t be lifting.
Let’s do a little critical thinking here and see if this analogy makes sense.
What is ego lifting in the gym? It’s when one lifts a weight that one’s muscles can’t handle. Why does one ego lift in a gym? To promote the illusion of extraordinary strength and impress friend and stranger alike. And what is wrong with ego lifting? It engenders crappy lifting form and thus greatly increases the risk of bodily harm.
Now let’s turn to personal finance.
What is ego lifting in personal finance? It’s when one bears an expense that one’s income can’t handle. Why does one ego lift with one’s money? To promote the illusion of wealth or sophistication and impress friend and stranger alike. And what is wrong with financial ego lifting? It engenders borrowing, living paycheck to paycheck, and neglecting one’s job-skills and thus greatly increases the risk of financial harm.
Call me an egomaniac, but that’s some damn good critical thinking. Ego lifting is just as common and problematic in personal finance as it is in personal fitness. Likewise, I find financial ego lifters to be just as annoying as their gym counterparts. I want to smack financial ego lifters upside their heads and yell, “Nobody cares what clothes you wear, what fancy restaurants you frequent, or what car you drive. Stop trying to be a big shot. Just ‘act your wage’ as Suze Orman would say and save a little goddamn money.”
Ten Signs You’re Ego Lifting With Your Money
Financial ego lifters aren’t bad people, of course. They ego lift primarily out of ignorance. No one has explained to them that every income has a show-off limit, and the smaller the income the narrower the limit. A person with a high income may be able to preen with 20 percent of his or her income and still have enough money to secure his or her financial health. A person with a low income, on the other hand, may be able to preen with only one percent of his or her income if he or she hopes to be financially healthy. There’s just no getting around the immutable law of ego lifting. If you preen beyond the show-off limit of your income, you won’t have money to save and invest and you’ll invite financial misery. With that in mind, then, here are ten signs that you’re ego lifting with your money.
Ego Lifting to Be Cool, Hip, or Daring
No one wants to be labeled a nerd. No one wants to be shunned for showing insufficient devotion to the current fashions, causes, and distractions. No one wants to be considered milquetoast. But then again, no one wants to work at a job one hates until one is 70 and no one wants to live in a tent on Skid Row. And these two unenviable outcomes are a distinct possibility when one devotes too much money to being cool, hip, or daring. If you do either of the following, you’re ego lifting and you need to stop immediately.
One. You spend more money on any of the following than you invest in the stock market.
Jewelry
Lattes
Tattoos
Cable television
Sports
Video games
Two. You smoke, pound alcohol, or use illicit drugs.
Ego Lifting to Have Lots of Wonderful Toys
Who doesn’t love stuff? And who doesn’t love being that guy or gal who has a toy that everyone else envies? But just because stuff is fun doesn’t mean you have a free pass to acquire it recklessly. In other words, you need an emergency fund, and you need to save for retirement. You don’t need 30 pairs of shoes and the latest iPhone. Sacrificing what is needed for what isn’t is the epitome of ego lifting. If you plead guilty to any of the following, you either have too much stuff or too much cutting-edge stuff.
Three. You only make the minimum payments on your credit cards every month.
Four. You rely on payday loans to make ends meet.
Five. You pay for storage.
Ego Lifting for Love and Glory
It’s human nature to seek the admiration of others—to show the world that you’ve arrived, that you’re a big boy or girl now. I get it. The fight for love and glory. But fighting for love and glory need not ruin your finances. I’m fighting for love and glory by maintaining the 277th most popular personal finance blog in the world (according to Modest Money). I’m not fighting for love and glory by living in a McMansion and driving a Porsche. My fight for love and glory doesn’t come close to jeopardizing my financial health. If you do any of the following, you’re fighting for love and glory the wrong way. You’re ego lifting.
Six. You buy a car with debt and your car loan is for more than three years.
Seven. You take out student loans to pursue a financially worthless degree in college (i.e., sociology, communications, journalism, photography, history, gender studies, etc.).
Eight. You buy a house with less than 20 percent down and your monthly PITI payment is 30 percent or more of your monthly household income.
Nine. You decide to have a baby with someone even though you and this someone lack money, worthwhile job skills, and a legally-binding commitment to each other (i.e., you’re not married to this someone).
Ego Lifting to Deflect Personal Responsibility
If you’re an adult with a sound mind and body, and you aren’t being physically restrained from doing anything constructive, you have the luxury of choice. You can read a book or smoke pot. You can jump on the treadmill or sit on the couch and eat Doritos. You can open a Roth IRA and grow it with automatic contributions or buy a new car and saddle yourself with 84 months of easy payments. You get the idea. But here’s the rub. The luxury of choice comes with the tyranny of personal responsibility. You reap what you sow. And very few people can stomach that kind of accountability. They therefore deflect. If you relentlessly engage in the below behavior, you might be guilty of the most damaging kind of ego lifting out there.
Ten. You blame others for your crappy financial situation.
Final Thoughts
Okay, groovy freedomist, that’s all I got. What say you? Have you financially ego lifted in the past? Do you financially ego lift now? Let me know when you get a chance. Peace.
Oh wow, I’ve met all those dudes. And they are overwhelmingly dudes – even the muscle chicks I’ve met usually got that way because they use proper form, a slow but steady progression in weights, and has the patience to see the plan out. The funny thing is the truly jacked dudes usually quietly went about their business. It was the almost-there bros who seemed the worst. I remember it being that way from my mountain biking days. The really fast guys would be the first to lend advice or a hand fixing your bike. The 5th placers were always the biggest jerks.
This is a great analogy. It’s also why I started lifting at home – can’t stand that BS. A guy once asked me to spot him on the bench, and I had to scramble when he lifted the bar off and he couldn’t keep it straight up and down. I’ve never seen someone wobble a bar so much. I nearly didn’t catch it because it didn’t seem like that much weight but it must have been WAY outside of his range. I suggested there was nothing wrong with starting with smaller weights and higher reps.
As someone who has a journalism degree and does pretty well financially, I don’t know if I agree with calling it “financially worthless,” but I do think it’s a foolish degree to pay a lot for. I went back as an adult, and paid little for to finish up my education, so I had minimal debts and paid them off quickly. But otherwise, this is a great list!
B.C. @ FrugalWheels recently posted…Don’t let perfection get in the way of pretty damned good
I’m not sure where I fall with this one. I like expensive toys and don’t mind saving to get one. In my astronomy club, I have one of the biggest portable telescopes. I bought it as it’s heavy, I was about to turn 40, and I love the hobby. I use the thing a lot, and it makes me happy. That being said, it gets a lot of attention at public events that I attend with the club, and it fits my personality. I love it. We are talking about $4500 with all the kit to go with it. The scope alone retails for $2600. I don’t smoke or do drugs, and I rarely drink. I work hard, and my wife and I are able to fully fund our savings goal in spite of that purchase now 3 years ago. It should last easily as long as I can lift it. Its total weight is 170lbs and the heaviest part is about 45lbs. Ego? I dont know. The kids love it at the outreach events. I love it.
Is this ego? Well it’s a better toy er telescope than one that many others have. Do I brag about it, no. None of my fellow club members give me a hard time, and several other folks have bigger and more expensive ones, but most don’t. I purchased the biggest I could afford for the fun of using it. So, I think I am clear on that.
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Nah, I don’t think the telescope is an example of ego-lifting. One, you can truly afford it. Two, it’s not show-offy in the way a sports car is show-offy. A sports car shows off to everyone. Your telescope only “shows off” to a small, specialized community. Three, it really is a cheap wholesome vice compared to such vices as drinking, smoking, and gambling. And finally, four, it makes you happy. So in my mind, your telescope is infinitely closer to being a great quality of life investment than a foolish look-at-me investment. Well done, my friend.
I tried once lifting weights back in high school. The time the other guy gave me the rod I told him that will be enough weight for me 🙂
The situation did not change ever since, I never did ego lifting financially or otherwise. My secret is that there is a very small group of people whose opinion I care about. I just don’t give a f*ck about the rest. Ok, since I am married I had to raise the bar to my wife’s not giving a f*ck level which is a little be lower than mine.
I also have a distaste towards this kind of gym rats and financial showoffs. The analogy is perfect so I would recommend a test for both.
I see the point in being healthy and strong to make you able to protect yourself, so basically its a skill for survival. Put these muscleheads into a ring with a shaolin monk or even with any old school construction worker or lumberjack who does heavy lifting every day because that’s the way how they live their life. I know who would I betteing on.
Similarly, make any of these financial ego-lifters face with a random truly wealthy guy like a FIREe then ask them to show thear net worth number. I guess that when they both do so the FIREe would shot a smile, jump on his bike and ride away while the other guy still would try to ratinalize his lifestyle to anyone who still give a sh*t about him…
Even thinking about this makes me smile, thanks Mr. G. 😀
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“My secret is that there is a very small group of people whose opinion I care about. I just don’t give a f*ck about the rest. Ok, since I am married I had to raise the bar to my wife’s not giving a f*ck level which is a little be lower than mine.”
Holy crap, this was a wonderful comment. I highlighted the above portion because it made me laugh out loud. Yep, I know all about raising the bar to my wife’s not giving a f*ck level. And all the points you make in your comment are spot on. I too would bet on the lumberjack over the musclehead. Great freakin’ comment, my friend.
Those videos are hilarious, thankfully I don’t think I’m ego-lifting with anything. Mainly cuz I couldn’t care less what other people think about me…
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It took me a while, but I eventually embraced your disdain for the “bubble popularity.” There is perhaps no greater superpower in personal finance than the ability to not give a f*ck. We no doubt make Mark Manson proud. Have a great weekend, my friend. Cheers.
A couple months ago we bought a new car for the family. The dealer was so shocked when I asked to keep the loan to 3 years he had to ask me about it a few times. In reality we ended up paying off the loan before the first payment (loan was a backup plan). But I definitely got a chuckle about being asked are you sure about three years about ten times.
I love it, Mr. FTF. Way to blow the mind of an unsuspecting car dealer. We had a similar experience as well. Last week we bought an SUV from CarMax and the dealer was shocked when we asked him who we should make the check out to. Yep, one of the unsung joys of financial independence: you get to f*ck with the minds of salespeople. Thanks for stopping by, my friend. Cheers.
Wow. This is a great metaphor. I particularly like the notion that when you lift/spend more than you bear, it goofs up your form.
Need a new ride? Then borrow money to get a luxury car? Bad form. Pay cash from an emergency fund? Good form. And bad form can lead to injury. While good form lets you outperform normal expectations. (You bought what on that salary?)
The ego dimension is your main point. (A rocking one!) but I think a helpful consideration is learning good (financial) form and practicing it.
“Need a new ride? Then borrow money to get a luxury car? Bad form. Pay cash from an emergency fund? Good form.”
Put me to shame, Steve. You took my ego-lifting analogy to the next level. I humbly praise your genius! Cheers.
Couple things…
I love beer!
Bought a car on loan.. 1.75%.
Are we ego lifting?
Hell no. And here’s my reasoning. The guy we buy the bulk of our furniture from has just bought a brand new pick up truck with all the bells and whistles. Cost? Just over $62 thousand. He did it because he had no business debt and his tax accountant advised him that he was going to get slammed by the taxman on his profits. So by buying the pick up in his company’s name, he now increased his business expenses and mitigated his tax liability. Rather than give the taxman more money, he treated himself to a very nice, and frivolous, toy. Is there such a thing as responsible ego lifting? I think so. Is your 1.75% car loan in the name of Mrs. WoW’s company? If it is, no ego lifting there. And I hardly believe your love of beer is anything close to ego lifting. First, you max out your 401(k) at work, and I seriously doubt you spend more than $19,000 a year on beer. I don’t think you’d be alive if you did! Second, your love of beer could become an ego-lifting endeavor if it marred your ability to work or began to destroy your liver. But something tells me you know your limit on the beer front. You’re too functional, both at work and life! Thanks for stopping by, my friend. I really appreciate it.
Those videos are hilarious. Thanks for that.
Of course, everyone likes to feed their ego once in a while. You have to feel good about yourself, right. Fortunately, I’m getting a bit smarter as I get older. I don’t lift heavy stuff anymore.
Financial ego lift? Yeah… We got a brand new house when I first got married. It was fine because I made enough money to afford it, but I could have been much smarter. Should have purchased a duplex in a nice area instead. It’d be a much better investment then.
I love it, Joe. Yes, we’re all guilty of ego lifting, especially when we were young. But as long as one outgrows it or keeps it to a minimum, it’s okay. We all got to do a little preening now and then. But you got me thinking my friend. The dangers of ego lifting in the gym can be mitigated by wearing a weight belt. What’s the weight belt for financial ego lifting? An emergency fund? Got to think about this one. Thanks for stopping by, my friend.
No financial ego lifting over here! Glad I never succumbed to it. Good post, but I take exception to only one thing: communications being listed as a worthless degree. I graduated with one in 2002 and have been working in Communications ever since. I now have a six-figure salary, a paid-off mortgage and fully funded retirement accounts. I’m 38. 🙂
And how is journalism a worthless degree?
Great question. To define a degree as “worthless,” I consider three questions. How much does the degree cost? What is the entry-level salary for a job that requires that degree? And what is the likelihood of getting a job that is directly related to that degree? The average entry-level salary for a journalist is $36,986. If it cost $5,000 to get a respected journalism degree, and if more than 75 percent of journalism degree holders were working as journalists, I wouldn’t deem journalism a worthless degree. But if it cost $50,000 to get a respected journalism degree, and if less than 25 percent of journalism degree holders were working as journalists, I would deem journalism a worthless degree. So that’s how I define a worthless degree, journalism or otherwise. It’s not a statement on the social or philosophical value of the degree, it’s strictly a statement on the intrinsic value of the degree. From what I can tell, and based on my definition of worthless, I’m fairly confident that journalism is a worthless degree. But I could be wrong, and I welcome evidence to the contrary. Thanks for stopping by, Bobby. Cheers.
P.S. Just for the record, I have some intimate knowledge on this subject matter. I received a journalism degree from Long Island University in 1997. And, sadly, it proved to be very worthless.
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/reporters-correspondents-and-broadcast-news-analysts.htm
Depending on where you look for average salaries, you get different numbers. An experienced journalist at The NY Times makes over 100k. Broadcast journalist salaries as well as newspaper salaries vary all over the country which makes the median misleading. And certainly if you have a long career in journalism (and if using your skills blogging helps generate income), there can be an ability to make a worthwhile career. But if someone has a passion for studying journalism, that could lead to many different careers including writing novels, scripts, non fiction books, as well as news reporting. Where would we be without them? Get your degree with as little debt as possible but I wouldn’t discourage a young person who has a dream and ability from pursuing that career.
On a separate topic, sometimes it makes sense to take a loan on a car if you can get more in the bank or other investments. One year our car loan interest rates were so low, it was a no brainer to take it. A few years ago, we took out a small mortgage on our home ( that had been paid off years ago) because investing that money in a higher interest Bond was more lucrative than the low interest rate we had on the mortgage, even including closing costs…not to mention some people are able to take advantage of tax deductions for interest. Paying cash is not always the best advice, but if it helps you sleep at night, each person needs to do what works for him/ her.
Hey, Bobby, sorry for the late reply. I’ve been a wretched blogger lately. Anyway, great counterpoints regarding journalism salaries and the value of getting a journalism degree. I still think a journalism degree is overkill for most aspiring journalists–especially when you consider it costs little to start a blog, a podcast, or a YouTube channel–but aspiring journalists still need writing, speaking, and thinking skills. And those skills aren’t acquired by osmosis. Love the way your mind works, my friend. Peace.
Exception duly noted. Thanks for reminding everyone that degrees with a rather low ROI aren’t a low ROI for every student who gets one. My low-ROI degree (sociology) didn’t work out for me. I never got a sociology-related job and struggled income-wise until I taught myself to code. The only thing that saved my pursuit of a sociology degree from becoming a complete disaster was my lack of student loan debt. I left college with less than $6,000 in student loans. My advice to a young person pursuing a degree is to not borrow more than half of the entry-level salary of the people working in your desired field. Any young person who does that should avoid major financial woes post college. Thanks for stopping by, my friend. Great comment.
I was gonna say, “Curse you for introducing me to the Gym Idiots videos, for now I’ll never get my meeting agenda finished, not to mention the quarterly financial projections!” But then I rembered that those things do not exist for me,. As a happy early retiree! So binging Gym Idiots is on the agenda today.
Your analogy is excellent. I remember preening with fancy clothes and heavily leveraged cars back in the day. But today, with all of the financial blogs and other information available, it’s hard to underatand why this type of ego lifting remains so widespread.
Another pertinent and hilarious post, Mr. G.
Be careful with Gym Idiots. There are so many gym idiots, and IE does such a great job skewering them, you can easily spend hours on YouTube. If you do binge, however, I recommend the following videos. IE makes a lot of fun of Jason Blaha and Rich Piana. These videos will give you the necessary background information. Hope all is well, my friend. Give my regards to Mrs. Grumby. Cheers.
Inner City Reference Explained
The Legend of Jason Blaha
The Amazing Wedding of Rich Piana