Member-only story
MONEY
The Working Class Windfall
When it lands in your account, do you splurge or save?
Just for one month, I’m making the kind of money the upper class takes for granted. It’s as if my fairy godmother granted me with a limited-time wish.
So the question is, if you have a lot of different financial priorities and you suddenly get a one-time chunk of money that isn’t already spoken for by the time it hits your account, what do you do with it?
Some people might feel tempted to do something fun: Buy new clothes, replace the icky old sofa, take a vacation or whatever.
Lower-class life beat the concept of spending money “for fun” out of me a long ago. Spending money on anything but necessities gives me guilt and anxiety.
But we all have different attitudes about money
Years ago, my friend Lisa resented having to regularly give money to her husband’s younger brothers, who were always living on the edge. The day after Lisa and her husband paid the brothers’ overdue utility bills, the brothers showed up with expensive new tattoos.
Lisa nearly lost it and asked them why they would blow money on tattoos when they didn’t have enough to cover their basic living expenses. I have never forgotten the explanation the younger one offered:
“Money is so hard to get. So when you get some, you have to enjoy it,” one of them told her.
I suppose that makes sense, but I go the other way.
“Money is so hard to get. So when you get some, you have to squirrel it away forever because you’re sure to need it for some emergency.”
Where the windfall came from
My book, The Trailer Park Rules, and my Substack, Untrickled, are both having their best month ever, but not in a life-changing way. Nope, this windfall comes courtesy of Medium! (Thank you, Medium!)
We Could Learn a Lot About Sex From the Dutch has blown right up. As of this moment in time, this story has had 39K reads and my earnings are at $9,033.91 — and judging by the reads I have today, that number will likely hit $10K by morning. I keep checking my stats to…
