We definitely need to talk about this more. https://twitter.com/dev_nikema/status/1292151711637766144

Something nobody talks about. Budgeting can feel harder when you have more money. Surviving low income is hard. It takes a mental, physical and emotional toll. But I’m talking about the activity of budgeting. Figuring out what to do with extra money when you’ve never had to.

A lot of people are gonna take this for granted, or assume it’s easy. People who have always had money as well as people who have never had money. This is something I’ve only heard from those who had to make a transition. It’s a skill you never had and didn’t know you needed.

There are those people who spend all of their extra money. They may find themselves short on bills. These people get called irresponsible. But in a real sense, many of them are struggling with a certain mentality. Extra money was always ephemeral. Not something you counted on.

Then there are those who still have a tremendous amount of anxiety about not having enough money. Those people save all of their money. They end up denying themselves things they can actually afford, and that could make their lives better. Because they don’t trust extra money.

There are those people who feel overburdened by taking care of family and community. They come from a place where everybody gives because that’s the only way to survive. And that community will absorb any amount of extra funds because it’s never enough.

Some folks have to restrain themselves that they can’t give away all of their money. It’s a huge barrier in the transition to middle class. It is incredibly painful, and can cause real rifts within families. Becoming middle class can feel like being pulled towards selfishness.

That last part is something I’m still struggling with. The reality is you can only be “middle class” by yourself. The whole notion feels like a break from community oriented living. Becoming middle class is some people’s first taste of what it means to hoard resources.

That might be a bit much for some of y’all today. I’ll leave it here. But for my part, I’m actively trying to figure out how to regain community as a firmly upper middle class person. Is there a world where those two things can coexist? I don’t know. But I’m trying to imagine.