Before starting our column, may we give appreciation to the comments/suggestions we receive. On this column, we will discuss finance and self-esteem as what was requested by one of our readers.
How do you behave when you are earning a lot? On the other hand, how do you behave when you are earning less? People tend to behave differently towards how much they earn with how they feel about themselves with such earnings but there are commonalities with how they behave towards it.
We will give you two different situations. But, remember, this is for illustration purposes only. We do not mean that all families composing the examples have the same traits as such. We speak in a general manner. So, here comes the story. The first family is composed of a parents blessed with 5 children. Their parents both work as utility. On the other hand, the second family is composed of a parents also blessed with 5 children. Their parents both work as office clerk in different company of course. We all know that office clerk has a higher pay off than utility. Now, how could this affect their financial matters? Yes! We mean, how could their earnings affect how they see themselves? Is possible that the family who is earning more value themselves more and the family who is earning lesser value themselves lesser? Maybe. Who has higher self-esteem? Is it the parents of the first family or the second family?
Before anything else, what is self-esteem? Self-esteem is what we think and feel and believe about ourselves. It is different from self-worth. But, without self-worth, there is no self-esteem. Meaning, self-esteem does not last longer without self-worth. Looking back, self-esteem is a judgment of oneself as well as an attitude toward the self. In sociology and psychology, self-esteem reflects a person’s overall subjective emotional evaluation of his or her own worth.
Back to our previous question, is the first family has the higher self-esteem? According to research, people who feel great about themselves most of the time are said to have high self-esteem, and people who feel bad about themselves are said to have low self-esteem. Because of having low earnings, people tend to behave as if they do not have a great value in this moving world. On the other hand, people tend to behave as if they have great value. It is a different story when a person has higher earnings and is not satisfied with it; he wants more and more.
In our example, the first family who works as utility has lower earnings. This makes them to have low self-esteem. Because of having low self-esteem, they do not believe that they will be successful with their life someday. According to Smith and Mackie (2007), “The self-concept is what we think about the self; self-esteem, is the positive or negative evaluations of the self, as in how we feel about it.” Therefore, people tend to behave according to how they see themselves; this is affected by self-esteem. This sometimes affects the growth of one’s wealth.
(The writers are both Investment Adviser and Advocate of Personal Finance. They are engaged in Stock Market Investing. Also, they are active Licensed Real Estate Practitioners. For financial planning and speaking engagements, you may contact them with CP # 0919-376-2922 or Tel. No. (074) 244-4026).
