Humble Braggers

[Franco5]

Is it just me or does this site suffer from a large amount of braggers who enjoy anonymously sharing the details of how lucky/successful they’ve been disguised as genuine questions?

There seem to be far more of these posters than guys in the SE looking for advice on an £800k IO fixed rate mortgage that ends next Autumn and who will be staring down the barrel of a £1000 rise in his monthly payments. We all know there’s plenty of those out there but they seem a bit more reticent…

[jm8403]

No

[Simpo Two]

I don't think so, but investors tend to mention the wins but not the losses. That is human nature. At the corporate level. no investment company ever said 'Hey, our product lost 30% last year - invest with us!' They will find a bit of the graph that suits their argument.

[TCX]

Not afraid to say I've seen £180k turn into £30k more than once,seen £35k drop in 20 minutes, in relation to shares,I sleep easy,done it before ,do it again, pretty sure nobody makes money without loosing a bit,all part of the leaning experience,even if it's often a lesson we didn't need,but as this is the internet take everyone with a large pinch of salt,I would just encourage anyone looking at a loss,real or paper to contemplate the real important things in life before getting unduly stressed

Edited by TCX on Thursday 1st September 22:35

[Zingari]

Simpo Two said:

I don't think so, but investors tend to mention the wins but not the losses. That is human nature. At the corporate level. no investment company ever said 'Hey, our product lost 30% last year - invest with us!' They will find a bit of the graph that suits their argument.

I've lost shed loads of money buying cars if that helps. Buy high, sell low seems to have accompanied me through life Although in my own mind I've done OK.

[cavey76]

Read the mood music in this place. Witness commentary on the NP&E thread on the economy...do you think the guy about to come out of an £800K IO mortgage would get much sympathy here.

[Simpo Two]

Zingari said:

I've lost shed loads of money buying cars if that helps.

I guess the difference is that you expect to lose money on a car. You invest to make money.

cavey76 said:

Read the mood music in this place. Witness commentary on the NP&E thread on the economy...do you think the guy about to come out of an £800K IO mortgage would get much sympathy here.

Whilst not an expert, I don't think 'the economy' and 'the markets' are the same thing. Electricity may be going up 400% up, inflation may be 13%, many people may be unable to pay their bills - but markets can still go up. The hard part is finding the right bit of it...

[anonymous-user]

There are numerous billy bullst / fantasists around here.
It’s social media, goes with the territory

[cavey76]

cavey76 said:

Read the mood music in this place. Witness commentary on the NP&E thread on the economy...do you think the guy about to come out of an £800K IO mortgage would get much sympathy here.

Whilst not an expert, I don't think 'the economy' and 'the markets' are the same thing. Electricity may be going up 400% up, inflation may be 13%, many people may be unable to pay their bills - but markets can still go up. The hard part is finding the right bit of it...

OP was commenting about humble braggers suggesting you dont hear from folk admitting they are in an obvious bind. My point was, when people on for example, the NP&E thread ,"Cost of Living Squeeze 2022, (now nearly 900 pages long) imply that even if they are on what one would call decent/good money and they are struggling they are slaughtered for having a car on PCP or paying for Netflix or kids activities. The implication being someone in the SE on 80K/yr shouldn't feel the squeeze/pressure because you can just give up your avocado toasties and fancy schmancy coffee - get back to dripping sandwiches and mellow birds. Therefore we are unlikely to see much by way of people who might take crazy risks openly discuss.

A lot of posters here offer very judgemental opinion on anyone who doesn't match their level of parsimony.

OPs original question. I dont think there is any more or less humble bragging here than the average internet forum. We are a car forum first and foremost so maybe our membership biases more than average toward people with sufficient funds to support that as a hobby.

[hepy]

Franco5 said:

Is it just me or does this site suffer from a large amount of braggers who enjoy anonymously sharing the details of how lucky/successful they’ve been disguised as genuine questions?

There seem to be far more of these posters than guys in the SE looking for advice on an £800k IO fixed rate mortgage that ends next Autumn and who will be staring down the barrel of a £1000 rise in his monthly payments. We all know there’s plenty of those out there but they seem a bit more reticent…

You wouldn't like Linkedin then!

[r3g]

Franco5 said:

Is it just me or does this site suffer from a large amount of braggers who enjoy anonymously sharing the details of how lucky/successful they’ve been disguised as genuine questions?

There seem to be far more of these posters than guys in the SE looking for advice on an £800k IO fixed rate mortgage that ends next Autumn and who will be staring down the barrel of a £1000 rise in his monthly payments. We all know there’s plenty of those out there but they seem a bit more reticent…

You should check out the energy price increase threads, there's some corkers in there. Several people quoting combined incomes of well into 6 figs then post "I have no idea how I will be able to afford to turn the heating on this winter" .

[dmahon]

Im a bit of a saddo as I spend a lot of time on a few personal finance forums. It is one of my pet hates when people call people humblebraggers, fantasists or bullstters just because they have questions and want to get involved in discussions.

Just because you earn a decent salary it doesn’t mean you don’t worry about money and have the same trade offs. Even someone with £10 million in the bank will be thinking about investments, mortgages, retirement planning etc. They just have a higher cost base to play with.

People have pointed out on here lots of times how a £100k salary turns into £5k a month, £3500 after mortgage, £2000 after childcare etc. Of course a high earner can survive, and I know a six figure salary can seem like a fortune to a low earner, but it’s not exactly living like Rothschild.

Edited by dmahon on Friday 2nd September 09:38

[jonwm]

I get caught up in this too, lots of our family / friends are self employed, they don't divulge there earnings after tax but always quote the weekly wage on the site, this is often gross as if they get paid £1000 per week they see £1000 per week, I then think I'd need pretty much £85k a year salary to see that kind of take home and to get £85k I reckon I'd be more stressed than a plasterer on a building site.

When I ask about the tax element they mainly say "my accountant sorts that out when I hand them the receipts for new van, fuel, tools, home office etc)

[fat80b]

I don't think PH is too infiltrated by humble braggers..Just go take a look at Instagram if you want to see what that really looks like.

The cohort is generally one of older men, many of whom are in the position to ask questions around houses, investments and cars. This is a good thing - where else are they supposed to go on the Internet?

Most new threads seem to be a genuine question looking for genuine answers / opinions.

I myself could ask about fixing the ABS sensor on my E46 M3, or whether I should consider selling the TVR that I have owned for 17 years but not used for the last one.....but I'm not going to do that just now

[dundarach]

The thing about bragging, is that you need to know whom you're bragging to, and whether they'll be bothered.

I could brag about our Nissan Cashcow, but that'd be pointless on here.

I could brag about being mortgage free, but I live in Hull (almost).

I could brag about a 20 minute commute, but I don't work anywhere exciting.

However to some friends, a nice Nissan and a posh suburban house and an enjoyable job would be more than they'll ever have!

To others, they'd see me as cheap, unsuccessful, Northern scum, but there's always someone, somewhere who has something you do not, it's whether that bothers you in which case, so will their bragging.

I wouldn't trade an anonymous quiet pint in Hull Old Town for Elon's money and nor would he if that makes sense.

I've yet to read anything on here presented as 'bragging' which I'd work harder, spend money on, or move to the South for

[dingg]

dundarach said:

The thing about bragging, is that you need to know whom you're bragging to, and whether they'll be bothered.

Excellent point, we have had a person recently join our 'group' of mostly retired expats, he can't stop boasting about how much he's got via his sons business,house bought, new car again etc etc. Thing is some of the group are self made in quite a much bigger way than this clown who probably doesn't have a tenth of what they have, without having to ponce it off their sons :-)

Its comedy gold tbh

[jm8403]

dingg said:

Excellent point, we have had a person recently join our 'group' of mostly retired expats, he can't stop boasting about how much he's got via his sons business,house bought, new car again etc etc. Thing is some of the group are self made in quite a much bigger way than this clown who probably doesn't have a tenth of what they have, without having to ponce it off their sons :-)

Its comedy gold tbh

Sounds more tragic than comedy or gold.

[Wheel Turned Out]

I think "Finance" is generally pretty reasonable, isn't it. Some people do very well, there's no way for them to mention it at all without it seeming like a brag if you're not in a comparable position, but I don't think the intent on bragging is 'that' prevalent when they ask financial questions or for advice - you need to get your head in N P & E for the true sociopathy.

[okgo]

I think there are a lot of people that think they're humblebragging but have failed spectacularly as per the above point about who is on the receiving end.

Ultimately, its of course going to be socially acceptable to post numbers on a forum if they are not too far above normal/average - and you can see examples of that on here on a near daily basis. There are far fewer posts with big numbers in them, sure, most will not need the advice of the forum as they are more clued up or pay for advice, but you can still earn a lot of money without being particularly switched on to personal finance, but we don't often see posts like that because they're going to be mostly ridiculed by people on 30k a year wondering what on earth someone earning 200k (for example) does with it all.

In a more curated environment the Telegraph have got this fine art of essentially trolling people down to a tee - money makeover its called - often is someone with a healthy 7 figure net worth asking about something or other - the comments section is wild, and exactly how I would imagine PH to be if one such person ever did put their head above the parapet.

[jm8403]

okgo said:

In a more curated environment the Telegraph have got this fine art of essentially trolling people down to a tee - money makeover its called - often is someone with a healthy 7 figure net worth asking about something or other - the comments section is wild, and exactly how I would imagine PH to be if one such person ever did put their head above the parapet.

This. Most likely pure envy/jealous. Don't get me wrong, I'd love a brand new ferrari and to own every new porsche and have met a few people who have, but I don't spend any time hating/being jealous, someone will always have more / want what you have.