I’ve always had a ‘curious’ relationship with money.
We grew up in an upper-middle-class household – we weren’t struggling and while in high school and college, my brother and I had summer jobs that produced spending money and eventually supported our tuition.
Growing Up Around Money
I can’t say it any other way – I went to an exceptionally expensive high school (on scholarship) and most of my friends were super wealthy. They were comfortable around money and all the opportunities and experiences that come with it. To be clear, they NEVER made me feel less than them, but I was usually insecure around their homes, boats, and vacation homes in the mountains, always feeling like an outsider who tagged along. I felt like an imposter and was deathly afraid of them ever coming to my home.
Again, I grew up in a wonderful neighborhood and a large four-bedroom home – I know that my experience was easily better than 75-90% of the world population. It was someone easy to forget how good I had it when nearly all my friends had it better.
I Used to Chase the Appearance of a Lifestyle
For most of my adult life when I was married to my ex-wife, we spent more money than we made each year and lived month-to-month. We use money to buy a lifestyle or more accurately, buy the appearance of a lifestyle.
Changing Priorities
When I came out of the closet and finally became comfortable in my own skin, I naturally budgeted my finances. I didn’t need things to make me happy, I didn’t need to show off anything to the outside world. I was happy with myself and didn’t need to pretend to anyone. Not now and never again.
Peter Leahy
A self-proclaimed “ideas guy,” I’ve worked in marketing for over twenty-five years. After years of sadness, emptiness and self-loathing, I finally came out of the closet in 2013 and reinvented myself. Now happily married to my husband for over two years, we live in California with our Chihuahua Felicia, the queen of our household.
