Is it tacky to talk about MONEY and INCOME?

[Kak]

I am in the camp where I don’t like being asked. I find it extremely impolite when people try to figure out how much money I make or spent on a given item.

It is normally the keep up with the Jones, higher income, slowlane types that do it.

“What year is that car you bought?” “Why? Are you trying to figure out how much I paid for it? You need to size me up? LOL. I don’t remember the year. In fact, I forget the make and model too. It is gray. Or maybe it’s charcoal.” As if what I paid for my car has anything to do with how much money I make.

It highly depends on who I am talking to. As far as I’m concerned, my financial information is none of their business and their financial information is none of mine unless they are asking my advice. I am not a jealous person so I never ask gauche questions like that of people.

Basically it comes down to this...

1. Questions rooted in jealousy- Piss me off. Erodes my respect for the individual.

2. Questions rooted in mutual respect that help achieve some sort of goal. Like a mentor and protégé situation. Child and parent. Talking stock positions. Family giving. Stakeholder discussions. Totally fine, that’s just business.

It is pretty easy to see through the motivations of the inquisition.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[amp0193]

I always get flack talking about money/income in business discussions. For example I was at a social distance speed networking event where I asked a few people questions about the profitability of their service. I know obviously in social situations it's not appropriate, but I'm curious: Do the rest of you agree that when talking about business, discussing money/income is fine? Or is it a bit tacky?

Would make sense if you are helping someone work through some problems, and you have a rapport. But not just to satisfy your curiosity.

"Man, business is tough this year, there just never seems to be enough to pay myself after paying for all overhead and expenses".

"Yeah I've been there, that's tough. Maybe you aren't charging enough. What's your gross profit margin?"


vs.

"Hey, nice to meet you, I have an HVAC company in the area"

"Oh cool! What's your net income?"

 

[Ocean Man]

Just like @JScott mentioned, if it was at a networking event or business conference, some people may have not felt comfortable talking about their business. But if the topic is about speaking about finances with friends and family members... I think it should be encouraged.

Sure there might be some cases where friends and family members feel awkward talking about money. But in my experience, I feel like being able to talk about money with other people, how other people handle it, if they have advice, or just in general how their situation is... I felt like it's been mostly positive.

I never really understood why people said not to talk about money. But also if you're having dinner with your family members and all you talk about is money... maybe you should talk about something else..? Just for the sake of having something else to talk about.

 

[Johnny boy]

People are hugely insecure and believe they are constantly on the verge of losing everything if they let one piece of information slip so they like to be secretive. People on here won’t even share what industry they’re in. It’s a self esteem problem. Most people do not share financial information because they are afraid. I will purposely ask financial questions to see who has a scarcity mindset.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[becks22]

It depends on who you're talking to. It's possible that they thought you were trying to gain a competitive advantage and somehow start a competiting company? I've always kept money hush hush with most people in my life. If people ask about the business, I say fine and that I'm working on a new project. Nothing more nothing less. Unless it's someone from the FLF or my very best friend, I don't mention anything. I have a friend who has never asked me about the business and even now with COVID19, doesn't seem to care if it has affected me at all. I've chosen to just ignore it. Success and money makes most people uncomforable.

 

[ApparentHorizon]

People are hugely insecure and believe they are constantly on the verge of losing everything if they let one piece of information slip so they like to be secretive. People on here won’t even share what industry they’re in. It’s a self esteem problem. Most people do not share financial information because they are afraid. I will purposely ask financial questions to see who has a scarcity mindset.

People on here don't share industries because there are vultures who make life harder than it has to be. Especially in the digital marketing space.

 

[WJK]

I always get flack talking about money/income in business discussions. For example I was at a social distance speed networking event where I asked a few people questions about the profitability of their service. I know obviously in social situations it's not appropriate, but I'm curious: Do the rest of you agree that when talking about business, discussing money/income is fine? Or is it a bit tacky?

I fly under the radar a lot. I wear well-worn overalls and live a very modest life. And I fit in most days without a ripple. Why would I want to put a target on my back by telling too much? Being underestimated is a tactical advantage. There comes a day in your business life when there's no one you need to or want to impress anymore.

 

[Legacyy]

1. Questions rooted in jealousy- Piss me off. Erodes my respect for the individual.

I really can´t agree more!

 

[fastlanedoll]

I am in the camp where I don’t like being asked. I find it extremely impolite when people try to figure out how much money I make or spent on a given item.

It is normally the keep up with the Jones, higher income, slowlane types that do it.

“What year is that car you bought?” “Why? Are you trying to figure out how much I paid for it? You need to size me up? LOL. I don’t remember the year. In fact, I forget the make and model too. It is gray. Or maybe it’s charcoal.” As if what I paid for my car has anything to do with how much money I make.

It highly depends on who I am talking to. As far as I’m concerned, my financial information is none of their business and their financial information is none of mine unless they are asking my advice. I am not a jealous person so I never ask gauche questions like that of people.

Basically it comes down to this...

1. Questions rooted in jealousy- Piss me off. Erodes my respect for the individual.

2. Questions rooted in mutual respect that help achieve some sort of goal. Like a mentor and protégé situation. Child and parent. Talking stock positions. Family giving. Stakeholder discussions. Totally fine, that’s just business.

It is pretty easy to see through the motivations of the inquisition.

I KNOW!!!

There were these hardcore slowlane ppl at my last job who kept pestering me with all these personal questions.

The keeping up with the Jones types simply cannot he trusted. It's rooted in petty competitiveness & insecurity.

 

[Timmy C]

I don't ask but people love to tell me what they earn.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[minivanman]

For me, if I'm helping someone in business, I don't mind telling them the numbers. The reason I do not like talking numbers sometimes is because if I own business A and you own business B..... they are exactly the same businesses...... if you are wanting to know what I make, there is no way to compare apples to apples because you have no idea what my overhead is. I might run my business A from a paid off piece of land and have no debt while you run your business B from a rented building and have 2 loans on equipment. Or I might have a supplier that is higher on prices than yours. Or maybe I choose to have 15 workers while you choose to have 5 workers and do more of the work yourself. Or I might offer more benefits to my workers...... there are so many variables that there is no way to know.

As for telling people what business you are in on the internet..... this is the internet. It's a virtual world to me personally. If it all crashed tomorrow, I'm good with that. I trust no one on here with anything. On the other hand, if I meet you in person, I have no problem talking about my my business for 3 hours the first time we meet. I have this little appliance business but no one on the internet knows what all else I'm involved with and why should they?..... the way I look at it..... it's a virtual world that I only choose to let a little bit be known about me and I think everyone should do the same, but that's my opinion. Even when I start my Youtube channel, there is no need for anyone to know my real name just as there is no need for anyone to give their real name on there. I think I'll be Bob.... easy to remember and it's the same spelled backwards for people that have dyslexia.

 

[PureA]

If someone is too keen to share numbers I see this as a red flag (it isn't always the case, but puts me on guard).

Why are you trying to prove something to me?

With people you have an existing relationship with or the exact numbers serve a function, then I'm fine.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Solomon Kim]

I agree with several posters above. Discussing money has a place in something like a business networking event. If someone is deliberately injecting money/financial questions into a casual conversation, you come off as lame and insecure.

You pretty much suck all the emotions out of a conversation when you open a conversation topic regarding finances.

All casual settings encourage sharing stories, laughs, and bringing up the vibe.

Let's say that I brought you to an epic party and there's a cute girl across the room you want to talk to.

"Yeah I'm expected to scale my business with some new investors in a couple months".
"Boba shops are slow lane, wtf are you doing"?

-Blown off by girl

Bit extreme of an example but the principle is the same with any casual setting.

 

[TreyAllDay]

Good responses. I definitely agree there is a time and specific place to ask these things and you have to read people. Not like a "Hey I'm Trey", "How much do you make?".

I generally just enjoy hearing about what people in different businesses are doing and how profitable it is, in the right context of course. But I DO see why some people are completely shut off to discussing it.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Jeff Noel]

I'd probably do the opposite of what people are discussing here. In the sense that I'd probably be the one sharing my numbers to people I don't know personnally, but that I know have established big/successful businesses in hopes of having finance/business management tips (especially if I felt unsure about my numbers).

We all know every business is different. But sometimes, having the feedback of somebody with a lot more experience can save you some trouble.

It reminds me of the thread last year of someone who was literally making millions but was about to go bankrupt through lack of liquidity. People jumped in on the thread and shared almost invaluable tips and tricks for him to get back on track finance-wise. That's what I like to read/hear.

 

[minivanman]

Talking about money is like trying not to look at the hot honey's a$$ that just walked by when you are with your lady. You know looking is harmless. You can feel that her a$$ is perfect without looking but you still want to look to make sure. You're even tempted to glance and just suffer the wrath of your lady. But you don't look. You never look. Just like people without money don't talk about money even though they want too....and know they need too. They don't because it's uncomfortable facing the fact that their security blanket is full of holes. Once you have the information you become culpable.

I'm not sure this made any sense but I'll agree as long as we are talking about a female's @ss

 

[Bobby_italy]

Yo to be honest out of curiosity I sometimes ask but in Italy it doesn't mean anything... your company could be making 50 million in revenue and you could very well be in debt, no one is telling you net profit.
Here salaries are also very standard, like 1k to 3k is normal unlike USA where I see people making 500k a year + bonuses lol, like yeah maybe you get paid more but still taxes eat you up.
I've never been surprised by someone's salary here so I usually don't bother to ask, I know some CEO's are making 5k+ but if you consider new tax brackets and usually having to have your own "partita IVA" which basically means company and pay another 75% your profits after taxes it's bs.

So you never know how much people REALLY make and what they mean when they say I make 3k x month or I made 10k on that deal.

Example Build a small condo: cost 600k, sell at 780k and give 10% to the company selling, so we have 180k in profit of which 78k we're giving to who sold it.
We're left with 102k pay about 30% taxes on the profit for the company =>71.5k, put THAT money in your bank account another 45% tax => 39k Clean was your real profit from that deal.

Some people will brag and be like I made 180k on that condo while in reality they made 39k because Italy is a communist country, this is considering that you had 600k to start with, if you got a loan add another 5-10% cut to the profit... you see where I'm going?
Now if we're talking millions than yeah whatever is your real profit is probably very good but as they say here "everything that shines isn't gold".

What really blows my mind are people who inherit stupid amounts of money and they're not really aware of HOW much that is.
One of our clients is the son of a very big entrepenuer, only child, his dad had 3 brothers all very succesfull entrepeneurs who built empires during the economic boom, in recent years they all passed away and they had no children/wives so he inherited everything, we're talking 9 FIGURES.
This man has never worked a day in his life, he just assumes everyone works "for fun" while living his life like a dream, he got a friend who's an architect who keeps suggesting crazy modifications on his houses(dude's crazy because they look very fancy) just to make some money off of him.
Props to him on the fact that if you see him at the bar or wherever he looks like your average joe, dad bod, kids, sipping on beer and giving zero F*cks about the future, wife a little out of his league but not too much to make it look weird.
One of his kids wrote a song(at 10 yo) and he had us build a 400k recording studio jesus christ...

 

[Kevin88660]

I always get flack talking about money/income in business discussions. For example I was at a social distance speed networking event where I asked a few people questions about the profitability of their service. I know obviously in social situations it's not appropriate, but I'm curious: Do the rest of you agree that when talking about business, discussing money/income is fine? Or is it a bit tacky?

There won’t be any good response unless you really know the people close enough.

Asking a man how much they make is like asking a lady how heavy she is...in my opinion.

 

[Yussef]

Yes if you don't have any.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[TreyAllDay]

I always get flack talking about money/income in business discussions. For example I was at a social distance speed networking event where I asked a few people questions about the profitability of their service. I know obviously in social situations it's not appropriate, but I'm curious: Do the rest of you agree that when talking about business, discussing money/income is fine? Or is it a bit tacky?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Yussef]

Talking about money is like trying not to look at the hot honey's a$$ that just walked by when you are with your lady. You know looking is harmless. You can feel that her a$$ is perfect without looking but you still want to look to make sure. You're even tempted to glance and just suffer the wrath of your lady. But you don't look. You never look. Just like people without money don't talk about money even though they want too....and know they need too. They don't because it's uncomfortable facing the fact that their security blanket is full of holes. Once you have the information you become culpable.

 

[Yussef]

I'm not sure this made any sense but I'll agree as long as we are talking about a female's @ss

Point: Sometimes we don't do things (or talk about things) that we want to, need to or just have a desire to because we fear what others may think, say or do because they are uncomfortable with it. Sometimes you have to just say F&*k It! "Hey uncle Bob tell me how the hell you got so rich? I'm tired of working my a$$ off at the widget factory for pennies!"

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.