The pitfalls of flaunting personal wealth

By John Kariuki

It is a societal taboo to flaunt wealth. Even proverbs and wise sayings caution that wealth can easily ‘melt’ if one lacks the right attitude to it. In fact, a person’s worth should be a closely guarded secret if he or she wants to be socially right.

But everywhere — be it in hospital outpatient queues, pubs, matatus, banking halls or walkways, we meet a breed of insensitive people who flaunt their riches for a calculated and detestable social goal. Their flashy lifestyle during hard times demonstrate their immunity from the biting money woes.

Customised attention

Typically, such frauds flash the latest mobile phones and jewellery whose monetary worth can comfortably run a government department. They complain of “poor services” and utter awe-inspiring names of swanky places where they can get better deals and customised attention.

Others park their expensive cars where they can be noticed. They may make several trips to the parking lot, ostensibly to get mineral water, calculators, coats or umbrellas and so on, leaving no doubt who owns the limos.

But personal finance experts warn that it is the ‘small fish’ who flaunt their riches and one cannot pick out the real wealthy people in a crowd. They are humble to a fault. The wannabe millionaires want to prove that they have arrived in “big money business” by changing their social classes.

But the people with the real money don’t go on such escapades. They instead lead quiet lives, making even more money.

They have nothing to prove to anybody. Paul Karuchi, a Nyahururu-based personal finance banker, says it is unwise to show off one’s riches. “By flaunting your riches around, you open yourself to hangers-on, broke friends, lazy relatives, gold-diggers and a whole group of beggars,” he says.

Karuchi argues that keeping one’s wealth low-key is not the same as hiding it from government or tax evasion.

“It is all about being wise with your money and keeping it away from people who can decimate it given a chance,” he says.

However, he adds that there are times when showing off one’s wealth is necessary.

“For a personal business to gain public confidence, the owner is expected to give generously and publicly to worthy causes,” he says, adding that public confidence remains important to any successful business.

This, he notes, is the best way to show that one runs a financially strong personal business. Karuchi advises wealthy people to display their riches in socially acceptable yet discreet ways like starting funds for worthy causes. “For example, billionaires such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have pledged enormous amounts of money to charities,” he says.

Charles Njeru, a business development adviser with one of the banking institutions, says one should choose a money show-off that he or she can afford. “Making a thoughtless pledge might earn one some publicity in the short-term,” he says. But when one cannot sustain or even honour such a pledge, he or she can be financially vanquished.

“There is nothing that kills a person’s financial reputation better than pledging more than he or she is actually worth,” says Njeru. Issuing bouncing cheques, ostensibly to gain publicity at an event, is nowadays considered a criminal offence, adds Njeru.

A common money mistake some people make is to display an arrogance before friends, especially those that they have toiled alongside. They may attract some attention, but often borne out of the false pretence.

Financial mess

Such people shut the door to friends who would bail them out of future financial doldrums or recommend potential clients to them. The richest people never reveal how much they are worth. Often, they grunt a non-committal answer. Their networth is often an approximation worked by the media from the market value of their many businesses.

Telling everybody how much you make or have in your bank account is the cheapest way to show off your riches. Yet there are scores of people in our midst who commit this ultimate indiscretion at every opportunity.

Naturally, people don’t like loudmouths who brag about their property and fat bank accounts.