Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Don't project your class anxiety onto your kids. At $500K a year, they will be fine. YOU'RE worried about being less wealthy than your sisters.
OP here. I definitely feel extreme class anxiety and awkwardness about their
gradual ascension into the Nova "upper class" if you can call it that, during the past few years ever since they met their husbands-to-be. I was never very close with my SIL but its definitely made it a little harder to relate to my sister. It doesn't really help that
both of them are very into class/status and are the kinds of people who love to do certain things to be perceived a certain way.
These are red flags in and of themselves. Stay away from these types of people, keep contact polite and cordial, but develop you own set of "friends who are like family." You will never win trying to compare yourself to status-hungry people who try to make their lives Facebook perfect. You may not have the "close family feeling" that you wish you had. However, this is not due to the money issue. It's due to their superior attitude about money and status in general.
As far as your kids asking questions, tell them "there will always be people with more than you, and people with less than you." Leave it at that.
My BIL is worth $100+ million. He is one the most down to earth people I know, and doesn't rub it in anyone's face. Sure, he has an expensive house, and might take a luxurious vacation or two, but he doesn't automatically assume everyone else is jealous. It's all about the attitude.