After dating around for awhile, I think it’s very important that guys/girls do not reveal their true earning potential/power in the early stages of dating.
I know it’s obvious but we can still make the mistake of revealing too much financial details about ourselves, such that the other person will not fall in love with the person that we are but the things or lifestyle that we can provide.
Just to quote an example, you have a side hustle that makes you $2xxx per month on a normal month that could go up to $5xxx per month because it is scalable. Couple that with a good financial background (family + individually) you know there’s a very low chance <1% you will starve even in a recession when you lose your job.
That theoretically makes you a very high value person aside from your personality and values and thus you need to be more discerning of who you let into your life. I’m mainly writing this advice for myself because I tend to have a high ego and low self-esteem and that’s why sometimes I try to justify in my head why I’m worthy of being with someone of a “higher social-economic/academic” background.
Yes money is not everything. But in a high cost of living country like Singapore, money represents options that could enable you to be a stay at home-dad or mum and completely avoid the rat race. As well as providing a comfortable living and less financial stress.
Money is the difference between traveling the world every year, multiple times a year and budgeting for meals and constantly thinking about how to reduce your costs.
I have experienced what it’s like to be both rich (solidly middle class) and poor. And I always realise how lucky I am to be in the circumstances that I am in.