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Rein in jealousy and bite into debt By STEVE POWERS But do you really know your neighbors as well as you think you do? Shira Boss, a journalist who specializes in finance, has written a book that peeks behind the scenes at some of these seemingly well-off neighbors. Boss does this by profiling real people, with the names changed. For instance, in the chapter titled "Keeping up with the Joneses," she delves into the private financial life of Dan and Tammy. Dan and Tammy are a young couple who have been frugal since the start of their marriage, and are relatively well-off in their 20s, with few debts. This all changes when they move to Orlando, Fla., and are plunged into a world of friends and neighbors who have lavish tastes; they move to a gated community, and before long they are awash in debt and expenses to keep up with the fast crowd they socialize with. They soon find themselves drowning in a sea of debts and expenses. This chapter is a fascinating morality play about what can happen to those naive about the dangers of trying to "keep up" by accumulating more and more material possessions. The entire book flows along in much the same vein, with each chapter a self-contained lesson on the the dangers of overspending. |