| by Glenn J. Downing, MBA, CFP® |
Sweatpants
As many of my readers know, I’ve done a good bit of traveling over the last several years, teaching 4-day Live Review classes to students preparing to take the CFP exam. The usual teaching cities included San Antonio, Dallas, St. Louis, Kansas City, Raleigh, Cincinnati, Detroit, and here in Miami. Traveling to some of these cities requires a change of plane, and air travel has become, well, difficult. Consequently, I’ve spent a lot of time in airports, observing the traveling public.
I am appalled at what I see. It is almost like people make a deliberate effort to look slovenly. I know this isn’t the ’40s when men wore suits and ladies wore dresses. People dress for comfort – fine with me. But you can still look neat and put together. Sweatpants, flip-flops, wife beaters – really? That’s the best you’ve got in your closet?
For a man of my age, this looks disrespectful. Disrespectful to oneself, in that you didn’t even think it was important to present yourself in a socially acceptable way to others, and disrespectful to others in that you didn’t see them as consequential enough to matter how you present yourself in public.
How fat we’ve gotten!
And how fat we’ve all gotten! Me included. Please dear God not next to me, as I sit in my seat and watch one obese person after another seek out their seats became a common prayer. If I’m flying coach I choose an emergency row seat because they have a tremendous amount of footroom. And I’ve spent many flights wondering just how that person managed to stuff him/herself in.
My teaching organization bought my plane ticket, and then I’d log into AA and upgrade. Always a comfortable seat at the front of the plane and with plenty of legroom. Always plenty of room for luggage, always among the first off the plane – as stress-less as the experience can be. I live very conservatively, so this is my one spending caprice.
Tattoos
And now the tatts. It used to be that men who went to sea got tatts, and that was about it. Some days I think I’m the only man left without one. And women being tatted up – I just don’t get it. Still – none of my business what other people choose. If you think a snake crawling up your neck is attractive-looking and will help you get a better job then go for it.
I do look at tattoos from a professional point of view, though. This is discretionary income people are using to get inked up. A full sleeve (meaning one’s arm is completely covered from shoulder to wrist) costs between $2,000 to $4,000 I’m told. Using 8% over 30 years, that $4K becomes $40K. And just how good is that tattoo going to look in 30 years? Eventually they all seem to revert to green.
No more suits
Once again, evidence of my advanced age and generation differences. In hot, humid south Florida I am glad that in my business world no one expects me to wear a suit and tie. I see old photos from Miami Beach and wonder how people took it.
One’s wardrobe used to be a sort of indicator of one’s position in life – professionals dressed one way, and others dressed another. Now thanks to Mark Zuckerberg the entire tech world wears t-shirts to work. Everything has seemed to merge at the level of comfort, and being an American with egalitarian sensibilities, this is all fine with me – just as long as we’re all neat, bathed, shaved, and considerate of others.
