A good friend of mine, and former pastor, has been working hard all of his life. Even while pastoring a church, both he and his wife worked full time outside of the church. They are not wealthy, but they are very frugal with their money.
After his kids finished school, he finally fulfilled a lifelong dream of his by taking money he had saved and purchasing a late model Camaro. It's a VERY nice car. He bought it used (a couple of years old) and spent much less on it than most people pay for their new sedans and minivans, however. He paid half what I spent on my truck.
Some of the leadership at the church was upset because he was portraying the "rich pastor" image, they didn't have the details and only saw the exterior, a pastor driving a late-model sports car.
People are going to judge, it's simply human nature. I had to talk to a lot of folks when that car showed up and explain to them (what I never should have had to explain), that my good friend and pastor did not make his money from the church, so it was none of their business whether he spent $5 or $5 million on his new car, and that most of them were driving vehicles worth far more than his.
People are always looking for someone to compare against and judge. I'm sure I'll get some comments when I pull up with my new Eagle trailer in a few weeks. I won't be feeling the need to explain to people that's it's not all that hard if one simply works hard, saves, and budgets money wisely. I have family members who are always needing to borrow and scrape because they don't manage money well. I've even bailed some out on occasion, against my better judgement. It will be very hard to hold my tongue if those same folks comment on my "extravagance".
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