Money Etiquette

[fimbulwinter]

Simple question:

How do you handle money questions (not requests) from your family? Your Friends?

I'm not looking for advice for anything going on in my life, I'd just like to get a discussion going here and maybe some of the people with lots of experience can throw in a few words.

fim

[MTBlue]

For better or worse, I try to be dead honest, but I usually try to focus on > than a month time frame. The short term roller coaster which is poker is hard to explain to people.

[CanKid]

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How do you handle money questions (not requests) from your family? Your Friends?

[/ QUOTE ]

honestly

I have a few friends with whom I'm totally honest, because they are rather well off, and I know their questions are simple curiousity. Other friends get told it isn't any of their goddamned business, and that's generally what my family hears also. Except for my dad, he was a longtime professional blackjack player, so he understands variance/sums of money involved.

My girlfriend now realises she almost never wants to know the answer to "How much...?" so she doesn't ask, which is good.

[KaBoom]

I've been playing for almost 3 years and not even once has my wife asked me how I'm doing. I guess she has noticed that I'm paying the bills on time so I can't be losing (atleast much [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] )We're taking a 4th trip abroad in a year so it's getting quite obvious extra income is coming in from somewhere cause my business analyst salary really sucks and she knows that.

I don't tell my friends either. If they ask I say sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. Which is the truth.

[Apathy]

recently I have been telling people, but I think I am going to stop for the most part.

Some people may get jealous, and most don't understand the swings involved.

I can handle winning and losing 10k in a day, but most others don't understand that part of it.

[rwperu34]

Strangers I tell I make enough to pay the bills.

My close friends are all cumpulsive gamblers, so they get to live vicariously through me.

[edge]

I try really hard to dodge the question and quickly change the subject. I'm quite embarrassed about poker being my job, and it's a huge hassle to explain everything.

[whitelime]

I tell everyone close to me (friends/family) the total truth. I wish I hadn't though. Whenever I go out with friends I almost feel compelled to pay for every drink or at least buy the first two rounds. After a while, although they still appreciate it, my friends seem to almost expect it of me. I don't feel used or anything. These are still my closest friends. However, when before we would settle those $5 and $10 loans when someone forgot their wallet, etc., now I don't think I've ever declined a loan or asked a friend to repay me. I can't quite explain why, but it's a situation I'd rather avoid.

[thabadguy]

theres only 1 person i will tell the truth to, my closest friend and thats only because I stake him for blackjack, so he understands the ups/downs.
Any1 else, if they ask after a session, i just say "quit winner."