[0:00:00] Gentlemen, Antonio here.
All right. Today, I’m going to talk about the five rules that men can follow to make
sure that they wear a ring properly. Many of you guys, you’re perhaps getting a family
heirloom, maybe you just graduated from college and you want to wear your class ring, perhaps
you’re about to get married and you’ve never worn a ring before and you’re wondering
how is this going to fit into my wardrobe. Gentlemen, these rules are for you and once
you understand them, you can bend them, you can break them, you can use them as you wish.
Now, let me just start off really quick with my wedding ring. I wear it on my right hand
and it is the number one question I get on YouTube comments. I have people go to my contact
form they’re like, “Antonio, do you flip your videos? Why are you wearing it on your
right hand, you know, what’s the reason behind it?” The story is in 2004, I married
my wife in Kiev, Ukraine in Ukrainian Orthodox Church and for year-and-a-half wore it on
my right hand. Came to the United States and it was until – I didn’t even think about
it really until people at my MBA program asked me, “Antonio, why do you do that? Why do
you this? And it’s kind of funny, now, I enjoy it as conversation starter, I know my
why. Gentlemen, use these five rules so that you can send a statement so that you can enjoy
wearing your rings. All right? So, rule number one is understand that any
ring you wear is going to send a meaning whether it’d be engagement, whether it’d be wedding,
whether it’d be affiliation, whether it’d be a sign of wealth. And, yes, historically
rings were worn to show wealth and your position in society. Understand that every ring you
decide to wear on your hand because of its prominent place on your hands people will
see it people will make a judgment. Now, if you’re out interviewing and you
like to wear a lot of rings, maybe one that, you know, you end up looking like a mafia
godfather. Understand that if you’re interviewing in a conservative industry, the person interviewing
you may not say anything, but you’re basically at the mercy of their judgment and their personal
beliefs. And that’s the thing with rings is you’ve got to understand everyone’s
got an opinion about them, most people hopefully are open-minded, but many people are going
to have their prejudices their stereotypes and they may pigeonhole you into that. So,
understand rings send a message, understand what yours are sending.
Point number two, have confidence. In any ring you’re going to wear make sure you
wear it with confidence. So, you’re going to be wearing maybe a family crest. It’s
been handed down to you, understand the history, understand how you can wear it effectively
and then do so. So, family crest actually traditionally worn on the index finger, you
can wear them on the ring finger if you’re not married, you can wear them over on your
right hand. And today, I’m not going to get into hand sides. Guys, I’ve got a support
article here, I’m going to go into more detail on that particular subject, so go check
it out. But, guys remember wear it with confidence.
You may be asking me, “Antonio how do I do that? I’ve never worn a ring before.
I’m in a conservative, you know, maybe part of the world.” Okay. So, start wearing it
for yourself initially and then, wear it around friends and family. Maybe it could be a class
ring that you’re just not used to wearing you’re about to graduate let’s say from
Annapolis at the Naval Academy there. And, so start wearing it around your friends, wear
it in an environment where it’s going to be accepted and then, you could start to wear
it out. The key with wearing a ring especially one that goes beyond wedding rings is to wear
it with confidence and then it becomes a conversation starter.
Now, that takes us to rule number three which is basically proportion. So, pay attention
if you have large hands, you can wear large rings. Smaller rings are going to look a little
bit off on you, but if you have smaller hands, you’re going to want to avoid overly sized
rings especially if you’re getting one handed down to you or if you’re going to get a
class ring. Those tend to be a little bit larger maybe one if you’re part of the Mason
lodge or something like that. Just make sure that you go for one that is going to be in
proportion to your hands. Smaller hands smaller rings, larger hands larger rings. Pretty simple.
Now, let’s get to balance. Balance is different than proportion. Balance is actually wearing
pieces and wearing jewelry in a sense to balance out. So, if you’re going to have one ring
maybe consider wearing your watch on the opposite side. If you’re going to bring in another
ring I could probably add a ring over here and then, if I – or if I – I could even
have two rings on this side because I’m wearing the watch. What you want to avoid
is having your watch, five rings on one hand and then the other hand completely without
anything. So, that goes with balance, bracelets can help with this, just understand that it
all works together and that takes us to rule number five which matching metals.
You don’t have to exactly match metals. Some guys decide to go for a ring that actually
has a bit of gold and silver in it. Me, personally I’m a silver man. I am – I would say I’m
cool tone in general, I can look at my arms and I can see I’ve got – I can see my
blue veins in here, that to me is an indicator. Also, I naturally have always gravitated towards
silver, platinum, things like that. [0:05:00]
So, all of my metals I like to match up. If you’re going to be a gold man and you like
warmer tones, then go ahead and go for gold. Now, mixing them up a bit just to understand
that to make it a little bit more complicated, it’s just something that if you understand
the rule, I like to keep it simple, but if you want to break it, go for it.
So, we’ve talked about the five rules and, again, I go into more detail in the article
here. Now, let me talk about the symbolism and the meaning for each finger. Now, I also
have another video here, I’ve talked about this a couple of years ago, I go into a lot
of detail in this video. However, quickly I’m going to go over it now.
So, the thumb, the thumb is traditionally symbol to your character. And, you know, so
if you have a straight thumb straight character, too crooked of a thumb you are actually believed
to be crooked. Now, when it comes to rings, rings on the thumb are very rare. They used
to historically if you go back to Asia, whenever a bowman who would pull back on the string
of a bow, he actually used to have a thumb ring which would help him do that. But, nowadays
very rare, if you do wear one on your thumb, it’s considered to be more of a creative
feel, you know, if you want to bring that in. But, being on your thumb it may feel a
little bit odd, so it would be something you’re going to want to get used to.
Now, let’s get to the pinky. The pinky is associated with the god Mercury. It’s also
associated with intelligence. So, that if you want to wear a pinky finger, that could
be something that you could bring in something that maybe has a small family crest on it.
Now, for some reason it’s associated with, you know, crime bosses and mafia, I don’t
know I wasn’t able to find, you know, it maybe something that they picked up. I think
a man can wear it tastefully. They key with these two fingers and why I started with them
now is that they’re on the edges of the hand. Anything you wear here will be easier
to see and therefore will be a little bit flashier, so I like to keep them down a little
bit. Now, let’s talk about the index finger.
Traditionally, this was a finger that many noblemen; kings, dukes, you know, senators,
they would wear rings on this finger. It is the finger of power and is associated with
the god Jupiter, hence the king of the gods. I think if you’re going to wear a class
ring or if you’re going to wear a family ring, this is also a ring you can consider.
You could also wear on the same hand and it will be a bit balance, you’ll have a little
bit of space between them. Now, let’s get to the middle finger. This
is associated with Saturn and it really stands about for – for basically being balanced.
Now, let’s get to the ring finger. The ring finger traditionally in western – in western
world, the left hand has been associated with romanticism with the moon. It’s also associated
with creativity. Again, I, you know, East Orthodox Church Ukraine I wear it over here,
but for most of people in North America, they’re going to wear it over here their wedding ring.
You also see sometimes engagement rings. Now, I know a lot of you guys have more questions
about, okay, Antonio, types of rings, metals, stones, all of those details, I’m going
to go into more detail right here in this article, go check it out.
And, guys let me know what you think in the comments. I would love to hear from you what
are your thoughts on rings: Should men be able to wear multiple rings? Do you wear multiple
rings? I would love to hear from you guys. I’ll see you in the comments.
Take care. See you in the next video. [0:08:23] End of Audio