How NOT To Spend Your Money
In Cheshire Life | 17 comments | permalink
Today I am going to talk a little about how NOT to spend your money… or more importantly, how to prioritise where you spend it.
For those of you who have been following my buzz marketing advice for a while, the money should now be coming in, and whether it be an extra $100 per month or an extra $10,000 you are going to have many options on where and how to spend that extra cash.
So here is my advice to you in a nutshell: Comfort Comes Before Image
Unfortunately, due to billion dollar ad campaigns, society works the other way around… for example, I recently bought a 50″ plasma tv at over $2,500 in cost, not one of my friends, family or neighbours said anything about this… however, when I let them know that I have a cleaner who comes and irons and cleans my appartment twice per week, they suddenly raise their eyebrows in shock and disbelief at such extravagance.
But for the cost of the TV, I can hire the cleaner for almost a year and a half.
Which of the two is going to have the greater effect on my life?
The Cleaner!!!
One of these expenses will enrich my life, free up my time, improve my living conditions, and therefore my mental state, and generally save me a lot of time, energy and hassle…
The other, is going to waste my time, and negatively affect my fitness and mental condition.
Yet it is the cleaner that gets the raised eyebrows.
I also recently hired a personal assistant to come in once per week and help with my accounts, paperwork, bills, receipts etc… again, this brought a shocked response from my friends, yet they haven’t said a word about my home cinema sound system… despite the fact that I live in an appartment now, and can’t use even 10% of it’s power.
It reminds me of a story from my buddy Woody Maxim, who was mocked by his friends because he bought a $7,300 matress. The same friends who bought sports cars and had no issue justifying that to themselves.
Woody’s point was that he is likely to spend more time on that matress than any other place on the planet, and out of every possession he owns (other than his home), it is what he will get the most use out of.
So if you do have a little extra cash this month, don’t waste it on the crap that the ad companies want you to spend it on, instead, invest in your own comfort, and focus on making your life easier.
Once you have your comfort and state of mind sorted, THEN you can go and buy a Porsche.
Dean
PS: a wise man once told me that it is your state of mind that will determine your prosperity level.
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17 COMMENTS
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Do You Feel the Buzz?
Dean Hunt puts the "buzz" in buzz marketing
..and the "viral" in viral diseases
Good point Dean!
i just did exactly that…
(not quite 7k, but still…)
http://blog.pwanderson.com/2008/09/working-from-home-the-ergohuman-chair/
But surely, buying a Porshe also brings a lot of comfort. It’s more comfortable and smoother than a banged up second hand car and also brings you peace of mind inside yourself (comfort within) to not be ashamed of what you’re driving.
Just a thought
Otherwise i think the post is interested and ill think twice about buying that $500000 suit to show off.
hehe, that is twisted logic.
Owning a Porsche brings a bucket load of issues and stresses, trust me, a lot of my friends and contacts list owning a Porsche as one of their biggest mistakes.
Dean
Interesting.
Owning a second hand car or “old” car is sure to bring about more problems than a brand new Porsche though no?
I was actually having breakfast with a good friend of mine (who’s coincidentally a multi-multi-millionaire!) and he said the following is the best peiece of advice he got:
“If it float, flies or f*cks, rent it by the hour”.
That is good advice from your friend, I would agree.
Listen, if you own a really old car that is causing you issues, then you probably can’t afford things like a 50″ plasma in the first place, so there is no decision to be made.
I think you missed the point completely… my point was that whilst brand name items, and luxury items are nice, you should focus on stuff that is going to improve your quality of life FIRST.
Now, I have to stress, this doesn’t mean improve how you feel about yourself, because you can boost that with a pair of designer sunglasses or a Porsche, but guess what? 2 weeks later, the novelty will have worn off, and you will feel like crap again.
I mean things that will actually enrich and improve your life, as opposed to the junk we are told by ad companies will improve our lives… which clearly, you have fallen for.
I love the screwed up way society treats money.
When I got an afterschool job at 15 my parents advice was to buy a stereo on hire purchase so I didn’t just blow my money every week.
10 years later they finally listened to me and bought their first rental property… they now have two.
I remember feeling so proud when they told me… it’s great when your parents finally reach that age when you know they can look after themselves
LOL - Great points, I hadn’t thought of the cleaner vs TV situation. People act like it’s a big deal to have others working for you, but then spend 50k plus on a car and clean their own toilet.
Amazing.
Nathan,
You hit the nail on the head there…
Amazing how people can justify 50k cars with ease, as Dave has proven in these comments, but the reality is that Dave thinks this way because he has been socially trained by media to have that “opinion”.
To be fair, I went through a similar thing a few months back, I was going to get a sports car just to raise my perceived social status… I knew I didn’t need, or even really WANT one, but once I realised that it only raised my perceived social status vs actual social status, I decided against it.
I also realised that social status, whilst nice, should be waaaay down a person’s list of priorities.
Dean
Great points here Dean.
That’s true that we are told to HAVE more rather than BE and run for gadgets that will not necessarily improve our life quality.
Plus as you said, hiring someone or outsourcing tasks saves a lot of time and helps to stay focus on our primary goals.
Great advice, Dean. A gem of an advice actually. You’re a compelling blogger! Thanks.
Porsches are the automotive equivalent of crack cocaine. One’s not enough and once you’ve had one you always want another one.
I speculate the same may be said of tappin’ a supermodel. Unfortunately, my experience is limited to the aforementioned addiction.
I’ll let you know about the bed. I’m getting to the age where it means more anyway.
I’m not disputing your point that comfort comes before everything else when it comes to spending. Just pointing out that comfort can come with buying more expensive luxury goods. Buying a lazy man chair will bring a hell of a lot of comfort and also impress friends etc.
Maybe i have completely missed the point…
Btw, i just brought a second hand Peugeut 206 for my first car. It’s running smoothly soo far!
I really like that advice, and the quote at the end. I always spend my money on books. I spend a good 20% of my time reading, and it’s where I get my writing skills/vocabulary/reference material. So, I guess it’s okay, haha.
I wouldn’t mind a fluffy mattress, though.
Dave,
Fair enough, I think what happened was that you took the word comfort literally.
I mean mental comfort/making life easier… but I guess the matress example implied literal comfort.
Basically, anything that reduces stress, hassle, work, effort in your life is good. Trust me, a Porsche adds a lot of stress, for a start, the financial outlay is huge, then it drops in value at a crazy rate, you pay a huge insurance bill, hardly does any MPG, oh, and worst of all, you can’t take it anywhere…
Down to the local bar? No chance, it will get too much of the wrong kind of attention.
Long distance journeys? No chance, it will eat too much petrol.
The worrying about getting even the smallest of scratches on it…. it is all just a lot more hassle.
Sure, you will feel like king of the world for two weeks, but that is a fake feeling, and will wear off within a month.
Dean
For info, I was considering a Ferarri, instead, I got a new Peugot 206
For what its worth, the majority of my Adsense earnings went into a property that we now rent out. Its on target to clear my mortgage within the next five years.
I think thats a decent return for spam
Great..just wanted to point out to one mistake you made lol
it’s not it’s power but its power
I’ve been practicing these rules lately on
http://www.copyblogger.com/5-common-mistakes-that-make-you-look-dumb/
take a look at rule number 2. Hope this helped