Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I would say that it is more a matter of `how much money do I want now?` because this is a moving target. If a person is earning 12k he likely wants 33k when he earns 42k he wants 65k when that person reaches a six figure income he desires a 7 figure income. That`s the nature of the beast. At least until that person starts contemplating his/her own mortality, then the priorities change, it becomes more a matter of how do I want to be remembered? what can I do to make this a better place? or something of the sort.


:-) yeah about that... at our core we are biological machines, we have one purpose in life, to procreate and pass on our genes to the next generation. We attempt to do this any which way we can, everything we do is at one level or another shaped by this primordial directive. Some people attempt to better their chances by making themselves more attractive to the opposite sex by body building, others with intellectual prowess, others with the accumulation of wealth, there is no end to the amount of approaches this very basic and compulsive desire takes. Some of these are deeply rooted in our make-up and we still act on them even though we are not aware of it, these were the conclusions of a study on something of the sort not long ago.

 

Ah...another geneticist. :-) I believe that we`re entering into a massive argument, culturally, and across most of humanity. The one side is that our fundamental "driver" is procreation, and handing down our genetic material. All human behavior is based on this driver, goes the argument. I disagree.

But on the other side of the argument is the belief that we have an intangible component to humanity, call it consciousness, spirit, mind, or something else. That component is the fundamental driver, and supercedes the genetic motivator.

It`s an interesting argument, and I have my thoughts, but this isn`t the thread for it. However, I think we would agree that there`s a statement or phrase about "I want to be rich!" or "I want a lot of money!"

This discussion is about a relationship between wanting a lot of money, and knowing the price and/or cost of big-ticket items and ambitious projects. I`m proposing that without that cost/price knowledge, the likelihood of having a lot of money declines.

        I don`t see how knowing the price /cost  of something effects in any way the chances of winning anything.  Your logic is beyond me. You are intitled to your point of view of course, just don`t expect me to share it. 

GaryR

There`s no connection at all between price-knowledge and winning a $20-million prize.

The exercise is to remove the problem of "having" the money, and focus on only how people work with large dollar numbers in their mind.

Consider successful eBay sellers. They might have started by shopping garage sales, flea markets, and estate sales. They encounter a huge variety of "stuff." To be successful they usually want to find a niche market.

Over time, they learn how to identify obscure types of "stuff," and can rapidly assess an item. They know that it ordinarily costs one number, sells for another number, and the price they`re seeing at that moment is very much below the value.

By holding those prices in their mind, they can more directly follow the principle "buy low, sell high."

So the question becomes a matter of how important is it to know the prices of what you want to accomplish, in terms of the end goal of acquiring a large amount of money. See?

I am not the type of person to specifically speak price, especially of my personal financial situation to strangers.  This is a forum of people who don`t really know each other, but who are trying to help each other with entreprenurial endeavors.  The specific numbers truly aren`t necessary for the exercise.

But I could spend the money if I had to. . . and the first place I spend my paycheck is into my savings. 

jillybeans

I`d disagree, Jillybeans. We`re not talking about your specific financial situation, or about your personal budget. This is about a premise that without a detailed picture of an imagining, it`s not as probable of coming into real life.

Another way of making the argument relates to those people who`ve won the lottery, then a few years later are broke. It`s my contention that they don`t understand money excepting in small numbers. As such, they`re more comfortable maintaining a life of small numbers.

I hear many examples of people who inherit a substantial sum of money. They immediately go out and buy houses and cars, have huge parties, travel in luxury, and soon run out of money. Why? Because they believe the money will last forever. But why is that?

It`s because they`re not in the habit of thinking in terms of principal and investment. What I`m interested in doing is bringing out into the open a related concept having to do with what you imagine, you create.

If you think vague thoughts about having lots of money only so you can pay the mortgage, pay off a couple of credit cards, and fix the car, you`re thinking "survival mode." To make it worse, if you refrain from being specific about what you`d do with $20-million, you also tend to build energy toward making sure you don`t ever have that amount of money.

To want something you have to be specific about it. And I believe one of the best ways to practice and develop that specificity is to imagine life as it really and truly would be if what you want were already in place. And that....means having a vivid and realistic knowledge of what you would do on a daily basis if you were handling and spending $20-million. See?

If you want a house, you first imagine what you`d like. THEN you find out how much it would cost. If you REALLY want the house, you make a plan and goals, all revolving around how much that house will cost, what you`ll have to come up with, and how you`ll pay for it.

So too, if you really want to be rich, you should know how much money you want, what you`ll do with it, and how long you`d like to remain rich.

It isn`t about talking with strangers about your annual or weekly salary. It`s about dreaming big. It`s also about discovering that what you might consider to be a big, or even impossible dream, isn`t really so big at all. In fact, it might even be doable. :-D You just have to know the costs and prices.

I`d give every penny to the American Humane Society.