Connection to money

Recently, I posted a blog about the consequences of spending. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to write! Here are two additional (related) thoughts about our connection to money. One of these thoughts is as a consumer and the other is as a business owner.

First, the overarching concept: We will understand the consequences of our spending when we are connected to money. Years ago, our parents or grandparents would spirit money away into an envelope and when they had enough they would go to the store and buy whatever they were saving up for. Although we tout it now as a discipline, there weren’t a lot of other options. As a result, they were highly connected to their money because they could hold it in their hands and understand that the value it represented had a physical, tactile feeling. Today, we’ve lost that connection to money: Our credit cards, debit cards, and online payments have created a disconnect, making it more difficult for us to understand the value of money we have and the value of money we don’t have.

Now, lest you think that I’m getting too philosophical on you, let me try to make a couple of connections:

As a consumer, this should be a cautionary note for you: Businesses want to make it easier for you to spend your money. Therefore, financial organizations create ways to make the transaction process as simple and painless as possible, as if it were a non-event. Let’s compare two transactions: The first transaction: My grandma wanted to buy a new arm chair for her living room so she would save up her money under a mattress until she had enough. Meanwhile, she would shop around for the right chair. When she had enough money, she would shop around for the best value and buy it. Buying something was an event. The second transaction: When I want to buy a chair, I drive down to the local chair store, find one I like, and I tap my credit card on the proximity swipe device (I don’t even need to sign anymore thanks to a chip in my card!). The transaction is a non-event and I have a chair. As a business owner, I would urge you to be cautious about your spending for that very reason. It’s okay to spend, of course, but we need to never lose sight of the value of money.

As a business, you’re on the other side of the equation. A business needs to help a consumer to buy. If you have a good product or service that will provide value for the consumer then there’s nothing wrong with offering it and helping the customer to own it. Your job is to take away as many of the obstacles to selling as you possibly can. Being able to accept credit cards is one way to enable sales now instead of later. Making sure the transaction is fast and painless is another way to make sure the sale happens.

Some of you might read the two paragraphs above and think they are diametrically opposed but they are not. There is a give-and-take tension in the consumer/business relationship but they are not diametrically opposed. Instead, the consumer needs to be cautious and understand the value of money and the business owner needs to make it easy for the consumer to buy.

Jessica Routier, IAC-EZ

What movies teach us about money

I recently read an article at Mint.com called “Ready, Set, Action! What TV characters teach us about money“. The article is entertaining but way too short, but they do mention my favorite TV show, “The Office”, and specifically laud Michael Scott for now living within his means. They vaguely referenced one of his most cringeworthy moments when he admitted to a graduating class of high school seniors that he couldn’t fulfill his promise to fund their college education.

The article also references 90210, and I confess that I just might have watched the original show (pictured on their blog) when I was in school. (Awkward silence at that admission). You can read the full article here.

The article reminded me of another article I’d read years ago (which I can’t reference because I can’t even remember where I’d read it or when) that said the TV show “Roseanne” was one of the first shows in a contemporary time period (i.e., not “Little House On the Prairie”) in which the average financial situation of many Americans was realistically portrayed.

The Mint.com article prompted me to think about movies I’d seen and what they can teach us about money. Here are a few tips:

• If you love someone, you jump on a plane and fly wherever they happen to be. Forget about the consequences of your career.
• If you need to make a lot of money fast, you go to Vegas and play poker or blackjack.
• Everyone has the latest and shiniest everything, including cars that are less than 6 months old.
• Young, good-looking people are super-successful without seemingly having to go to school or win the lottery or work hard.

Ultimately, in all media, we see people living with their money as if there were no consequences. That’s fiction, I suppose. However, in real life, we understand (or, we SHOULD understand) that there are consequences to every action we take. During any given moment we can spend or we can invest some combination of time, money, and effort into the things in our lives. If you want your business to be successful, you need to spend time, money, and effort to get more money. If you want a relationship to be successful, you need to spend time, money, and effort to achieve that success. But every time you choose to spend or not to spend, you need to also accept the consequences that result: A business with more or less revenue, a relationship that may or may not have a strong foundation.

IAC-EZ plays a role in that by helping you to see the consequences and impact of every financial decision you make. Ultimately, the more we consider the consequences and understand the give and take involved, the better we can be at investing the right combination of time, money, and effort at the right time for the right results.

Jessica Routier, IAC-EZ