peer pressure

[Francesco]

Hi Likewow

I agree that you can be both wealthy and look wealthy, esp when you have achieved the goal and therefore can use the finances appropriately as desired. When the wealth is achieved, how do people spend it? It will inevitably show up in the regular overseas holidays, luxury car, desirable house, etc. All these (doodahs) would have been paid for through various financial and business techniques.

At the same time those who have acquired wealth will be already practising wealth principles, eg no doodahs. Clothes may be a bit scruffy esp with renovation or maintenance of IPs. The wealthy may not look wealthy when they are working. Why do the wealthy need doodahs as security or approval crutches? They are too busy (making even more money and enjoying it) and they feel self-confident (and future confident) to be seeking peer approvals.

I hope this is not too confusing - the wealthy can look wealthy at play and not wealthy at work.

 

[likewow]

Likewow,

You made these two statements less the 50 minutes apart - see your post here in the Cheap Real Estate Agents thread.

Can you clarify where you actually do stand on expensive = quality and cheap = crap ?

Cheers,

KJ

I have owned businesses that have provided services and owned businesses that have provided goods. Consumers have no control over whether a good is quality or not (as its fixed) so you buy what you consider quality and that usually costs extra. And everyone knows whats quality and what isnt, ie: A Kia is a car built to a price and it shows and a Merc is quality and buyers will pay for that quality.

With a service you can pay a high fee and receive crap service or pay a low fee and receive great service because the service level is determined by a person regardless of the price paid for it.

My point is its like comparing apples and oranges. Next question?

 

[likewow]

Likewow,

A former poster on here went by the name "Brains".

He left vowing never to return.

Just wondering.

A86

Agent,

My reply is in the form of 3 questions:

What exactly is it you're wondering, mate?

Whats your point?

Whats it got to do with this thread?


If you want to get personal contact me directly, ok. I'll be happy to accomodate you

 

[Sim]

And part of the point of those books was that the real millionaires always bought quality and always bought cheap.

Yup, and my point to Likewow was that BMW and Mercedes aren't necessarily good value for money - can be very expensive to maintain these cars, and they are not necessarily any better quality than some of the cheaper "luxury" cars out there.

I seem to recall that TMND mentioned that US millionaires preferred cars like the Jeep Grand Cheroke - high level of quality at a not unreasonable price - and you could generally negotiate a good discount if you went about it the right way.

 

[agent 86]

Agent,

My reply is in the form of 3 questions:

What exactly is it you're wondering, mate?

Whats your point?

Whats it got to do with this thread?


If you want to get personal contact me directly, ok. I'll be happy to accomodate you

Likewow,

Basically my question was "Are you Brains incognito?"

Thought Brains might have slipped back in.

Forum was definately better with Brains as he always had alternative points of view.

Have watched your style and you're very similar in many ways.

A86

 

[Sim]

No but i have heard a bit about them. I tend to operate better with practice rather than theory. That unfortunately includes the 'trial and error' of that practice.

Those books are not about theory - they are about statistical analysis of what a sizable cross-section of American millionaires have, do, think, and believe. It can be a rather boring book to read because of all the numbers, but there's very little theory in them - more practical experience. That doesn't necessarily mean that you must do what these people all do to become a millionaire - but it's and interesting exercise to understand the statistics.

 

[Aceyducey]

I have owned businesses that have provided services and owned businesses that have provided goods. Consumers have no control over whether a good is quality or not (as its fixed) so you buy what you consider quality and that usually costs extra. And everyone knows whats quality and what isnt, ie: A Kia is a car built to a price and it shows and a Merc is quality and buyers will pay for that quality.

With a service you can pay a high fee and receive crap service or pay a low fee and receive great service because the service level is determined by a person regardless of the price paid for it.

My point is its like comparing apples and oranges. Next question?

With the price of any purchase - good or service - there is a quality component, a status component, a convenience component and a perceived scarcity component.

If you're prepared to forego a couple of these components you can get the quality component at a much lower price.

Why do people pay so much for a Merc? because it has a reasonable quality component and high status components (in this country - in other countries, ie Germany, they have a much lower status component but higher convenience component).

Cheers,

Aceyducey

 

[likewow]

Those books are not about theory - they are about statistical analysis of what a sizable cross-section of American millionaires have, do, think, and believe. It can be a rather boring book to read because of all the numbers, but there's very little theory in them - more practical experience. That doesn't necessarily mean that you must do what these people all do to become a millionaire - but it's and interesting exercise to understand the statistics.

Fair enough Sim, sounds quite a bit interesting. I might have to add one of them to my holiday reading list.

 

[wealthyjay]

I have read both books, and have found them both inspiring in that the definition of acting wealthy and being wealthy were two very different things. these give me strength to continue with my mission to be wealthy.

Oh, and to answer an earlier question, I suppose my question comes partly from a feeling of insecurity, but its more of a philisophical thing in dealing with social pressure to have certain things. In my conversation with wealthy people, it seems that many have had the pressure to conform to society ideal of wealth rather than what we all understand wealth to be ie net worth not # of toys

 

[quiggles]

I also read them. The interesting thing I found was the number of correspondences with my own cirucmstances. As a professional square peg, this was a pretty amazing (and heartening) discovery.

 

[Aceyducey]

In the London Daily Telegraph:

Two US sociologists found that in working out how rich they were, people tended to compare themselves to their peers of the same age.Their happiness, therefore, depended on the relative success of that group.


What the media interpreted this as meaning was there was a need to "keep up with the Joneses"...

I'd interpret it as a need to constantly upgrade your friends

Cheers,

Aceyducey

 

[Peter Parker]

What the media interpreted this as meaning was there was a need to "keep up with the Joneses"...

An article in yesterday's mX paper said it was more about 'being the Joneses'.

However it seemed to equate 'high income' with 'wealth', and we all know that this link is tenuous.

Rgds, Peter

 

[quiggles]

And an article today said that money can buy you happiness (in the US). in the UK it ws found that money can buy love, but it cost the blokes twice as much.

The more interesting finding was the US one, which basically said that as long as you were richer than your age cohort, you were likely to be happy. Didn't specify what rich was, and I suspect it's rather in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Merovingian]

And an article today said that money can buy you happiness (in the US). in the UK it ws found that money can buy love, but it cost the blokes twice as much.

The more interesting finding was the US one, which basically said that as long as you were richer than your age cohort, you were likely to be happy. Didn't specify what rich was, and I suspect it's rather in the eye of the beholder.

Interesting, these articles that pop up.

Recently, it was found that wealth does not equal satisfaction...

Just goes to show how weak statistics can be.

I agree, it is all in the eye of the beholder.

 

[geoffw]

I agree, it is all in the eye of the beholder.

Happiness is in the eye of the beer holder

 

[julieo]

A friend of mine sells investment properties for a living. When he arrives at the house if there are a couple of new cars in the drive he knows he won't be making a sale that night!!

 

[LucasK]

The great thing about being in university is that all your friends are poor too. Its perfectly normal to drive a century-old car, share giant packs of no-brand chips, and wear clothes from Target.

 

[lizzie]

well, we have 11 ip's and a 5/3/2 ppor but i still wear a $30 watch as i can ding it around with paint and landscaping, i drive a 8 year old corolla which i can throw the lawnmower into the back of, i shop on sale and usually at the chain stores and if i find something that looks really good on me i buy 3 of them, we drink cask wine and eat sausages and some form of quality mince at least once a week, i "buy" most of my luxuries on flybuy or frequent flyer points (amex has a scheme where you get 1.5 points for every dollar you spend, so we pay for everything on the card and we pay the bill off in full monthly, we get the points but no interest charged) and now have 180,000 of those points ready for a little spending even after my new microwave and dvd/vcr player ...

but we still take time out for the odd doodad and luxuries - i have a cleaner (there is no going back). i like my ongoing collection of orginal artworks to be professionally framed (not cheap). we have a $60k yacht we bought as reward 2 years ago for a great year of profit and out next ambition is to take it up to the whitsundays for a few months in 2007 - another reward.

it's all about finding your own balance. buy that plasma tv - but do it with reward points.

 

[The Y-man]

.......and wear clothes from Target.

I thought the policy was to try the Op Shop first?

Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[vandalic]

great advice lizzie