Perception vs reality

I was thinking last night how perception and reality are two very different things.

Here is a typical scenario that I was thinking about

Average Australian couple in their late 20's decide to pack up and become expats overseas for 5 years. They go to Singapore or Hong Kong or Dubai with the idea to save some money for house and to also pump up the resume.

This happens in the thousands every year. There are literally hundreds of thousand of aussies who are doing or have done this very thing. And guess what - over the last 10 years if you had you would have, in many cases, gone backwards financially, especially if you had not already invested in property.

Situation 2. NOW! AUD very strong against most currencies - huge appreciation recently. Property market highest in the world. Yet very few are selling up and going overseas for 5 years to take advantage of this amazing change in circumstances. If you were a spread trader in the financial markets you would be having a field day. The smart people should be considering selling here, buiying there, living better than an expat, getting overseas experience and then coming home!

People will talk about not wanting to leave their families under this situation -yet as an expat in a more traditional sense its seen as a smart idea!

Hundreds of thousand do one method and lose money, and virtually no one is doing the other with amazing prospects!

Perception is a funny thing!

Cheers
Aussie
 
Yep and I hate that term. It makes people think that by putting on a tie and a shirt that they are respectable! In my world they are two different things - hehe...

(yes I hate wearing suits!)
 
Hiya Prop

Its not a marketing term at all, its reality, and I believe as a sales person you ignore this fact at your peril.

One of the things I got very early on from one of MLM mentors was.

" We should not judge a book by its cover, but people do all the time, so get over it and use that knowledge to your advantage"

In sales and service industries with a bit of emotion attached to them, unless the clients perception and your reality meet, you are fried.

ta
rolf
 
Rolf - I gotta say I dont like that type of 'conventional wisdom'. In sales as you say it could be gospel but I still doubt its long term reliablity. I prefer situations where people find out more about you slowly and with depth rather than the immediate, shiny side of things.

Maybe thats whats wrong with lots of the world - the need for immediate results, immediate action etc etc...

I believe that for real and legitimate longevity and integrity that their is often a huge difference between intitial perception and reality.

btw most of my clients are long termers and very profitable. I leave the daily grind of being nice to lots of people to others!

Cheers
Aussie
 
= I prefer situations where people find out more about you slowly and with depth rather than the immediate, shiny side of things

Aussie , me too...........but it dont work that way for me in my world.

Our family has a few businesses, from traditional type sales agencies, service businesses, and mlm style.

The more people dig around, the better the things become. but peoples initial perceptions and "programming" means 9 out of 10 wont get past first base.

Its a classic case of perception leading one astray.

It has always confused me when someone looks at a strategy, business or concept, and the first thing we do is we do a survey of the people we know. Do you think this would work for me .............rather than chasing down those that have been succesful at what we are looking to do and asking their opinion.

This is the classic perception over reality model. Rather than seek out the opnions of those that have made it work, we tend to focus on those that have failed..........with a predictable outcome

t
ta
rolf
 
This is an interesting concept and very true. I was talking with my wife about this very thing not long ago.

One eg: The fact that people love a flash car and a McMansion etc to show off to other people. No one really cares (or wants to dig a little deeper) that the person is hocked to the eye balls for them. Most people are impressed that they 'own this stuff' It's classic perception over reality.

Another eg is how people prefer to listen to a slightly less true version of events if its a little less confronting rather than being faced with the (honest) ghastly truth.

I come across this all the time as i'm a bit of a forward person who pretty much only deals in fact and truth. I cant stand delusion or ignoring the facts to make one feel better.

People don't really like it and turn off when you put the reality of a situation in front of them. Its like people prefer things sugar coated even if its not 100% true. They only want to look at the surface, not the substance or reality.

I find this amusing and its very, very common.

Do other people come across this much or is it just my mindset?
 
People will talk about not wanting to leave their families under this situation -yet as an expat in a more traditional sense its seen as a smart idea!

Perception is a funny thing!

In regard to the expat situation, there are several good reasons why people are returning to Australia right now. Job markets in the major financial centres have been decimated in the past 12-18 months which has seen many people returning to their homelands. Foreign countries are less likely to hire expats when they can fill the roles with local talent (many who have now had years of overseas experience). I believe that Australia cut back it's 457 intake to ensure the local job market stood up ok during the crisis.

Another factor is risk - eg: SGD and HKD are 30% lower relative to AUD than they were at the beginning of the year (due of course to AUD appreciation). Then there is the risk of being laid off as an expat, etc. I know several people laid off in the US who were on H1B visa's and had something like 10 days to leave the country.
 
Hi Poor developer

I think you will find that things have changed dramatically over the last 2 months. Wall St back in swing and expats less nervous. I have been there myself, I hire expats and 2 family members are expats currently.

You are right about the exchange rates. They down 10-20 percent against the AUD. The USD is down much more though.

Against the USD though most of these currencies are winning!

Evand - I agree. It as a huge advantage being someone who can decipher the difference between this type of perception and reality. Its like going against the herd - not being a lemming etc etc. Good for biz i say!
 
great thinking.

i liek the thinking also of buying US RE at parity (or above).

that way, with the eventual fall of the AUD dollar, you get a POSITIVE return on your investment.
 
I was thinking last night how perception and reality are two very different things.

Here is a typical scenario that I was thinking about

Average Australian couple in their late 20's decide to pack up and become expats overseas for 5 years. They go to Singapore or Hong Kong or Dubai with the idea to save some money for house and to also pump up the resume.

This happens in the thousands every year. There are literally hundreds of thousand of aussies who are doing or have done this very thing. And guess what - over the last 10 years if you had you would have, in many cases, gone backwards financially, especially if you had not already invested in property.

Situation 2. NOW! AUD very strong against most currencies - huge appreciation recently. Property market highest in the world. Yet very few are selling up and going overseas for 5 years to take advantage of this amazing change in circumstances. If you were a spread trader in the financial markets you would be having a field day. The smart people should be considering selling here, buiying there, living better than an expat, getting overseas experience and then coming home!

People will talk about not wanting to leave their families under this situation -yet as an expat in a more traditional sense its seen as a smart idea!

Hundreds of thousand do one method and lose money, and virtually no one is doing the other with amazing prospects!

Perception is a funny thing!

Cheers
Aussie

We moved to the USA for 3 years. 2005-08.

The dollar was at 62c when we arrived, and steadily increased up to just under 90c when we returned.

For us it was a financial success; we rented out our PPoR, and due to my wife's work contract, we received free rent, and we were able to send back just under 50% of her nett wage to Aus, which was rewarded with the exhange rates of the time.

And, I didn't work in that time; just looked after the young son.

We also lived on a very strict budget to be able to do it, and at the end of the 3 years we were a good deal in front financially than had we stayed in Aus, and both working full time in our then jobs. Go figure.

The opportunity cost I guess was that we didn't invest in that 3 years, but we had topped up our cup just before leaving Aus with the next PPoR block, so that suited us.

To do it now? probably no benefit due to the dollar, but if you could sell all you have here and buy some very cheap real estate there, then maybe.

The problem is; selling costs here, buying costs there, and it's VERY hard to get finance in the USA until you have a decent credit score - which would take about a year of being in debt to get.

I guess you could do vendor finance deals there - they call it "seller carry-back" or something like that.

Other Countries...don't know what they allow.
 
Back
Top