economics – Citizens Of Culture

How Not Talking About Money Is Keeping Us All Broke

C2O Editor Business/Finance economics, maceo paisley, money 0

Do you know how much money your friends make as a salary? I don’t mean acquaintances, but close friends that you talk to about everything. I am talking about the people you would call if your mother got sick or if you need some emotional or personal advice. Would you ask them for advice if you had financial trouble, or before you got a new credit card? Do your parents know how much your salary is? The answer is often ‘”No.” There seems to be some irony to how we address private matters of sex, relationship, and other serious life choices with our close friends but rarely, if ever, talk about money and topics like lending for bad credit. You should check out what is the FICA definition.

It’s not because we have it all figured out, it’s not because we are making all the money we need, and it’s not because we don’t know people that can offer us good advice. In most cases it is because we are maintaining this veil of secrecy about how well we are all doing financially. We all see the cars that our friends have, and we see their homes, we all think we have a general sense of how a person is doing based on the status symbols we see. These things are not real indicators of income, wealth or financial health, as there are many people that even have benefits and still need help to keep their finances healthy, but luckily there are services that offer same day loans even for people on benefits so they can get the financial boost they need to get along well. You can also visit a helpful place like sunnyloansuk.co.uk/same-day-loans-direct-lender/ for some other best loan options.

Some of us are living paycheck to paycheck, with past due bills, and horrible credit. There are others of us that have Roth IRA accounts, bonds, savings plans, and a credit score that is high enough to be a decent batting average. This really has less to do with income but more to do with how we are spending our money. When we have conversations about careers and what parts of the city to live in, that conversation is always underlying and we need not ignore it.

As we encourage each other to live more creative, fulfilling, and expressive lives it is also important to encourage sustainable financial decisions, check out payslip versus pay stub. There is a distinct advantage some of us have that is not being shared within the creative community. We tend to be less focused on the economics of life, but ignoring the financial systems at play doesn’t make them any less real. To be invested in maintaining healthy personal finances does not make you greedy. The more we avoid candid conversations about money the more we allow these financial systems to continue operating without our input. The nickels and dimes add up, so do all those dinners, and movies but it is not something we talk about. Consumer culture is not something we need to participate in to have meaningful relationships or rich experiences. Our individual choices impact our social group, community, and creative economy.

We talk about impacting the education system, and we talk about being free to express ourselves. Let’s also talk about how to make our money work for us. Let’s talk about interest rates, and tax returns, and spending less.As Gen-Y moves into the age of home owner ship and more of us own our own business these conversations become more relevant but there is no reason why they haven’t always been. Not everyone has family to reach out to, and even those that do should be informed about what their money is doing.

For some of us, that big break is on the way, the big promotion is imminent no that it really matters. There are tons of high paid celebrities that fall into money trouble because of the same things we all do, but on a larger scale. I am not saying that everyone you meet needs to know what’s in your wallet, but we can do better than we are doing. It can only serve us to be more open about our financial health. We should be aiming to increase our collective knowledge broadly. Without it, the rich keep getting richer and we just keep running the rat race.

Book Club: Nudge

C2O Editor Book Club, Business/Finance Cass R. Sustein, choice, economics, money, nudge, Richard H. Thaler, wealth 2

As Citizens Of Culture investigates our cultural perspective on Money: Personal Finance, Choice, and the Creative Economy we look to also uncover some information about how we make decisions in our environment and what amount of input we prefer from outside sources.

If you have ever asked a waiter at a restaurant “What’s good here?” You have given them the opportunity to nudge you in the direction, you would most prefer based on their knowledge of the restaurant. The wait staff, is familiar with the menu and what is most popular, this concept is one of the core principles within nudge.

This section in the Introduction was of particular interest:

Carolyn is what we will be calling a choice architect. A choice architect has the responsibility for organizing the context in which people make decisions. Although Carolyn is a figment of our imagination, many real people turn out to be choice architects, most without realizing it. If you design the ballot voters use to choose candidates, you are a choice architect. If you are a doctor and must describe the alternative treatments available to a patient, you are a choice architect. If you design the form that new employees fill out to enroll in the company health care plan, you are a choice architect. If you are a parent, describing possible educational options to your son or daughter, you are a choice architect. If you are a salesperson, you are a choice architect (but you already knew that).

….. As we shall see, small and apparently insignificant details can have major impact on people’s behavior. A good rue of thumb is to assume that “everything matters.” In many cases, the power of these small details come from focusing the attention of users in a particular direction. A wonderful example of this principle come from, of all place, the men’s room at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. There the authorities have etched the image of a black housefly into each urinal. It seems that men usually do not pay much attention to where they aim, which can create a bit of a mess, but if they see a target, attention and therefore accuracy are increased. According to the man who came up with the idea, it works wonders. “It improves the aim,” says Aad Kieboom. “If a man sees a fly, he aims at it.” Kieboom, an economist, directs Schiphol’s building expansion. His staff conducted fly-in urinal trials and found that etchings reduce spillage by 80 percent.

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The ideas presented in this book will be of value to any of us that are choice architects. Be it employers, designers, parents, or marketing professionals but the greater context of this book will be our own personal lives. Availing us a new opportunity to see how we manage our own choices, in wealth, health, and life to and nudge ourselves in better directions.

We invite you to read along.

As usual, if this is your first foray into the Book Club the first book is on us, just fill out the form below and sign up for the forum and your paperback or ebook will arrive in a few days (continental US).

Enjoi.

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