The Mind Game of Money

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Money really is a mind game.

A University of Maryland study examined the “denomination effect”.

The study found that if you carry around big bills ($50s and $100s) you’ll spend them slower than smaller bills.

Would you break a $50 or $100 to buy a pack of gum or a cup of coffee? Even if you would, my guess is you’d think about it just a bit longer than if you had to break a $5 or $10. It might even “hurt” you to break a big bill.

And here is the most interesting part of the study: People who break big bills ultimately end up spending that money faster than people who started out spending smaller bills.

Setpoint.

Merriam-Webster defines setpoint as: “the level or point at which a variable physiological state (as body temperature or weight) tends to stabilize.”

I would argue that there is a big psychological aspect to “setpoint” as well.

That 5’5” guy who has been 250lbs for many years will probably find a lot of success when he first gets serious about diet and exercise.

At some point though, his brain will point out to him that he USED to be 250lbs. “That one extra box of donuts won’t matter….it’ll be a nice reward for losing so much weight”

And before he knows it, his weight is creeping back up to where he was “comfortable”.

The same can be said for money and debt.

According to a Sports Illustrated story , 78% of former NFL players are bankrupt or under financial stress within two years of retirement, and 60 percent of former NBA players are broke within five years of retirement.

Many lottery winners are in a similar position just a few years after their big win.

Why?

Books have been written on the subject but part of the answer comes down to their psychological “setpoint” about money.

Years and years of carrying the same credit card debt can make someone very comfortable with a certain amount.

It’s the most common thing I hear from students. “I invested in “How To Own Your Paycheck Again!” and I was doing so well…”

You’ve chipped away at your debt and 40% is now gone. You’re justifiably proud of yourself. That big screen TV would only add 10% to your debt and your deserve a reward.

Since that 10% would keep you under your original debt “setpoint” you go for it. And before you know it, your debt has crept up back to your comfort level.

So how can you develop a new setpoint?

Prepare for challenges.

You’ve lived with yourself for awhile now. Where do you usually stumble?

Take a small percentage of the amount you were putting toward paying off your debt and start a couple savings accounts. One for long-term saving and one for that “reward” you so justifiably deserve….whatever that may be.

Think about the long-term repercussions of NOT lowering your debt setpoint. You can see them all around you these days. Debt-free people are weathering these financial times much better than the deeply in debt.

My friend Leo Quinn has written a practical guide tohelp you reset your setpoint or your mindset. You can find it on his site here www.leoquinn.com

You are paying those inflated bank bonuses

In this environment where the federal governments are bailing out the big Wall St banks, did you think that the logical thing is to cut any bonuses to be paid this year. The bankers should be thankful that they even have a monthly pay check.

They are still in their job as the government decided to spend the taxpayers' money in bailing out the big banks. In theory, this is a sound decision as it creates stability in the banking world and the world financial markets are relatively stable. On the other hand, there should have been caveats to how this money is applied once injected to the these sickly institutions.

Last week, Morgan Stanley was saved by the taxpayers with help from the Mitsubishi UFJ financial group Inc when $10bn was pumped into the bank. Morgan's bonus owed to employees for this year is $10.7bn which works out at twice its pretax earnings. You can read more about this story on Bloomberg.

At the end of the day, is this bailout hurting or helping the taxpayers? Are the governments working for the good of the little people? Where are their priorities?

Small changes at home to save you money

I just read a very useful post with some tips on how to save money. This might be of some use. Read about saving money tips here.

Are you holding a lemon?

It seems there is about £20bn invested in popular funds that have been seriously underperforming. These funds have produced below average returns against it peers in the smae fund sectors for the last consecutive 3 years.

Please check the list to see if you are one of the investors in these funds and look around for a better performing fund to switch to. Keeping your investments in these funds is tantamount to throwing your money down the drain. In the long run, it will not appreciate and you might even find your capital eroded by the low returns and the effects of inflation.

Chelsea Financial Services has identified more than 100 unit trusts and open ended investment companies that are serial failures of the which the largest 5 with over £9bn invested in them are:

• Halifax UK Growth
• Scottish Widows Corporate Bond
• Liontrust First Income
• Axa Equity Income
• Jupiter Distribution

A full list of these underperforming funds can be found at www.chelseafs.co.uk/relegationdivert

If you are holding any of these, you might like to switch to a better performing fund within and ISA supermarket so that you don't pay the expensive transactions costs. If you hold these funds outside of an ISA and don't want to invest in funds for a while, a really good alternative is to select one or a few ETF. These all have very low entry costs and are normally based on an index. This way you will get market performance and won't have to pay any management fees.

Read more on these topics on the www.Investment-Training.com website.

No charge blogging course

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Watch this amazing film: The Secret

If you want to make some big changes in your life, watch this inspiring film. It will make you think about how you use your thoughts.

Knowing this secret and applying it to your life will create all the abundance that you want in your life.  So watch the film, learn it and use it.

So what is "the secret"? It is the Law of Attraction.... you have to watch the film to understand what it means. Enjoy:

Internet Business: Use social networks to promote

If you have a service or product to promote, you must use all the new channels to promote your business. Some of these new social networks like YouTube, MySpace and Flickr have millions of members. How else can you get to a list as big as this to market to?

I have not had much time to sign up to and learn about marketing to these networks so I was looking around for some help on the net and I came across this book. It has simplified this process for me so much and saved me so much time. The book teaches you step by step how to get started on MySpace and it has helpfully listed all the groups that you can sign up to, to place your ads, a great shortcut. You can have a look at the book on How to Market to Myspace here.

I have just taken steps to speed up achieving my financial goals

I recently took a decision to make some massive action and really focus on resetting and achieving some real financial goals, as I’m fed up with not having all the choices I want in life. Well I’ve just found this mastermind group that I think will really make a difference. I’ve joined as I think this will really focus me on achievement and I thought you may be interested too. It teaches you investment techniques on property, which is not my area of expertise. It is however a great compliment to what I teach in the Take Control of Your Finances Course. If you are or just want to see just how mad I’ve become then have a look at this to turbo charge your financial education.

Success Coaching

In order to achieve your goals, it helps to have a coach. I came across this guy who is a highly regarded Success Coach, Dave Navarro. Learn more about him and how you can reach your goals with success coaching here.

Are hedge funds affecting market information

There have been recent events which are prompting the market to question whether the activities of hedge funds are changing the flow of information to the market.

It is not secret that hedge fund now account for at least 50% of the trades on both the New York and London markets. Hedge funds can participate in companies by equity or debt and now increasing in the form of loans. They have been become major players in the opague debt market. This makes them privy to market moving inside information. This is raising some concern, especially from banks who are the traditional lenders and have separated this business from other parts of the bank to prevent sharing of insider information.

This has prompted trade association for lenders to draw up new guidelines on how confidential and material non public information is used. In hedge funds, it is difficult to have chinese walls as these firms are usually smaller and the same person who makes a decision on the loan is also the equity trader.

To deal with this issue, some of the larger hedge funds have however implemented information barriers. Some funds have imposed trading restrictions if they receive non public information and others have opted to receive only public information.

This issue of managing information is a serious one and it is very difficult to find the right answers although steps are being taken in the right direction.

Read more investment articles onInvestment Training.

Baby Boomers have to sell homes for retirement?

In a new study today in the UK, it found that 46% retirees of the baby boomer generation will be forced to sell their homes if they had to find money for care fees. A lot of people believe that the basic state pension, which is currently £84.25 a week will cover the cost of care. The average weekly cost of residential care is closer to £400 a week which leaves a massive funding gap or nearly £16,500 a year.

A lot of adults in this country are led by a false sense of security believing that one day, should they need care, it will be funded by the state out of taxpayer's money. The reality cannot be more different.

To continue reading about Baby Boomers have to sell homes for retirement.

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Simple ways to get rid of debt

Here are some really easy usable ideas to pay off your debt quickly without changing your current lifestyle.

A lot of people who are in debt want to pay this off but don't spend much time to find out how to do this. Here are some tips on how you can start taking steps to eliminating debt. Once you know the steps to take, the process is simple and you can start taking control of your money and debt situation.

Read the article here.

There are more articles on personal finance and investing on www.Investment-training.com.

Small Cap Investing Free Seminar

Small Cap stocks are a great addition to a growth portfolio. Here is an opportunity to learn more about investing in small cap stocks at a free seminar. To register, visit their website http://www.hemscott.com/library/seminars.do

Read articles on investing here.

Small Cap Investing Free Seminar

Small Cap stocks are a great addition to a growth portfolio. Here is an opportunity to learn more about investing in small cap stocks at a free seminar. To register, visit their website http://www.hemscott.com/library/seminars.do

Read articles on investing here.

An introduction to Stock Market Investing

I first got interested in stock market investing when I was twelve years old. The first two stocks I bought were Union Oil of California and Sears Roebuck department stores. These were the only companies that I knew well since that is where my family bought our gasoline and shopped for almost everything else.


Read more here.

You can get out of debt fast!

We read a lot about the rising levels of personal debt in this country and a lot of people are finding it a real challenge to manage and minimising the debt that they have.

Debt is a really difficult subject to talk about and a lot of people take the "ostrich in the sand" approach to dealing with debt. If you take a bit of courage and face the issues of debt and it will really help change your relationship with your finances, the quality of your life and help you take some steps to manage your personal debt.

Read the rest of this article on managing our debt here.

Free Eye Test - Book now !

Boots is running a promotion offering free eye test at the Boots Opticians, you have to call them on 0845 120 4343. You have to be quick as this offer expires soon. You can find the nearest optician to you on their website: www.bootsopticians.co.uk

Keep watching this space or bookmark the blog and the website, I will be posting some timely discounts and other money saving ideas.

A must if you want to make information products

Another passive income idea - if you are learning about internet marketing and want to make your own information product to sell, don't miss this from two extremely succesful internet gurus.

Here's a quick link you’ll probably want to use right now...

http://tinyurl.com/r7y9f

What would you do if you could sit in a room with 2 of the best product creation experts on the internet? And, a special guest who did one of those million dollar launches? What if you could learn the trade secrets that they use to make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year? What if I told you the names of these experts were Gary Ambrose and Keith Wellman and you could get this information for only 5 cents? Would you get a little excited? Well... It's all true in the brand new, just launched Nickel Mania X... http://tinyurl.com/r7y9f

The only thing is... the price goes up with every sale, and people are moving FAST on this one. http://tinyurl.com/r7y9f

Well? I know one thing... I wouldn't be sitting here pondering "what if" questions anymore if I just found out all of that! I would be securing my extremely low price right now.

Here's that link again: http://tinyurl.com/r7y9f

Investment For Beginners - Course Dates

The next dates for the "Take Control of Your Finances" courses on Personal Finance and How to Invest in the Stock Market will be on 16th and 17th September 2006 at a Central London hotel.

These courses are for people who have decided that the time is right to start thinking about making your money work for you. The courses will teach you about how to get started with investing in the stock market, with lots of interactive worksheets and simple to follow guides.

Don't procrastinate, this is for your happy retirement, and retire young too if you make the right plans. Book your place now - all the details about the investment courses are here.

Have you started saving for your retirement?

Are you a smart spender? So many of us tend to purchase things like there's no tomorrow. This is certainly not a prudent plan if you consider the long road of life. The reality of the matter is that tomorrow you may need that extra capital. Not to mention retirement. Have you carefully thought out your plan for the golden years?

Read more about saving for your retirement.