Comments on: What Is Your Motivational Burrito Currency?

By: My New Motivational Currency | Well-Heeled, with a mission

My New Motivational Currency | Well-Heeled, with a mission — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:31:52 +0000

[...] it is true. My motivational currency has now switched from dining out to tango [...]

By: Susan

Susan — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:53:47 +0000

For me, it’s Venice. I decided earlier this year that in addition to saving money for investments, I’m going to put aside enough money to travel while I’m still young enough to enjoy it.

I used to give myself $xx per week for frivolous spending. Now, I put half of it aside each week for Venice. I also cash in all my coins each week, and add that to the fund. As I do, I think “This is a postcard in Venice.” or “This is a slice of pizza or a gelato in Venice.”

I do the same with any random amounts of cash that come into my life — coupons, gift certificates, rebates, etc.

I also took on a small freelance job that nets me about $50 per week for my Venice fund.

It makes saving a LOT easier!! Now, before I spend the money I ask myself, “Do I really want that Happy Meal or will I enjoy spending the money more in Venice?”

Venice almost always wins out.

By: Student hardship loan

Student hardship loan — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 12:46:47 +0000

I prefer to measure in “dollars”…. and like to let the small values add up. For example… I have sold about $10,200 worth of stuff on Ebay, and have earned about $6,000 on “cash back” credit cards. What “currency” does that convert to? “Time to retirement”… not sure of the exact conversion rate however.

By: ChrisMR

ChrisMR — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:19:37 +0000

these are great.

i love spaghetti.

i cannot earn overtime, so for me it isnt about extra hours i work, its about $x of the disposable income i have for the year being gone. you can only spend each dollar once.

By: JD

JD — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:22:38 +0000

I do the same thing as Troy.

It’s good to know you keep your old habits, Jonathan. The image that spending everything you have is the only way any civilized person lives is sold to us by marketing departments. For me, at least, freedom is much more valuable than being a well-kept slave of society.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:13:09 +0000

You realize that B with the line through it is more or less the symbol for the Thai Baht right?

By: George

George — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:18:55 +0000

What you say makes perfect sense to me. Of courese, there is no reason to explain. All one has to do is to read the book “The Millionaire Next Door” to undersand you logic. In case you don’t know the book, the same habits are used by millionaires and that is how they BECAME millionairs!

By: Christine

Christine — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:07:18 +0000

Every $20 is one less day with my roommate!

By: jotaeme

jotaeme — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:24:56 +0000

Nice article For most people (with salary of 6 figures) probably the time spent on bothering about filling a coupon is more expensive than dedicating that time to an extra hour of work. This is clearly a motivational factor, as you mentioned above, in terms of annual savings, you can figure that with that simple decision of filling a coupon you are automatically spliting what you saved into a virtual account of savings into your mind that will leave you to do a travel, change your TV, to eat X qty of nice food each month, and so on.

By: Maury

Maury — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:15:31 +0000

Money is just a claim on other people’s time.

I do think of $8 as being a lunch, and $5 as being a drink… But really, I’m just making a claim on the people’s time who manufacture and serve them to me.

Personally, I like to keep my money, because that eventually equates to time I can do whatever I want with.

By: Athanfrost

Athanfrost — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:15:01 +0000

“Motivational currency.” I really like the idea of that. It seems to resound with my own selective spending or non-spending habits.

By: Scott Lovingood

Scott Lovingood — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:29:40 +0000

The problem most people have is they don’t think in terms of cost. I think of things in terms of hours. If you make $20.00 an hour then you are trading an hour of your life. To me nothing is more valuable than the time we have since it is the most precious thing we have.

Anything that leverages our time gives us a greater chance to be wealthy (If we use that time wisely. ) Instead of time management we should teach time maximization.

By: Warren

Warren — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:48:21 +0000

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:48:45 +0000

This post makes a lot of sense except for this part: “It allowed me to enjoy niceties like not eating spaghetti three times a week.” How is that anything but heaven?

By: sparky

sparky — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:02:43 +0000

My currency is time spent working. New TV? That’s an entire work week. A new car? That’s 1/3 of my work year paying for just the car. Dinner out? That can be an entire work day.

By: H

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:13:29 +0000

It’s funny that Mimi’s currency is a pedicure. I just passed up a pedicure today because it’d have been two and a half lunches out for me. I love meeting up with girlfriends and eating lunch out. I usually end up spending more than $10 a pop but that’s how I count it.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:49:34 +0000

hah! that is awesome. I had a friend in college who used to measure time in cigarettes whenever I’d ask him when he’d be hitting up a party he’d go “oh…probably in about 3 cigs”. it was pretty funny at first, then it just got straight up annoying. he started measuring distance with it as well so 1 mile to the 7-eleven would now be 2 cigs, etc.

anyways, I think that’s a great idea. if you KNOW what you can get with the amount in question, you’ll keep motivated to keep saving/earning it!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:39:28 +0000

I like to think in terms of this currency as being “riskable.” I do enjoy using much of my extra money for playing, but I also find it a prime vehicle for speculative, high-reward trades.

Typically the gains are enormous and well worth the risk. Plus it is fun.

I believe people can become truly wealthy by aiming to hit big gains rather than avoid losses (but only with their “riskable” money).

Thoughts?

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:43:46 +0000

Before I became a full-time student without a part-time job, the “currency” in which I liked to think of savings was taught to me by a friend of mine back in middle school, who would take the reverse approach:

Whenever considering a non-essential purchase, e.g., clothes, eating out, or whatever, he would calculate the number of hours he’d have to work at his part-time retail job to earn back the money.

He’d say things like “A pretzel at the mall isn’t worth having to work an extra 1/2-hour to pay for it.”

Imagining the hours we’d have to work to pay off potential purchases really worked for both of us.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:27:00 +0000

I kind of do this, too! For instance, for a $5 drink at Happy Hour, I’ll think “Okay, that’s $5 less I can save.” I really enjoy seeing my savings go up, so it really does help me….though not all the time, because sometimes you just need a drink!!! he he

By: Al

Al — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:10:46 +0000

Yes Corey,both Jonathan and his wife each make over $100k yr. The thing that I like most about it is that he didn’t come from a wealthy family. He wasn’t handed anything in life,he worked his way up. He is also very young(30).

To me,earning 100k+ yr is a lot of money and a huge accomplishment.

Just 6% of Americans make more than $97,000 a year.

By: brian

brian — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:04:16 +0000

Plane tickets. For around half a days work of OT, I can fly pretty much anywhere in the country. The way I do it is based off my pay rate for OT (approx $72/hr) If I want a new bike or some other toy/trip, I figure how many hours of OT I need to work to pay for it, then do it. That way I treat myself for my hard work, with no hit to the baseline.

By: mimi

mimi — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:57:10 +0000

Pedicures. Approx. $20 (some places that includes the tip, some places a little more). I think if I save a thousand bucks, I can get pedicures every week for a year. I love them – but realistically I barely get there once every two months. Men should try them too (though I don’t know many that do), but it’s really great.

By: dima

dima — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:50:46 +0000

Yes! My last year in college I wanted to get my pilot license before shipping out to grad school next year. I got a job so I can pay for the lessons and it helped keep me focused by thinking about other things I spent money on in terms of flight cost. Did I really want that polo or 1/2 hour of flight time? Do I really need another pair of sneakers for running or the old ones will do if I can go fly for another hour? It worked out great – I got my license in under three months when most of the people that start flying never get their license, mostly due to $ issues.

As someone else mentioned, it really depends on your goal. If you are saving for the house, than it probably won’t help to think that you save 1/300,000 by not buying that Milky Way bar. However, the smaller the goal and/or increments of $ you need to reach it, the better it would work for you.

By: Kimmie

Kimmie — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:49:21 +0000

I know exactly what you mean! I make a salary in the low six figures and still giddily use coupons at McDonald’s, fill out sweepstakes, and buy clothes on eBay, then resell those clothes when I’m tired of them.

In the long run, it means that I actually spend very little because so much of my money is being “recycled.” On the other hand, if the economy were filled with people like me, it would probably never grow.