Your finances and your time perspective are linked
February 18, 2009 by Vauna Beauvais
Time perspective means whether you think a long way into the future or a short way into the future. It is also, the amount of time that you take into consideration when planning your day-to-day activities and when making important decisions in your life.
A study was done during the 50’s and 60’s at Harvard University, to find out the reasons for upward social mobility. The researchers were looking for factors that would predict whether or not an individual was going to move upward and be wealthier.
People with long time-perspectives move up economically.
- When you spend weeks, months, years developing your skills and abilities in order to be successful, you have a long time-perspective.
- When you take longer to make decisions, delay gratification, and do not act on impulse then you have a long time-perspective.
- In the extreme, a person with a long time-perspective is thinking and planning 20 or 25 years ahead (which is more than most people).
People with short time-perspectives do not move up over time.
- They don’t have the ability to delay gratification.
- They respond to the impulse to satisfy their desire for fun or pleasure in the short term.
- In the extreme they do not even think about tomorrow - they could have a irresistible urge to spend every penny that they earn, or can borrow, almost immediately.
Elongate your approach to time
When you develop a long time-perspective you develop the ability to delay gratification. You can save some of your money instead of spending it all. You can consider investments. You can resist impulse purchases.
The combination of a long time-perspective and an ability to delay gratification gives you an advantage regarding becoming financially independent.
Exercise:
How do you want your finances to be in 5 years time?
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How do you want your finances to be in 10 years time?
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How do you want your finances to be in 15 years time?
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How do you want your finances to be in 20 years time?
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What is one thing that needs to happen for this to become a reality?
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What can you do to take you into doing that one thing that you need to do to make it a reality?
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What is one thing that you can do this week that will move you towards the thing that needs to happen for your financial desires to be realised?
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