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The Money in You!
Discover Your Financial Personality and Live the Millionaire's Life
Chapter One
The Diva
Once upon a time, there lived a Diva . . .
Rings from Cartier, dresses by Dior, she dips into her coffer,
Always consuming quite eagerly everything they deign to offer.
But it could not last, this reign of debt, this tyranny of "More!"
Luckily she found this book—salvation is in store. . . .
Jill is a successful advertising executive. Poised and well-read, she has fabulous friends in high places, boundless ambition, and a knack for working a room. Jill navigates her day with the easy confidence of someone who knows her opinion matters.
At the end of a long day, she settled down in the backseat of the taxi taking her to her studio apartment, and mentally replayed the accomplishments of that afternoon. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to savor the memory of her well-deserved praise following a meeting with the creative department.
The next day's presentation looked very promising indeed. Jill planned to land the largest account ever for her company, and she couldn't help but feel giddy with pride as she imagined the respect and recognition the deal would bring her—not to mention a delightful bonus! Jill's success was a result of the acumen she displayed while assembling her winning team, coupled with her meticulous, yet surely indispensable, supervision. It was hard to believe that it had taken almost two years, but the probable outcome of the next day's presentation would make it all worth it.
As her taxi bumped along the busy commercialstreets, an object of exquisite beauty was illuminated against the gray of the cityscape. Jill's eyes opened wide, fixing upon an emaciated mannequin in the highly stylized window of a luxury department store. "Stop, please!" she cried, hurling some money at the confused driver. "I'll get out here!"
As Jill strode across the noisy intersection and closed in on the building, her reflection emerged in the window—appearing to wear that gorgeous designer suit. Jill gasped. Every stitch screamed success, power, and self-assurance—exactly the image she was determined to project in tomorrow's meeting.
Without hesitation, Jill sprinted into the store and straight up to the elegant department where her prize awaited. She ran her nervous fingers through the neatly arranged row of hangers. Yay! They had her size! It was perfect! Anna Wintour would bestow her blessings, Coco Chanel herself would coo. . . .
Just as Jill followed the saleslady from the dressing room to the register, a thought fleetingly crossed her mind. The suit was magnificent, envy-making—perhaps the most perfect sartorial creation she had ever beheld, but it was incredibly expensive. Last time she had hastily spent that much money, Jill had felt very guilty, almost regretful, when the credit card bill had arrived.
"But I deserve it!"
Whoops. Jill panicked; did she say that out loud? A stealthy scan of the room offered none of the baffled or haughty stares that might follow a sudden outburst in this pristine setting. "I work long and hard hours. And besides, my bonus will almost, just about, kind of cover it," she rationalized under her breath—to no one in particular. Perhaps it was to her penny-pinching mother, who would be appalled; perhaps it was to the coffee boy, whom she stiffed on a tip every morning; or, even worse, the student-loan officer she had been artfully dodging for years. Jill chose to ignore these nettlesome phantoms, thrust her card over the counter, and, with her Montblanc pen, signed her sentence for the next six years.
Will the Real Jill Please Stand Up?
Jill may be well dressed, but she's definitely not very well-heeled when it comes to her money. Like many professional women, she has discovered her earning power, but not her money power. What is the difference? Jill's perfectly generous salary demonstrates that she has paid her dues and is swiftly ascending to the apex of her career. But she remains a prisoner of her labor. She is, like most of us, accustomed to having to work for a living, but has yet to discover her money's potential to function as a self-perpetuating machine.
Jill's personality is akin to a freshly laid farm egg. Stable and strong on the outside, but crack it the wrong way, and it can be desperately fragile within. Although none of us falls exclusively under any of the financial personality types I'll be discussing in the book, studies have shown that when we let our guard down and go on automatic pilot in our dealings with money, we tend to follow behavioral patterns set during childhood.
The motivation behind Jill's extravagance rests in her feelings of entitlement. She deserved that suit to fill the void that was left by months of sacrifice, of relentless efforts to succeed without ever taking a breather. It's easy to trace the origins of this line of thinking. Consider the slogans used by successful advertisers: "You deserve a break today . . ." or "It costs a little more, but I'm worth it!"
Whether for chocolate or hair color, a designer handbag or a Caribbean cruise, millions of dollars are spent on research, testing, and promotion by consumer product marketers to attract the kind of emotional spenders who may just be in need of a good night's sleep a great deal more than a quick-fix purchase, which will only temporarily justify their previous deprivation.
The Now
Once money reaches an emotional spender's hands, it's gone, so the first step toward building a nest egg should be to fund it before she receives it. Payroll deduction programs, 401(k) retirement savings, and automatic deposits were invented for the Diva.
Since she rarely does things without a purpose, the best way to motivate her to save is by first establishing an ambition for each account. A lavish vacation, a down payment for a new car, or a fancy stereo system can be motivating enough to set this personality type in motion. It's much more exciting to save when you know what you're saving for. . . .
The Money in You!
Discover Your Financial Personality and Live the Millionaire's Life. Copyright © by Julie Stav. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
