Time is money – recent research by Philip Zimbardo and magnifymoney.com shows your time perspective determines how you spend or save money, with some surprising results.
Your time perspective predicts your attitude to risk-taking and planning, so when it comes to your finances, it’s important to know whether you’re mainly Past, Present or Future orientated.
It turns out people who think about the Future – and who are better at planning, might be buying too much insurance. And whilst they understand the maths and are more financially literate, that doesn’t necessarily equate to healthy finances.
Conversely, people who live in the past, especially Past Negatives base their financial decisions on memories (and bad memories, at that) , not predictions. That means they take less risks and are more prudent. They might miss out on the boom times, but they’ll still be there when everyone else is bust.
It’s the people who like to live in the Present that I most feel sorry for. The credit card companies love their impulsiveness and the way they like to indulge themselves and their friends. But they’re heading for a life of debt and poverty if they don’t re-balance their lives, as well as their finances.
So Benjamin Franklin was right, time is money. And with all three of these profiles, the way that you’re hard-wired determines your attitude to saving and spending your hard-earned cash. Unless you do a spot of rewiring, your choices and strategies are going to be limited, aren’t they?
So how do you rewire your attitudes?
Step 1 is to find out where you are. You can do that by completing a Time Intelligence Report. Click this link to find out more.
Step 2 is to start getting a bit more of what’s missing in your life and re-balance. If you’re stuck in the past, or the future, bring yourself up to date by allowing more pleasure into your life, here and now. Stop and smell the roses. Pick a few. Give them to someone you care about. If you’re too present, drag out an old photo album and trigger some good memories, get nostalgic.
Step 3 is to repeat Step 2 until you’re equally good at being in the past, the present or the future, when you want and when the time is right.
You might even save yourself some money.