Money on the Mind: Social and Psychological Ramifications

I came across an interesting article on MSN Money last night titled Does money make you mean? which described a study conducted on a group of subjects who had been preconditioned to have money on their minds when various experiments were conducted. The study found that those with money on their minds tended to be more indifferent and less helpful toward others, preferring to do things on their own and waiting longer to ask for help when help was needed.

The Study

The “money primed” group was preconditioned by doing puzzles with money-related words, reading essays containing references to money, being shown posters of money and given play money and tokens to handle. This group was then combined with the control group (not preconditioned to think about money) in several staged situations. In one test, the group was assigned to complete a puzzle and told that help was available if asked for. Money-minded subjects waited longer to ask for help than the control subjects did. In another situation, a passer-by “accidentally” spilled a box of pencils on the floor and the test subjects were asked to help; those who had been “money primed” picked up fewer pencils. When asked to donate to a university student fund, “money primed” subjects gave less.

The researchers concluded that the money-minded subjects weren’t consciously being rude or selfish, but were simply indifferent, as if they didn’t know how to help out or couldn’t see themselves as having a role in someone else’s life.

This Sounds A Lot Like Me

When I read this, my first thought was that this sounded a lot like Madoline and me. Ever since moving to California and needing to live frugally, we have become very independent and tried to be as self-sufficient as possible. When something in our house breaks, we always try to fix it ourselves. When we find that we can’t do it on our own, we usually procrastinate a while before finally calling someone in to fix it. This is, of course, due to the fact that we are money-conscious and try to save whenever we possibly can. While we do not dislike being around other people, we also don’t actively seek to get involved socially.

At this time in our lives, most or all of our behavior is influenced by money. We do not have close family or friends whom we could go to for help if we needed it (because we have moved so much, we have lost touch with childhood friends and most of our classmates now live all over the world and have their own families). Because we don’t feel as if we can rely on people, money is the only thing that can guarantee our health and security.

Money Can Buy Happiness

My second thought after reading about this study was that this is natural survivalist behavior. In this day and age, one simply cannot survive without money. True, money can’t buy “Happiness” bottled and ready to go. But, money buys food, pays the mortgage and doctor’s bills. Money makes sure that our pets, who are our family, are well fed and taken care of. Money is what will keep us healthy and comfortable throughout our lives. And health and comfort play a big part in one’s happiness.

So, at this time, I’m afraid we are just as the research finds - indifferent and unhelpful (with the exception of this blog, hopefully) - not out of hate for others, but out of necessity to ensure our own future survival. As many others do, we dream of one day being financially free. We hope to one day be able to give to causes we believe in and even start charitable organizations of our own. But in order to be able to help others, we have to be able to help ourselves first.

Recommended reading: Does money make you mean?

When our cousin went home last month after her 3-month visit, I thought I’d be able to spend more time working on this blog and post more often, but I guess plans are made to be broken. If it’s not one thing, it’s another - all three of our dogs catching cold, changing webhosting plans and 2 out of 3 of our websites breaking, which I’m still working on, etc. But anyways, c’est la vie. So on with the roundup.

PF Bloggers Network

• I really enjoyed Ashley’s Living Like Kings at Wide Open Wallet. Nothing like a little perspective to keep our attitudes in check.
• JB from Get Rich or Die Trying shares their child’s allowance system
• Kristy from Master Your Card warns that Card Issuers May Know You Better than You Think
• Living Almost Large gives us 7 Ways to Stay Poor
• Kevin at No Debt Plan shares a great guide on Protecting Yourself: 5 Easy Steps to a Complete Home Inventory

Elsewhere in the Personal Finance Blogosphere

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Yes, I know I’m a little late in the game. Having seen references to Twitter all over the web in recent months, I finally decided to check it out and signed up this past Sunday. Twitter is a great, easy and fun way to interact with people - specifically for me, personal finance bloggers and blog readers.

What is Twitter

Basically, Twitter is a social networking website, but much simpler than Facebook or MySpace. You simply log-in to your account and type in your 140 character (or less) update to tell your friends and family what you are up to, what’s going on in your life, what you are thinking/doing/reading/watching/etc.

You begin by “following” other people - friends, family, classmates, etc. - subscribing to their updates. You interact by typing updates of yourself, and reading and replying to your friends’ updates. Eventually people will start following you. (Read to the end for a list of useful Twitter Tools and Tips.)

How Twitter Relates to Our Fourpence Worth

There is a great network of personal finance bloggers on Twitter. By following them, I can:

• Get to know my fellow personal finance and frugal living bloggers
• Know when new blog posts are published
• Discover new blogs
• Keep up with what other personal finance bloggers are writing about
• Keep abreast of personal finance blogosphere happenings - blog carnivals, group writing projects, blog networks, etc.
• Find interesting things to share with my readers [you]

Follow Me on Twitter!

I’d like to invite you to follow me on Twitter. It’s an easy way for me to get to know you, my readers, find out what’s on your mind, and hopefully be able to make this blog more useful to you by writing about topics that interest you.

My Twitter Page:
http://twitter.com/PenelopePince

Twitter Tools and Tips

Since I”m new at Twittering and these following resources have been useful to me, if you’re new - or even if you’re not new - maybe they’ll be useful to you too.

For Personal Finance Bloggers and Blog Readers

• A list of 118 Twitter Users Who Blog About Money (plus more under Comments)

Graphics

• Cute “Follow me on Twitter” graphics for your site, email signature, online profiles, etc.
• More cute Twitter Graphics and Icons (like the one above)

• Follow me on Twitter badges / logos / buttons (very artsy graphics)

For Bloggers

• Twitterfeed tells your followers about new blog posts using your RSS feed (requires OpenID)
• How to Use Twitter - Tips for Bloggers
• 9 Benefits of Twitter for Bloggers
• 7 Ways to Use Twitter to Promote Your Blog and Build Traffic
  
• The networking benefits of using Twitter
• 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners
• 7 Ways to Use Microblogging Services for Traffic and Brand Exposure

URL Shorteners

Because each Twitter update is limited to 140 characters, you’ll want to use an URL shortener to save space.

• Tweeter Burner ties into your account and allows you to track how the links you share are doing (how many clicks)
• TinyURL seems to be the most commonly used URL shortener

More Twitter Tools & Apps

• Official Twitter Application Downloads Site
  
• Twitter Apps (Official Twitter Blog)
• Twitter Forge - Twittown
• Twitter Tool Box: 60+ Twitter Tools
• Twittermania: 140+ More Twitter Tools!

• Top 21 Twitter Tools and Help Websites

• Twitter Tools 2nd Edition

• Twitter Fan Wiki Apps
• Firefox add-ons for Twitter

Cool Stuff

• Twittervision - Shows you tweets being sent all over the world in real-time (ok, with a slight delay - less than a minute). I like the 3-D globe one that spins. It’s really fun to read all these tweets being sent all over the world in various languages.

Interesting Stuff

• Twitter as News-Wire

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We would like to thank the following Blog Carnivals for featuring our posts.

(This list will be updated to include future inclusions for the month of July 2008.)

Descending chronologically by inclusion date

• July 30, 2008
  Money Hacks Carnival #23 — It’s Gotta Be The Shoes!
  Article: How to Save Gas and Time With Google Maps
• July 28, 2008
  Carnival of Debt Reduction 150: College Tuition Bills
  Article: Resisting the urge to splurge
• July 28, 2008
  Carnival of Personal Finance #163 - “Quotable Quotes”
  Article: How to Save Gas and Time with Google Maps
• July 21, 2008
  The 162nd Carnival of Personal Finance: Baseball edition
  Article: California Fires: Should We Have to Pay for the Choices of Others?
• July 15, 2008
  Festival of Frugality 134
  Article: Booking Flights Early Could End Up Costing More
• July 10, 2008
  Finance Fiesta: No Debt Plan Edition
  Article: Monopoly Game Expansion #4: Personal Credit Card Account
• July 7, 2008
  Festival of Frugality: Bare Necessities Edition
  Article: Economical Pet and Child Safe Ways to Repel and Kill Ants, Spiders and Other Insects
• July 2, 2008
  Money Hacks Carnival #19: The Independence Edition (Editor’s Pick - double thanks!)
  Article: Monopoly Game Expansion #3: Certificate of Deposit

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Some of you may have noticed references to the Wall Street Journal in a few of my recent posts. This is because I began receiving a print subscription of the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago - for free. I am a member of the e-Rewards program, which offers rewards currency in exchange for completing market research surveys.

I have joined many survey programs before, but this is the only program that I have found to be reliable. With consumer surveys for market research, there is often a pre-screening survey that you have to fill out to see if you qualify. Some of these pre-qualification surveys take about 10 minutes to complete, after which you find that you are not eligible. With e-Rewards, they give you a small reward - $0.50 in rewards currency - even if you don’t qualify. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. And it adds up fast.

e-Rewards currency can be redeemed for a number of rewards such as magazine subscriptions (subjects range from fashion, to fitness, to business, etc.), Blockbuster video rental coupons, Borders Bucks, ariline miles, hotel points, coupons for dining and luxury merchandise stores, and more. Click here to see a full list of rewards.

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Some people—especially those related to us—will surely ask us why we chose to adopt this little orphan when we already had two dogs to care for and our income has suffered noticeably in the current economy. We had actually discussed frequently over the past three years the possibility of adopting a small dog as a model for our pet costuming business.


Border Collies have long been our preferred pets and while Ludwig and Wolfgang are great models, using such large dogs to test new patterns and designs wasted a lot of time and materials, especially if we had to correct the patterns and sew them more than once. But we were worried that adding a third dog would disrupt the equilibrium of our family, that there might be personality conflicts and jealousy. That’s not to mention the additional burden on our time and finances such a change would bring.

A few months ago, we put a link on our blog for Dogs in Danger, a website featuring shelter dogs who are due to be euthanized if they do not find a home very soon. We had hoped placing the link would result in some adoptions of needy dogs. Well . . . . good news! It worked! Although we didn’t end up with one of the dogs on this website (the suitable ones being too far away), looking at all the pictures and descriptions of poor homeless dogs made us finally decide to adopt. After all, an adoption would benefit all parties. It would provide a home and family for the dog while making our business more efficient and hopefully more lucrative.

Another reason for adopting at this time is that foreclosures are causing many owners to give up their pets. By taking a dog out of a shelter, we could make room for another, reducing the euthanasia statistics by one. When the digit 1 represents a life, it’s not such a small number after all.

We began searching online for dogs at local shelters who might be a clothes model, pet, and little sibling for Luwie and Wolfie. There were so many cute ones that we were actually tempted to take two . . . or even three. But finances being a consideration, we had to be practical and choose only one.

There was a dog at the Lancaster Animal Shelter who instantly caught our eye. She was listed as a chihuahua, though we think she is half Italian greyhound or whippet. The poor little dog had actually been recently adopted and returned with the complaint that she was too big for a chihuahua and was very nervous and unhappy to be back at the shelter. Not only was she physically perfect for the job, having a neutral color and clean outline, but she was (and is) incredibly sweet and submissive, and went limp like a ragdoll when picked up.

With a payment of just $38.00, this little girl became our Sophia (pronounced “so-FYE-uh” in the 18th century way), Sophie for short. And we are glad to announce that everything worked out happily. We are fond of Sophia, who is our first toy dog, and she seems quite satisfied with us. Wolfgang is delighted to have a new friend and Ludwig is beginning to get curious about her after raising his eyebrows (he really does) and saying “What’s this?” for 24 hours.

Sophia has started a new life as a little princess with a big wardrobe and has reached the happy ending of the doggy fairy tale which is a “forever home.” Of course, we couldn’t wait to dress her up and already made her two new outfits. Isn’t she lovely?

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