| Are You A Good Spender? |
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Excerpted from the "Money
Instruction Book".
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Are You a Good Spender? |
Try this Spender's Profile |
| Practically everyone loves to
spend money usually, surveys say, "because it's fun." Spending
money is even more exciting, however, when it is carefully planned
in advance because it will buy more. But the forces in our society
that are so successful at getting us to spend money are so
financially powerful, and their advertising messages so seemingly
irresistible, that millions of Americans, young and old, routinely
take on expensive short term debt in addition to wasting 20 to 30
percent of their money just because of poor spending habits and
practices Consider the extent to which some merchants and credit card issuers will go in order to entice people to spend beyond their incomes: no fee and low fee credit cards, instant credit approvals, first time buyer programs, sweepstakes and contests where chances of winning are increased with each credit-based purchase, extended manufacturers warranty programs, replacement insurance programs and, of course, "cash-back with every purchase." Some companies actively encourage consumers to buy money orders and hold on to them for emergencies while some bankers encourage consumers with poor or no credit worthiness to deposit money ($500 - $2500)into their bank in order to secure a credit card with a 21.99 percent interest rate. In essence, people who do are borrowing their own money back at an interest rate of $21.99 per $100 per year. It is not just credit-based spending decisions that get people into trouble. Some people who have either exhausted credit or ruined their credit rating have no trouble over-spending at all. Cash slips through their fingers so fast that at the end of the day, if they started out with $50, they often have less than $5 remaining and will have great difficulty determining just where it was all spent. |
Spending Perception ScaleThe Following are 20 statements pertaining to spending
techniques. There are five responses to select from which indicate
the degree of your likeness to each statement. Just mark the
number of your response to each question on a sheet of paper.
Should a statement not apply to your situation, skip it and adjust
the scoring accordingly. The scoring section follows afterwards.
*omit if no motor vehicle |
Scoring |
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19-27 VERY PERCEPTIVE. Time to
teach others how to do it.
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