Really digging into “Your Money Or Your Life” right now. It’s a different personal finance book. It really engages your mind; it’s got nine steps, and all of them take some personal commitment. But when done, all of the nine steps make you accurate, honest and meticulous.
The first step is figuring out your lifetime income along with your net worth. REALLY figuring it out, no guesses, get tax forms from the IRS figuring it out. And it takes time.
Honesty is something that’s come up lately a lot. I’m not perfect yet. I want to be better, and get as close to honesty as I can. Nobody does things perfectly–not me, nobody. I’m certainly more honest than I was a year ago, and more than I was five year ago.
But most of the lying that we do is lying to ourselves. I have been a good income earner most of my life. Had a couple rough years (2001, 2006), but since I started working, I’ve not had that part of the equation be a fail. I have failed in other areas–and it’s knowing this that allows me to be free from it. I overspent on advertising. I never really understood where business was coming from.
When you have a lapse in integrity, it’s important to man up. To fix it PLUS one. I had a recent dealing with Infusionsoft that is like that. The salesperson, Lou Caporaletti was lazy. He offered me a favor that didn’t appear to be within his authority. He overcharged my credit card. This was an error, but he acted entitled, like I was doing him a favor when I wanted to be put right. I didn’t ask for the favor. He offered, I accepted. When I wanted to hold him to it, he excused himself from telling the truth by saying, “Hey, it’s not like I was making money on the deal.”
Not a bad guy, but he made a mistake that he refused to correct. I get 100 hits a day on CRM Reviews, and my Infusionsoft review, when it comes, will be tempered by this horrific experience and the fact hat he felt comfortable doing this. But, I digress. He wasn’t dishonest, he was lazy. He made a promise he didn’t have authority to make, and when it went awry, he didn’t fix it. The net effect is still dishonesty.
That said, I am seeking myself, and I reamain optimistic about the use of Infusionsoft. It was built with a lot of care, and I’ll have it set up in a week or so, and let you know how I fare.
Your Mortgage Broker Didn’t Lie: He Just Didn’t Look Things Up
That’s how most lies are. They are told for the sake of expedience. People want to appease one another, end tension and get through the conversation. They say any old thing, lacking precision. We do that to ourselves. For years, I didn’t worry about my looming IRS and other financial issues because I can earn money. (Not as much as I think, my top line is OK but I piss away too much to earn it, and don’t do that math–If I earn $160k and spend 40k to get there, I forget the 40k and think of the 160k).
The lending industry was like that. Most of the time, the lender just wanted to figure out what the initial rate was, where it capped, and that was it. They wouldn’t familiarize themselves with the terms, so they’d pitch a deal with reasonably good intentions, the only problem is was that they are lazy, and didn’t bother to look too much up.
The net effect of not being meticulous is dishonesty. People make mistakes, but not finding the information, not possessing it is the same thing as lying about it. I don’t know if it’s as bad as trying to defraud someone or not. It’s just not a standard for me.
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Great post. I ran back through some of my numbers for the last few years. I realized that I had the same habit of not counting what it took to get there. Very eye opening.
BTW, I can’t wait to see that InfusionSoft review. I am basically sold on it. Just getting over the initial buy-in.