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- Exploring speed bumps, negotiation, and speed
Exploring speed bumps, negotiation, and speed
Logan
January 30, 2025
Exploring speed bumps, negotiation, and speed
Happy Thursday! Thanks for reading Intentional Dollar — where we look at old money ideas through a new perspective.
What’s inside?
One idea to experiment with
Two quotes from others
Three questions to dig deeper
Four lines of poetry for the point
Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. These weekly posts represent my simple thoughts, a few quotes, and some questions — for educational purposes only.
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One idea to experiment with:
Speed Bumps:
The material possessions we pursue are like little speed bumps on our road to freedom.
Each bump slows the progress toward independent living, nurturing the cycle that is clocking into the place that pays the bills. We must show up, time and time again, “forced” to trade our days for a direct deposit. A deposit to cover the prior purchases looming large from a spending spree.
To step out of this matrix, we need to determine our true hourly wage. Not gross, not net — true.
Have you heard of this one?
True hourly wage requires computing the total time and money spent to earn our gross wage. The commute time, the gas bill, the habitual lunches and coffees, the expensive, stuffy clothes, the time to get ready — add every single cost and time requirement that arises as a direct function of you working.
While it’s a little different for all of us, the common link is the dilution: A lower realized hourly wage than what’s stated on the pay stub. Much lower.
The basic mechanics:
From your total income (use after tax income for this) subtract the sum total of the dollar related expenses that go in a year of work. Next, divide this total adjusted income over the total hours you work in a year, plus every other hour that goes into the effort.
The result? Your true hourly wage.
This new wage is how we compare the future time cost of our possessions.
Let’s say your true hourly wage is $20.
A $1,000 purchase costs 50 hours of time. Over a week of droning off emails, preparing presentations, donning those expensive, stuffy clothes you don’t like, and drinking substandard machine coffee.
But that 50 hours might be worth it to you. “I like these things,” you say. This exercise is not to say the $1,000 doesn’t offer some sort of real life return like satisfaction, health, convenience, or memories. But as a little check and balance, as a pocket note to right-size the real cost of an item.
It’s easy to neglect the time cost if we have the money in the bank. “It’s there, I earned it, I’m spending it.” This mindset clouds and distorts our mental processors, making the time look like a sunk cost, not a future cost.
The antidote is to avoid seeing expenses as a draw against current balances. Rather, see them as a future time trade. Even though you have $1,000 in the bank, you still need to go trade 50 hours to get it back once it’s gone. In the accumulation phase, we are always trying to get it back.
What speed bump are you getting ready to lay down?
speed bumps slow you down
Two quotes on negotiation:
There might be untapped value sitting below your feet, patiently waiting for a good negotiation.
“This is a classic negotiation technique. It’s a gentle, soft indication of your disapproval and a great way to keep negotiating. Count to 10. By then, the other person usually will start talking and may very well make a higher offer.”
“Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”
Three questions on speed:
Where will I gain an advantage by moving quickly, with less focus on perfect quality?
What if I refined things along the way, rather than mapping it all out first?
What guardrails can I establish as a tolerance, a margin of safety, so I can move quickly?
Which question stuck with you? Questions like these are spotlights for the mind. Reply to this email and let me know which one shined light on a previously dark cave.
Four lines of poetry for the point:
The bumps ahead will slow us down
But we’re the ones that put them down
How much time is in that thing
Measured from what you’re really making
Contact Me:
Content ideas, questions? Reply to this email or reach out to me at [email protected]
Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. These weekly posts represent my simple thoughts, a few quotes, and some questions — for educational purposes only.
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