The BIGG Successs Show
Is Your Status Costing You Money?
We look at the status / money trade-off. Find a written summary of today's show at BIGGSUCCESS.COM.
Welcome to The Big Success Show. Today we ask, is your status costing you money? The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. We all deal with trade-offs, you know, the old this or that, right, Mary Lynn? Yes. And one of the biggest ones, of course, is time versus money. Sometimes we can give up time if we have the money, if we don't, then we have to spend more time. And another trade-off that we want to talk about today, and that is status versus money. So that title that you might be able to get at work versus a raise that might go along with it. Yeah, and I think the thing is we don't often think of that as a trade-off, but how many times have you heard about someone or maybe even experienced yourself where you're looking for more money and, you know, you hear, well, it's not in our budget, but I can give you this title. And we're flattered. We think it's great. We accept it, but in reality, they're really substituting a title for cash. That's right. Now, actually, that very thing happened to me when I was starting out in my radio career. I was working in the production department, and I was the go-to person whenever the production director was gone. And I asked if I could get more money because I was taking on more responsibility, and it wasn't in the budget, but they gave me the assistant production director title. And now it didn't help me necessarily money-wise right then, but when it did help me was when I moved on to another market, and it allowed me to be able to have a bump in my salary. And Mary Lynn, you're making a good point that sometimes status or position or title can lead to more money. It can build your resume. The thing that I think we just have to make sure of is that we're conscious of the decisions we're making and that we're not trading status for money, that we actually see down the road this will benefit me because it is a credential that is marketable. That's right. And when you do take on the status title, that's going to be more responsibility. You're possibly going to be working longer hours, so there is a trade-off there. Absolutely. And just have to weigh it out. You know, when those trade-offs may be, I'm now in a position with more responsibility. It could be that I'm more likely to lose my job than I would be if I had more money, but a lesser title. All right. So we've been focusing on the status money trade-offs at work. Coming up, we're going to bring it home. Today we're talking about how we're often presented with the opportunity to trade money for status, right? And you know, what we've really focused on so far is how your boss may get you to do this. Now, we want to focus on how we sometimes do it to ourselves. And it's in the things that we buy. Maybe it's that fancy car or a home in a neighborhood that has more status. Right on the beach. Right. So these are things that we don't necessarily need. Maybe don't even want, but we want to keep up with the Joneses when we want to have that status appearance. And Marilyn, I've got the perfect story that illustrates this and it's two guys were friends of mine and they were best friends. And it was almost comical how when one of them got a car, you know, when one of them got a new car, the other one within months would have a brand new car. And one of them, you know, went out and bought a new home man in no time at all. The other one had his house on the market and he was buying a new house. One. It got even worse. One of them got married. The other one got engaged and then married. Wow. One of them had a kid. The other one had a, I mean, they just went in lockstep and I'm not sure that it was, it certainly wasn't conscious, but just subconsciously as someone looking in from the outside. It just looked like it was a total competition. Well, that's a funny story, George. And the point is here with that status money trade off. And we're making purchases for status that may not be our best financial move. Yeah. And the best way that I've heard it explained is that sometimes the thing that keeps us from getting rich is that we're trying to act like we're rich before we're rich. You can get a written summary of today's show on our site at Big Success. That's big with 2gsuccess.com. While you're there, why don't you sign up for our free big success weekly to get the tips and tools you need to be a big success. Next time we'll talk about one more thing to add to your schedule that will keep you on schedule. Alright, well I'm going to add that to my schedule. Until then, here's to your big success. (music) [Music]