I spoke too soon.
Digital banking in Finland is pretty safe and secure, but it is very reliable. Apps work, transfers work, the legislation is met. In all the years, I think I have only had two pays that haven't gone in on time - this month, and last month.
This is exceptional.
While it does put me out a bit, as I had to pick up €700 worth of medication today, it is not the end of the world and I will pick it up tomorrow instead. It is just a logistical problem tomorrow, since my wife will have the car and work late. But, our Payroll and the head of our People and Culture are dealing with some fallout, even though this isn't their fault, it is the global service provider that is delivering the payments. This is their second attempt, their second screwup.
Third time lucky next month.
But, what this situation has again highlighted, is how close to the edge some people seem to live their incomes. Last month, we were having an afterwork drink on a Friday, and a couple people couldn't get their own, so had to be spotted. This month was likely the same for the same people, but hopefully they were more prepared, just in case.
However, one thing that did come up a few times was how many people have their bills to come out of their bank on payday, which means that today there was no money there to draw on for most people. As said, this is an exceptional circumstance in Finland, but it also shows how reliant we have become on the assumption that things are always going to be reliable.
I am old enough to be one of the people who would get a "pay packet" once a week when I was young. I was working at a supermarket and on Wednesdays, I would have to go and pick up my earnings, which came in a small, yellow envelope, and had the amount inside written on it by hand. Not only that, it was in cash, not a check, which meant there were coins in the envelope as well.
Inconvenient, but practical.
Getting paid meant actually *having the money in hand, which had a far more visceral emotional attachment to it. It felt to get paid, and it also felt to spend that money on something, seeing it disappear from the wallet. It also increased the intentional use of money, whether that was to spend it, or to save it, as saving meant actually going to the bank and depositing it into an account. Decisions were made transparently, unlike today, where money is hidden behind cards, proximity payments and automatic transfers, so we don't see what is going out - like all the subscription service costs.
The methods of using money are like those little nudges, that impact on our behaviors. When it comes to most things "out of sight, out of mind" is in play, and money is continuously being taking out of our eyeline, and as a result, we are spending it more freely. We barely even realize at times how much we are spending, because most of us don't audit ourselves well. We might want to save money, we might want to invest more, we might want to curb our enthusiastic spending - but are we actually keeping track?
There should be an app on the phone that we can set our goals as to our finances or health, and before we make a purchase, it recognizes that what we are going to buy is not in line with our goals, and shocks us. Or, better yet, puts a cooldown period on our accounts, so that we are unable to make the purchase before having a long, hard think about it first.
Do you really want that chocolate bar, Taraz?
Am I willing to wait ten minutes for it, rocking back and forth like an addict wanting my next fix? At least for me, that short gap would likely be enough to either make me rethink my purchase or, force me to walk away due to time constraints. For people who are increasingly impatient and are therefore spending more, perhaps that impatience can be "used for good" instead of consumption, by making people walk out of the shop because they don't want to wait for the cooldown period.
If we want to change our outcomes, we are likely going to have to change our behaviors. This has become increasingly difficult to do intentionally, since there is so much influence from convenient goods and services that make our lives easier, but not necessarily better. It is easy to eat junk food, but at least in excess, it doesn't enrich our lives. It is easy to get the dopamine kick from a new gadget, but again, a lot of us will have buyer's remorse, as it doesn't live up to the hype and expectation we assigned it.
Rather than drive for convenience, if we engineer our world to force a delay in gratification, we might be able to recondition ourselves to be more mindful in the way we spend and what we consume. Like not getting paid on time, having the interruption in our buying behaviors, might be just enough to slow our thinking down, and think again before spending.
Do you buy it?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
I am not that kind of person. I keep the track of my spendings, particularly on my credit cards and I like it. I think we should do so in this era, that is to say, living within means :)
Maybe we should make a game out of it more, so financial hygiene is fun. It is bad for company profits though ;)
Wants are insatiable. We can’t get all we want but we can get all we need, by prioritizing our needs, we will save more. This is part of what I just posted few minutes ago.
At the moment, I feel a lot of the consumer culture tries to get away from prioritization - they don't care if people go into debt and everything collapses eventually.
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I was having a conversation a while ago with my mom about giving to the church. I give online and she was still giving in person with cash. Actually, a check, but she felt like the process of putting the envelope in the box made it seem more real. It kind of reminded me of that when you were talking about getting your pay.
I wonder if there is a "better return" on giving physically, rather than digitally. Does your mom value it more?
She does, she gets the feeling that it is more an act of worship than doing it online.
For people going paycheck to paycheck, the delays are definitely going to be hard. In one of my previous companies we have an employee cooperative where people can borrow money, and they can also place money. The earnings from the borrowed money's interest are distributed to those that placed money. It was surprisingly popular since we had a few delays in pay, or people were just using a lot of their salary before the next payday.
Oh, that is pretty cool - I haven't heard of anything like that happening here, though cooperatives are pretty common at the business level. The largest supermarket chain is a cooperative here - almost everyone is an owner, even if it is just to get the discounts.
Yeah it was really nice. At one point the interest reached more than 10 percent. Since they were recognized by the company, they also sell some merch, and people can place money directly through salary deductions. Our IT department also had a small one, started by the IT head's secretary. She was the one handling the money.
Sounds like me and those Rebellion Gold Foil cards. I keep telling myself I'll recover that value by selling some of the extra airdrop cards I'm earning, but the truth is I'll probably just keep them. Hopefully, I will be able to rent them out at a nice price to earn a slow and steady stream of returns on the money paid into the gold foils.
I've never been very good at delaying gratification. I also don't use any auto-pay features for my credit cards or utilities. I only have a few recurring bills anyway: mobile phone, WiFi service, and a single streaming service. I just have monthly alarms set on my phone for different bills, and I'll turn them off when I schedule a bill to be paid.
You can dump all your Rage ;)
I think being pretty manual with bills, is a good reminder that things cost. Once we move to the automatic transfers, we lose track of what we are doing. The only thing that should be automatic for this reason, is our monthly investments into generative ownership.
Not sure if SL cards qualify...
I still do all my DCA manually as well. My DCA is set up in different buckets, but I'll choose exactly which funds/assets get bought each month.
First, money was disconnected from silver and gold. Now, we are also being disconnected from cash. We are encouraged to live on debt rather than savings. Inflation erodes the latter, while the former is trumpeted by corporations. Politicians sometimes say they oppose national debt, but they borrow and spend more and more each year regardless of what they say, adding more and more burdens onto the present and future productive people in our economy. Governments around the world are starting to finally admit we're actually in a recession, and not a robust global recovery. All of this may potentially lead to calls for central bank digital currencies, because it's certainly not the fault of our Wise Leaders and their bureaucrats. Meanwhile, people on the margins struggle without any idea why life keeps getting harder.
Yes! It is like we are constantly being moved further from the reality of value. Which is probably why we value some pretty ludicrous things so highly - like the Kardashians.
I feel (and you probably do too) that a lot of this "not knowing" is planned. People are encouraged to remain ignorant, relying on others to take care of the important stuff...
I'm not sure it was planned, but the undeniable fact is government education in the USA (and probably a road as well) has failed to equip several generations with the basic tools to analyze news, politics, and economics outside the lens of nationalistic propaganda.
The pain of paying is one of the lessons of a course in behavioral economics I took several years ago. The more "hidden" the payment is in the form of a credit card or automatic payment, the less the pain as we do not realize how it "flows" away.
Now that some people use cellphone payments, there should be a little animation on the cellphone app with an annoying sound showing us how the money flies away when paying anything. It would make us more aware we are spending it and some people would probably think twice before making the impulsive act of purchasing stupid things we do not need so they do not depend so much on the payroll day.
Take a look at the short video from Dan Ariely to learn about our relationship with money when paying for products or services. It is fun to realize how real it is.
Yes - there should be annoying sounds, timelocks, warnings, bells, whistles, shame... :D We should be employing as many hurdles to spending as possible, rather than removing them.
I like Dan Ariely
I always know how much money I spend. That's 3 ETH transfers from Hive-Ehgine per month. And I write down my expenses for the month and year.
Know that you are in the minority. Most people compartmentalize their spending to individual events, without seeing what all the events add up to.
It sucks but that is why there is always some emergency funds to use. Sometimes things just don't show up on time and I think we are in for a rough economy after our government is spending like crazy. It reminds me of how those overdraft fees just keep the poor in their position.
This sounds like a government mantra.
There was a time when I focused on my wants more than my needs but the economy is getting harder so it is always better to have more focus on the things we need and also keep track of our spendings
It is best to learn the lessons and skills as early as possible, and make the necessary changes. It pays off down the track.
All the time we can't get what we want but it's ok
Rarely it seems :)
The Zen Buddhist at the hot dog stall...
Were it forced from the outside...
Teaching instead of forcing and you could sign me in...