Perspectives can be fascinating

In Finance by Samuel RiveraLeave a Comment

For instance, I’m told that if you interview witnesses to a  car accident, they’ll tell slightly different stories of the same event. Not that anyone is trying to mislead. They just saw something slightly different because of where they  happened to be standing.

Perspectives can also have an effect on how we see money  matters. If you grew up very poor you might believe that  you’ll never achieve any financial security. Or you could  accumulate wealth, but never think that it’s enough to  guarantee that you won’t slide back into poverty. Both are quite understandable if you grew up extremely poor.

Perspectives also affect our financial goals and what we’re willing to do to achieve them. Your goal could be to minimize expenses, while mine is to increase security. You may be driven to reach the goal. Mine may be a more leisurely journey. It’s not that either one of us is right or wrong. We just have a different view of what is important.

Different perspectives. Why am I going on about perspectives? Beyond the fact that I find them interesting? Perhaps because you hear a lot of terms thrown around today that depend a lot on your perspectives.

Phrases like “the rich” or “the poor.” Sometimes our political leaders shoot those terms almost as if they were bullets. It seems to me that it’s important to listen carefully to what’s being said and the perspective of the person who’s saying it.

And, also to our own perspective to what’s being said. This is true not just in political terms, but in relation to our own finances, too. That “easy payment” might be a whole lot easier from the salesperson’s perspective than it would be from your position. So you might want to play around with perspectives a bit.

Who knows? You might even get a new perspective on things!

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