Let’s Create Consumer Demand for The Ultimate Luxury
David Christianson, BA, CFP, R.F.P., TEP
I need your help.
We need to engage in a campaign - a war, if you prefer that terminology – to win over the hearts and minds of young North Americans.
Our adversaries include the entire industrial, retail and advertising industries, and decades of increasing momentum toward embracing materialism as our way of life.
This is a campaign to help people understand that the absolutely coolest thing they can obtain – the ultimate, selfish luxury - is surplus cash. Forget the iPad, forget collarless golf shirts and designer sushi, ignore the call of the Maserati and trips to South Beach.
Sure, those things make you feel great for a few moments in time, like you’re the coolest kid on the block or a master of the universe. But the feeling doesn’t last, and very soon you need another fix.
The thesis behind this campaign is that the most powerful and lasting luxury good – the one that permanently relieves stress, increases your confidence in every aspect of your life and makes you irresistible to the opposite sex – is surplus cash flow. That’s right, spending less than you make and keeping your financial commitments below your net income will make you feel better than a weekly trip to the spa for their best cucumber eye treatment, mud wrap and thorough pampering.
It’s better - and WAY cooler - than a daily trip to Starbucks, leaving Victoria’s Secret or the Apple store with an armful of goods, or going on an African safari you can’t afford.
Even a slight surplus can have these powerful effects, and create an irresistible charisma - an aura, if you will – around a person who formerly appeared nervous, awkward or as annoying as Bob Goldthwait.
That nervousness and preoccupation is what happens to people when they are wondering if they will make it to the next paycheque, juggling credit cards and overdraft payments, all the while fretting that their IPO IPO IPO iPhone is already last year’s model and now so uncool. (Don’t even get me started on the negative health effects of such a situation.)
So, how do we rebrand surplus cash flow as the coolest thing a person can have, and the ultimate luxury good?
Maybe drawing an analogy with surplus time will help. Everyone knows what it’s like to be running behind schedule, rushing to important appointments, worrying about being late, not having time to find a parking place and constantly apologizing.
The opposite is when you allow extra time to get somewhere, have time to drive around and find a free parking space, have time to check your texts and e-mails after you have actually parked the car (as opposed to doing it in traffic), can take a few moments for yourself and even prepare properly for the important meeting about to take place.
It’s a wonderful luxury, and one that can completely change the way you feel about yourself. Having extra time can also provide a 100% improvement in how you perform.
Having extra cash works the same way. A deficit causes borrowing, which creates interest payments, which get you further behind. Surplus cash allows you to avoid interest, and often negotiate a better price on things when you are able to pay cash. Or, you have the luxury of using credit cards and earning points, and then paying them off in full every month, while you’ve hung onto your cash.
Surplus cash can be saved to buy conventional luxury goods with cash (rather than an overhanging debt), pay for vacations in advance so they can be truly enjoyed without guilt or worry, and allow other stress-relieving activities like buying Christmas presents before December 24. (That one requires a bit of the time management luxury, as well.)
Ultimately, the extra cash can be invested for the future. If it is used for RRSP contributions, it can also reduce current income taxes. As that long-term nest egg multiplies and financial independence approaches at an earlier age, a person’s confidence grows, along with the ever-increasing freedom to take time off from work, change careers, take once-in-a-lifetime adventures and all manner of other luxuries that most people never achieve.
So, we are clearly offering a superior product. All we need now is a cool rap singer or Hollywood star as our spokesperson.
Post questions and comments.
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David Christianson is a fee-for-service financial planner and portfolio manager, whose team at Wellington West Total Wealth Management Inc. provides comprehensive financial advice and management. You can e-mail him at dchristianson@wellwest.ca or visit his website at www.davidchristianson.com.