I’m paraphrasing this from Mind Over Money, a book about the psychology of money.
Let’s say you’re on vacation and decide you’d like to take out some bikes for a little tour around town.
Renting bikes directly from the the hotel will cost you $40 for the day.
But 10 minutes down the road, there’s a bike shop that’s only $20 for the day. So you walk 10 minutes to
save $20.
After all 20 bucks can buy you lunch along the way.
Now let’s say you’re buying a new car. If you’re willing to spend 10 minutes completing a customer
satisfaction survey, they’ll knock $20 off the price of your car.
Most of us wouldn’t do that because if you’re dropping $30,000 saving $20 feels inconsequential so why
even bother?
But clearly if $20 is worth 10 minutes when renting a bike, then it should be worth 10 minutes when
buying a car.
But our monkey minds can’t help looking at things from a relative basis.
And that’s why I pennies up off the ground.
It’s part of my attempt to train my brain to value money regardless if it’s $20 renting a bike or buying a
car or free money laying on the sidewalk.
