Comments on: The Battle Royale: You Versus Yourself

By: matt @ Thrive

matt @ Thrive — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:05:34 +0000

Aura: By all means – I’d be happy to do a quick interview with you if that would be better.

Hamilton: Congrats on the lifestyle change! Using debt is important to help you build a credit score, but that just means taking the card out of the drawer once every three months or so and making a minor purchase.

Writer’s: We were laughing about this in the office the other day, actually. We work on Canal Street, which has tons of shady looking electronics stores that actually use “shady looking” as an asset. They look like the kind of place that would net you a bargain, and they always have signs for high prices that have been slashed through to lower prices. You then go in, and because it looks like someplace you could bargain, you say you want it even lower and leave happy with your bargain. Trouble is, even the price you bargained for is more than what you could have bought it at Amazon for. *grins*

By: Writer's Coin

Writer's Coin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:55:02 +0000

This reminds me of that great book by Robert Cialdini: Persuasion. The one story I liked best was about these two old guys who sold suits. A man comes in and is getting fitted for a suit, he asks the guy how much it costs. So he yells to his partner in the store, “How much is this one?”
The reponse, “What??”
“How much for this grey suit?”
“$250!” He yells.
“What??” Struggling to hear.
“$250!” He yells again.
Then the guy turns to the customer and says “That’s $150.”
The customer, thinking he’s getting a steal, buys the suit on the spot. The price of the suit the whole time was $150 (or even less!).

The book is filled with great stuff like that and I’m curious to see what new techniques or variations exist today.

By: Hamilton Parks

Hamilton Parks — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:45:25 +0000

Just wanted to express my apreciation for the insightful ideas in the article. I have recently decided to entirely eliminate all debit purchases. As a result I have to plan my day to day purchases by going to the bank and withdrawing the funds needed. By implementing a cash only policy I have reduced unplanned and impulse spending by at least 90$ and created a structured limit on the remaining 10%. I have found this new strategy to be game changing and I hope someone can benefit from reading about it.

By: Aura Whittaker

Aura Whittaker — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:52:30 +0000

This sounds similar to the weight loss/get in shape mantra I am always telling my personal training clients. Make a plan, write it down, go public. It is the way to develop new habits and create a lifestyle change. I may reference this information in my healthy living newspaper column, it you don’t mind. Thanks for the great post.