Ego wrote: ↑Wed Sep 29, 2021 5:31 pm
A persistent investment mindset causes the person to run that habitual, hard-wired program on areas of life where it does not belong. For instance, asking oneself, "How will this affect my portfolio?", makes sense when considering the possibility of inflation. It may not produce great results when considering whether to hug grandma, to dance at a wedding, to choose the healthy option when having dinner with the boss or to do the thing that brings great joy to your life.
Got it.
The reason I asked is because I am trying to tease out whether it is the chronic, persistent weighing of inputs vs. outputs that suggests one is suffering investosis, or if it's just weighing how individual actions affect one's
financial portfolio.
Basically, I am trying to determine if I qualify as having investosis
. I do give a lot of thought to ROI on many aspects of my life, but I don't simply apply a financial lens to it. Meaning - and to be clear this isn't super explicit, I'm just using words to describe - I look at having a financial portfolio, a "social portfolio", a "skills portfolio", a "happiness portfolio", etc. Basically, various collections of things I value in my life.
Tying it to your quote, I actually don't see how having a model of considering ROI on your examples as problematic if one is considering things like the love and connection and happiness benefits of hugging grandma (vs. the time spent/breaking a conversation with friends/a love interest), the fun and memories of dancing at a wedding (vs. the risks of looking like a fool), the short and long-term health benefits of a certain meal (vs. the taste satisfaction of the junk food or lack of comments of meal choice), or the lifetime satisfaction of doing something that makes you happy (at the expense of not optimizing financial results).
Since graduating college, I have been cognizant and acting on the knowledge that my parents/aunts/uncles/grandparents won't be around forever, and have been actively trying to spend more time with them than I felt the short-term desire to do so. This sometimes resulted in missing out on fun, more traditional things that 20 and 30 somethings do, time spent driving, etc. But as far as I was concerned, I was investing time on something that I only had access to for limited time, that would provide value to both of us at present, and for the rest of our lives. It sounds funny to say, but I basically used an investment framework that I was purchasing an asset only available for a short period of time that had lasting benefit to all of us forever. It sounds cold and dispassionate in these terms, but it was emotional to me as I was viscerally aware of my family's mortality and the time-limited nature of our remaining time together.
My point being that an investment framework is useful outside of the pillar of money and can be used to measure any sort of resource, and that considering the system-wide (money, happiness, love, connections, satisfaction, etc.) ROI of an action seems to be very rational to me.
Based on the the following quote,
Ego wrote: ↑Wed Sep 29, 2021 5:31 pm
In other words, (eta: As @Laura Ingalls pointed out above) there are things more important than money, things that have nothing to do with money and things that money can't buy. It is easy to lose sight of those facts. Or maybe it is more accurate to say that it is easy to lose the ability to see them.
I think you are getting at the use of applying a monetary filter to everything is the problem/investosis (correct me if I'm wrong!), and I agree this is a real problem for some people, and those who are in the early stages of reducing their spending are one group likely to fall prey to it.
Years ago I definitely fell into this trap, not attending certain social activities or types of trips and avoiding certain (healthy) foods because of the dollar cost. Every dollar not spent per year was $25-33 not needed to be saved, after all
. This filter can definitely be limiting. Over time, as one develops more skills and learns what matters to them, it seems this is likely to be less of an issue.
Axel's example is another good one that you probably see in some people who are more mainstream in their spending but still with frugal bents - keeping a house/car a traditional way to retain resale value instead of altering it to their desires.
Not engaging in various forms of volunteer work or being around to help your family or friends with things because of the missed opportunity to further your career/save more money is another example.
I venture the Rx to investosis is a dose of varying parts (according to the patient's condition) self reflection to determine one's complete set of values and self-development to learn efficient and effective ways to go about living in accordance with those values.
Fertility could be seen as a call option as well. Men’s and women’s fertility options have different expiration dates though.