uccess With Money
uccess With Money
Your Personal Guide to Achieving Success With Your Money and Your Life
It is unfortunate that one of the issues we need to consider when we look at the way businesses and individuals market their products to us is questioning the truthfulness of their representations. But there is no avoiding it.
For example, just this week (as I write) a letter arrived at our home from one of the largest banks in the country. Take a look at this copy of what was actually printed on the outside of the envelope:
Now you can probably guess what was really inside the envelope. It had nothing to do with paying off any debt.
The advertisement shown above claims to be about eliminating debt but the offer is really about transferring debt(s). It was about increasing debt, in fact, because it wanted a 3% transfer fee for the transaction(s).
Not only so, but the bank had no intention of helping anyone pay off their debts “once and for all”, even if they managed to pay off this initial loan because they also mentioned how they would be sending along additional checks for future use on any purchases you might want to make later.
Unfortunately, most folks have grown accustomed to the most flagrant abuse of the language possible. Some of the most basic financial terms are used to suggest the virtual opposite of their clear meaning.
A woman says, “I just saved $20.00 on this dress.” What she means is that she just spent $40.00 on a dress. She means that the store claimed, true or not, that the value of the dress was $60.00 and it was being offered for only $40.00. In order to “save” $20.00 she would need to do something like putting that amount into her savings account with an intention of leaving it there to earn interest.
A man might say, “I just invested in a new pickup truck.” Of course, unless he happens to be buying the truck to use as a delivery vehicle for a legitimate business it is not an investment at all, but a rather large expenditure.
In order to deal skillfully with buying decisions start now to use financial words correctly. Pay attention to how others use them, especially in marketing situations. It will help you to be more honest in your own buying decisions.
Pay attention to the exact words chosen by marketers. Many of them are misleading, a point we will explore further in another article. Some marketing or advertising statements are flat out dishonest, untruthful.
Skill in interpreting marketing statements begins here, by recognizing factual misstatements.
A good way to develop this skill is to start taking time to look at offers that come in the mail. Take a minute to look at some of them before tossing them in the trash. Ask yourself whether the ads are truthful or otherwise.
Review again the ad pictured above. Forget the misleading for now and focus on the totally untrue. In our example above we observed that this is a loan offer that has nothing to do with any plan or potential to “pay off your debts” or anyone elses. Just to rearrange them. The bank in question simply makes an unsupported and totally false claim to get our attention.
See how many similar statements appear in the advertising you see and hear every day. Determine that you will stay alert and not be tricked by any of them.
As my example shows, even the largest, supposedly “reputable” institutions are no longer above outright deceit in their marketing representations. But there is no reason for us to be distracted by them.
We can ignore them and direct our own financial thinking elsewhere. However, we do need to be knowledgeable and alert to protect ourselves from inappropriate decisions.
