[...] to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!In this guest post, Loretta B. describes a unique way to build social capital and to save [...]

[...] I wanted to send my money this year. This allows me to help somebody who has helped me. (It’s social capital in action!) And though I don’t know a lot about Hypoplastic Right Hearts, I believe my [...]

[...] Rich Slowly discusses the value of social capital.  (”What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit [...]

[...] It’s a Wonderful Life and the Value of Social Capital @ Get Rich Slowly. JD writes about the value of social capital, or using your real life connections for business and more. It amazing the wealth you can build with a lifetime of relationships – and I’m not just referring to money. This is a great article. [...]

[...] Get Rich Slowly – It’s a Wonderful Life and the Value of Social Capital [...]

I know it’s going to hurt me in my career. So far the fact that I do my job well has outweighed that I don’t go to dinner/the bar after work, don’t participate in idle chitchat, heck, no non-work related conversation whatsoever. And I think I’m doing the honorable thing by not pretending to care when I don’t (those who know me know if I’m asking, it’s because I truly want to hear it). But I know it’s going to cost me promotions down the line, if not the job itself. It’s not sales-related, so I feel it’s 100% BS, but that’s the way it is.

I also know being this way has occasionally cost me money because I didn’t know the right person. Took me 3 years and very random chance to even get my first real job out of college. Yet I’m still choosing to not pretend to be something I’m not (or try), save from the few times a year I’m pushed into it (am married afterall), when ridiculous social awkwardness results. Ironically, I can get behind the position that we are worst off as a society due to our newfound isolation and what we’ve decided to fill the gap with.

[...] of the better holiday articles, defining social capital with the film It’s a Wonderful Life. (Read it at Get Rich [...]

You believe in the people you have connections with, even if they are loose connections based on shared memberships or geography.

[...] A few days ago, I watched the classic It’s a Wonderful Life with James Stewart. (If there’s any ambiguity in that sentence, I apologize.) It’s an interesting movie, often imitated, with an interesting social and financial commentary. On Get Rich Slowly, J.D. hit the nail on the head with his analysis of the value of social capital. [...]

It is hard for me to function at times, because I was so accustomed to knowing everyone in the small town I grew up (I now live in Tucson, a city of about 400,000 at present). I have found an honest mechanic, but for the life of me I can’t find a decent fix-it person or remodel contractor.

What surprises me the most is how people tend to disregard social capital; I recently hired some contractors to do flooring, and for four months I have waited for them to finish the baseboards in two bathrooms. Although they did a great job on the floor (I had it tiled), I simply cannot recommend them to anyone because they haven’t come back for the finishing work. I may have to hire someone to do a $75 job just to finish! Back home, if someone pulled a stunt like that, they’d be out of business in a heartbeat.

I will say this; I find social capital in the strangest places. I put my Volvo on Craigslist as a junker because it had a starter problem that three different mechanics could not figure out (we spent nearly $300 just in diagnostics fees) and at least half a dozen people, rather than offering to buy the Volvo dirt cheap as we had it listed, told me to take it to their mechanic and gave us a name and phone number. I called the first one and he fixed the problem in 20 minutes for around $85. I can now sell the car for blue book value.

I guess you just never know.

Some people WILL work harder to not sour a deal if it’s with someone they know. But others, unfortunately, will expect more “slack” or “understanding” from someone they know … it’s a two-edged sword, sometimes.

And sometimes you’d rather deal with a total stranger. Say, if you need to buy, oh, supplies or treatments for certain intimate “issues” at the pharmacy. (At least there is drugstore.com!)

In a a former life I was a buyer for a sucessful catalog company and we basically had a rule; NEVER pick up the phone at the end of the month! We would be flooded by every Tom, Dick and Harry with a quota. But there were one or two that would call 75% of the time to check in, wish you a Happy Birthday(on the right date too)call when a new kid was born, etc..

They would also NEVER bring up past deals or favors done for you.

We always took those calls…

I agree, there are many benefits to having a bond like this. I no longer live in the town where I went to high school, but I do have a military background, which in many ways, allows me to transport similar benefits wherever I may roam. But it’s just not quite the same as knowing someone for 20 years.

Peter

As it’s turned out, I probably have more social capital than I think I do, but that’s probably only because I call upon it less often than I need to.

@Blue:
There is quite a lot of community and networking in pfblogging – but then you’d expect that because it’s exactly a group of like-minded individuals.

I could not agree more, and I do not live in my hometown. I have noticed that because I attempt to get along with the people I work with, my coworkers are more willing to help me out when I need them. The principle here holds true even if you didn’t go to high school with anybody.

As my mother said, “Invest in people and you will never be poor.”

@Neil – Here’s a piece of trivia: The single post that has taken me longest to write is my review of Never Eat Alone. I’ve been working on it for over a year now. I thought I had it ready to go recently, but Kris put her foot down. She told me it was awful. So, back to the drawing board. Some of the ideas in this post were scavenged from that abandoned review.

Yes, there is value to taking the time to get to know people and to build and maintain relationships. Yes, it is good to remember that people are people, not machines.

No, you may not always want to live where you grew up. No, you may not always know someone in whatever business. If you’ve ever found yourself putting off getting the furnace serviced or the gutters cleaned because you don’t know who to call and none of your friends do that either because they don’t know who to call … then you might want to break down and do business with someone you don’t know.

Yesterday I made a sales call to a local business, a nursery owned by a former high school classmate of mine.

Great post!

Note: Not a dry read

Sometimes I just read your blog posts, other times I send them to my wife. This was definitely one to send to her!