{"id":2186,"date":"2008-11-24T05:00:52","date_gmt":"2008-11-24T13:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=2186"},"modified":"2019-12-16T22:46:51","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T06:46:51","slug":"you-cant-always-get-what-you-want-the-dark-side-of-personal-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/you-cant-always-get-what-you-want-the-dark-side-of-personal-finance\/","title":{"rendered":"You can’t always get what you want: The dark side of personal finance"},"content":{"rendered":"
I drove down to clean the moss of the roof of my mother’s house last week. I spent several hours on top of the house with my cousin Nick, scraping and hosing and blowing away years of green growth. We chatted as we worked. I told him that I was going to speak with a literary agent on the following day, and that I hoped I might soon have a book deal.<\/p>\n
“How does that work?” he asked me. “How do you make money on that?”<\/p>\n
I did my best to explain, but it was difficult. I’m not sure I fully understand the system myself. “When a writer sells a book, he gets an advance on the profits,” I said as I scraped moss from between the shingles.<\/p>\n
“For example, I might get a $10,000 advance. The publisher pays this to me before the book is even printed. As the book sells, I am entitled to a share of the profits from each copy. However, I see none of that until my share of the earnings is at least $10,000. Then, if sales are strong, I get paid for anything beyond that initial $10,000. The advance is guaranteed money \u2014 they can’t take it back unless I don’t write the book \u2014 but I don’t get any more unless the book sells well.”<\/p>\n
“And the agent?” asked Nick. He was hosing away the moss and debris I’d scraped from the cracks.<\/p>\n
“The agent gets 15% of everything I earn,” I said. “But that’s okay. In theory, she’ll more than make up for it by getting me a better deal, a bigger advance. It’s sort of like hiring an accountant to do your taxes. It costs you something, but in general you get more than you pay for.”<\/p>\n
“If you do sell a book, what will you do with your advance?<\/b>” Nick asked.<\/p>\n
“That’s a good question,” I said. “I don’t know. What I really want to do is buy a Mini Cooper. I’ve been saying that for a long time now. I hate my car, and every time I see a Mini, I covet it. My advance is likely to be small, but if I got a really big advance, maybe I could afford to buy one outright.”<\/p>\n
I stopped scraping shingles and began scooping crap out of the gutter.<\/p>\n
“That seems so crazy, though.” I said. “I barely drive now as it is. I don’t need a brand-new sporty little car. I could put that money into savings. Or into the stock market.”<\/p>\n
I paused to think.<\/p>\n
“But I really want<\/i> that car. I’m obsessed with it. I’ve got to get over that. I’ve got to stop wanting.”<\/p>\n
“Why do you have to stop wanting?” Nick asked.<\/p>\n
“Wanting is bad,” I said. “Wanting makes me buy things.”<\/p>\n