Are you past or present or future oriented? Your time perspective has a major bearing on your ability to create wealth.
According to the research done by psychologists, if you have future time perspective, you will be more successful. People with future time perspective (futures) get more education and they earn more money. Also, they spend less and save more.
Psychologist Prof. Philip Zimbardo identified several personality types in relation to time orientation. People can live in different time zones
- Past positive: you are nostalgic and think of good old days gone by
- Past negative: you are regretful about the past and think of failure, all the things that went wrong
- Present hedonistic: you live for today and seek pleasure and sensation
- Present fatalism: your life is governed by external forces and you abhor planning.
- Future: your focus is on learning rather than play. You are goal orientend and amenable for planning
- Transcendental Future: you believe life begins after the death of the mortal body
It should be no surprise to find that future oriented people tend to be wealthy because to become wealthy you can’t spend more money than you earn. In fact, you should save and invest wisely.
Here are Prof. Zimbardo’s recommended five steps toward achieving financial freedom:
(1) The present is the best time to start investing.
(2) Time in the market is more important than timing the market.
(3) Know when your time will be up; those with a long time ahead of them can afford more risky investments.
(4) You can’t time the markets.
(5) A pleasure-seeking time perspective is an expensive habit few can afford.
Simple, aren’t they?
Link to Prof. Zimbardo’s video “The Secret Power of Time.
