Comments on: Some Thoughts on Delayed Gratification

By: slccom

slccom — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:24:58 +0000

Landlords can lose their entire net worth with a single meth lab in a property, or even if a tenant is smoking meth in the property. And no, it isn’t easy to find insurance coverage — insurance companies don’t get rich paying claims, and these are too common and humongous.

Personally, I’m not interested in the risk.

Umbrella insurance is really, really cheap peace of mind. It doesn’t take much to make you wish you had it — the neighbor kid running over her foot mowing your lawn; the unlicensed, uninsured roofer falls off the ladder and lives the rest of his life with quadriplegia, the neighbor’s kid falls into the swimming pool and becomes severely brain damaged after being in the water for 15 minutes, etc. A million dollars may not go far in these scenarios, but they aren’t far-fetched and it goes a long ways in most cases. Reduce you need for umbrella policies by making sure that you only hire people with worker’s compensation insurance for home chores. Costs more upfront, can save a whole bunch of money down the line.

By: Deborah

Deborah — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:08:20 +0000

Trent – Regarding the Reader Mailbag question about umbrella insurance: I agreed with your answer until you said the poster should get life insurance before thinking about an umbrella policy. Despite what the insurance industry would have us believe, life insurance is to protect those who are dependent upon the income of the insured not to function as a savings account. Since the poster stated she is single and has no dependents, why do you feel she should have life insurance?

By: Darla

Darla — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:39:08 +0000

I agree about delayed vs instant gratification. There’s something very pleasing about the anticipation of an item which is about the closest adults come to feeling like a ‘kid at Christmas’.

By: getagrip

getagrip — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:36:14 +0000

The other problem with with these examples is that sometimes waiting too long isn’t gratifying. You save and scrimp for that new toy/gadget/item you really wanted, imagining the fun of it. Sadly you can raise it up mentally to the point that when you finally get it, it proves to be a let down. Have to be careful of keeping your expectations realistic.

A big part of this is you need to see some progress, no matter how small, towards a goal.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:34:50 +0000

I will play devil’s advocate here, rather than being the 12th person to say that word doesn’t mean what you think it means, and argue that gardening is delayed gratification. I’ll go off of Riki’s definition:
Delayed Gratification: The ability to forgo an immediate pleasure or reward
…for example, doing a tedious chore like garden work rather than playing your cool new board game…
in order to gain a more substantial one later.

…ie, satisfying your need to eat with a bountiful harvest.
Fine, maybe it was an awkward illustration, and the other two examples are more cumbersome, but I think it works. He even had the side benefit of beginning to actually enjoy the process.

By: deRuiter

deRuiter — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:53:17 +0000

Delayed gratification would be NOT buying the board game and using that money to prepay on the mortgage instead, then buying the game when the mortgage was finished. Posters above are correct, the title should be “Anticipation.”

By: kristine

kristine — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:43:05 +0000

“Delayed gratificaton with the board game would be waiting until it’s 1/2 price, rather than pre-ordering it and waiting for delivery.” Exactly!

Prepaying a mortgage is accelerating a reward, and making steady progress, not at all delayed gratification.

The difference is purposeful and deliberate delay, not merely waiting out the due course of events, not mater how slow. Delayed gratification can involve waiting and anticipation, but not all waiting and anticipation are delayed gratification. (Gotta love subsets!)

Much better approached as the joy of anticipation. Which brings me to Rockledge- made me laugh!

By: jackie.n

jackie.n — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:53:41 +0000

ditto #7 and #8

By: Riki

Riki — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:17:18 +0000

Delayed Gratification: The ability to forgo an immediate pleasure or reward in order to gain a more substantial one later.

Sorry, Trent. None of your examples are about delayed gratification. Enjoying a process? Taking the time to appreciate little things? Enjoying anticipation? Sure. Absolutely. All of those things are good and you are right that we need to see the trees in the forest, so to speak.

But you certainly didn’t write an article about delaying gratification and you’re starting to come off as awfully obtuse.

By: Rockledge

Rockledge — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:39:09 +0000

You know, this post could almost be talking about another, very popular human activity I’m not going to actually name because I’ll get censored. I laughed when I realized that. Suffice it to say that, yes, sometimes half the fun is just getting there.

Maybe a better title for the post would have been “anticipation” rather than “delayed gratification.”

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:11:33 +0000

Haha. Waiting for an item to be shipped to you and waiting to purchase an item are two completely opposite things.

Delayed gratification would be if you said you won’t order Kingdom Builder until you paid off your mortgage.

By: Baley

Baley — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:27:20 +0000

I’d say pre-ordering a video game is about the opposite of delayed gratification.

By: elyn

elyn — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:22:39 +0000

I live in a house of delayed gratification. It is over 100 years old and spent 30 years of its life as a rental owned by a Very Tacky Cheap Landlord before we became its’ owners. There are so many projects to do, some structural, some cosmetic. We absolutely have to be skilled at delaying gratification in order to be smart about what projects to do first. It is unbelievably satisfying, though, when we get to do the fun, pretty projects that we waited for while attacking the structural, practical ones. Another 50 years, and this house will be perfect!

By: Other Jonathan

Other Jonathan — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:15:18 +0000

I agree with the previous two – these aren’t really examples of delayed gratification. An example I like though, from a financial perspective anyway, is to use something longer than you normally would before replacing it. Our couch has seen better days, for example. It’s not in bad shape by any means, but a new one would look better. However, if I replaced it now, not only would it cost me $1,000 or more, but it would also help push me into a cycle of always having a nice new couch, and 3 years down the road I’d be tempted to replace it again. By keeping the couch I have, I put off spending the $1,000 for a while (time value of money is at play here) AND I keep my “couch life-cycle” expectations in check.

By: lurker carl

lurker carl — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:44:24 +0000

Here’s an example I remember about delayed gratification. Someone gives you a candy to eat. If you wait ten minutes before eating it, you’ll get more candy. Eat it within ten minutes and you’re out of luck.

I don’t get the delayed gratification connection with gardening, best of luck getting plants to mature any faster than they do. Delayed gratificaton with the board game would be waiting until it’s 1/2 price, rather than pre-ordering it and waiting for delivery. Mortgage prepayment is a stretch. Perhaps self control or patience are a better terms than delayed gratification.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:16:19 +0000

Neither of the first two examples actually involve delayed gratification.