Question from a reader:”My girl friend is also my business partner and she spends way too much money in the business and the relationship. I am trying to get her to sober up and look at the economy as you see it – we are in a financial Depression, at least for the short haul-but she insists that I am cheap and threatens to leave me. I want to dump her but the physical side is pretty wild. What’s the cost benefit? Love your blog, Kim.”
My answer is based on the overall presentation you should dump your high maintenance girl friend. Either that or keep her as a girl friend if you are really desperate but seriously get the heck out of business from her. She is the kiss of death for your business. Partners who are into spend, spend and more spending mode are not sound partners. Is she more into the flash and sizzle instead of the meat and potatoes of your gig? Toss her out with the bones and leftovers, pal. Girls, if you have a partner like this my advice holds the same for you too.
Seriously.
You want a cost benefit? I will spell it out for you so you can know how to help yourself in the future and find a gal pal or potential partner who can compliment your life and not be somebody who is into game playing or wants to make your intimate relationship as part of the lever so she can run your business into the ground and work at planting you six feet under as well from stress and aggravation.
Kim Isaac Greenblatt’s Time Tested Formula For Calculating Cost Benefits If All You Are Looking For Is Physical Relationships
(By the way I charge for specific detail cost analysis so feel free to write me some more or read some of my books for more of my thoughts on business and money – or contracting).
0. For the purposes of our calculations, we will be using a time frame of one month. For ideal, more accurate time, you may use a year or longer, just remembering that you need to be honest about the information. I don’t want to know the details (unless you post and share them with us – we will be happy to discuss them with you-my readers are a happy, bright vocal bunch – well except for the bitter ones).
1. Take the total amount of money that you are losing from bad decisions made by your intimate partner (this works for any gender, race or creed - a truly equal opportunity calculation system if ever there was one). Write it down.
2. Add to it the salary or money spent on the partner or gift money or love offerings that you are laying out to have the particular person gussied up in the style that they (and you bought into) think they should be. You will have a dollar amount and that might be sobering. If you are eating out a lot, average the cost from eating out subtracting out maybe ten percent for what it would cost to eat at home your meal. If it is still undecently high, that should be a clue for you.
3. Take the amount of time that you spend being intimate. Now by this I mean the actual time that you spend from start to finish doing whatever nasty things that you are doing and the frequency of it. For our purposes take it on a monthly basis as suggested. Make sure you are honest and it includes only the time that you are actually engaged whatever recreational carnal knowledge that you are partaking in. Don’t you love how I paint this in a professional manner? And all for free now, as well!
4. Take the total from item 3 and divide it by the number of minutes. For example, let us say that you spend $3000 a month overall and your total actual time for intimacy is 8 hours, that averages out to $3000 divided by 8×60 minutes (480 minutes) which equals $6.25 a minute for intimacy. Now I was VERY generous with 8 hours. Most people who are in a relationship are generally in, have fun and are done in about 5 minutes.
Let us assume 5 minutes a day for 30 days and we have 150 minutes. $3000 divided by 150 yields $20 a minute. I think that is pretty pricey for most people. It is economy of scale and let us say that your partner is really high maintenance and is costing you $30000 a month. In some cases it is more for people and we have moved into $200 a minute territory. Now, I am a fan of working women in terms of that they are paying dearly in terms of wear and tear on your body but personally nobody I know or think of is worth $200 a minute. Sorry, gang. We use to hear stories of kings who would sacrifice their kingdoms for the love of their life. If you can or want to do that, I wish you well and as a lover of people and life, have to respect your choice though personally I wouldn’t do things that way.
If a person loves you for you, or is really interested in your business dealings and wants to work through them, they will help you and cut back on their spending instead of throwing threats out there. There are also countless people waiting who will underbid your current par amour if money is the only thing or driving force that is keeping the person with you.
Trophy wifes? Trophy husbands? Bah, take back the trophy and trade it for someone who is into helping you retain your status as a dairy person. You know, a cash cow. In order for you to continue in your status as a cash cow you need to know when to say stopped before you are milked dry.
Okay, you have bragging rights. Who are you going to brag to when you are living on the street pushing a shopping cart? You will sound like some of the muttering guys or gals who shout out “Kansas City! Seattle!” for some weird reason when I walk by.
I have heard that it is often just as easy to fall in love with a rich person as it is with a poor person but the reality is that rich people generally want partners who respect a dollar, a yen, a yuan or euro. They want somebody who has the savvy to help them keep their money and be socially perfect. So if your partner wants to keep her position as you may want to research what it would take to get her to change her ways or dissolve the business and/ or relationship.
Good luck and let us know what happens. Got any more stories readers or questions? Send them in.
June 20 2009
If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.
Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.
Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.
Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime. Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.
Kim Isaac Greenblatt
Dump Your High Maintenance Girl Friend
Tags: Business, dating, relationships
Hello,
Everything dynamic and very positively!