Is Having Money Alpha or Beta?

Reader Email: Does having a healthy 401k fall into the alpha or beta territory? How about a nice home? Shopping at the fancy grocery store? Expensive nights out? Tailored suits? Long vacations? Fancy cars? Where is the line drawn between alpha-spending and beta-spending? In a LTR, where money is usually pooled, can alpha-spending still be effective in inspiring sexual attraction? Can it be effective on a spouse?

Athol: Money is simply a store of value, so it is fluid in it’s application of being Alpha or Beta as it can be spent either way. Women will tend to perceive a mans money as being potentially spent the way they would most like it to be spent. Party girl sees a million bucks as a huge party waiting to happen. Homemaker girl sees a million bucks as a big house, a mess of kids and her getting to stay home and not work. Doctor girl sees a million bucks as the college loans gone and an awesome shortcut to a private practice with reasonable hours. Church girl sees mission trips and structured giving. So it’s kinda potent in that sense.

It’s less important than it was 50 years ago, but more money is better than less money when it comes to attracting women for sure.

As an aside, Jennifer and I have always about level pegged income our whole marriage and pooled the money. I always felt semi-stupid buying her gifts with our shared money. “Here’s some flowers, you just spent $10 on them, I hope you like them.” I made a determination early on that all the book/blog money was mine. (My nursing money just goes to the joint bank account) It’s been an interesting dynamic to have additional income and spending that I have control over.

Of course the timing chain on her car went within two days of the first book money arriving and sucked it up to within about $60 lol. So it’s not like I’m a bastard with my new cash. It’s just an interesting dynamic. Most of it is just going to catch up on the bills and store up for the next book for fancy cover et al.

Blogger just “upgraded” it’s interface and functionality. It’s way worse now. So the projected reaching into the back pocket for a proper web design is going to be sooner rather than later as well.

Plus there’s these iPhone covers on Cafepress that make the iPhone look like a Star Trek Tricorder… so I’m seriously tempted just for the sheer geekiness of it all.

I’m also kind of excited to get to buy her flowers once in a while without using her money. Even so, she doesn’t seem to overly respond to them anyway, but I like giving them. Something I’m going to look at a little closer over the weekend..we’re going to focus on streamlining your Beta efforts to require less effort but create more comfort than ever.