Perceptions ...

[fivemack]

[Poll #1757933]

Comments

[naath.livejournal.com]

I think I generally expect expenses to be paid, insurance companies to pay out, and shares bought with dividends in mind to pay dividends (I'm risk averse, this is the only kind of share I buy). However the longer I wait for this money the more like FREE MONEY it is, because the more I've accustomed myself to not having it.

Making money out of things I've already had fun with is FREE MONEY because I don't generally buy things expecting to be able to sell them later... tax refunds are FREE MONEY if I wasn't expecting them and not if I'd worked out the tax office was going to owe me money.

[uitlander]

Exactly this.

[(Anonymous)]

Tax refunds are not free money. They were your money anyway, you just didn't know about it before.

Dividends are not free money. When a dividend is about to be paid the value of a share drops (by about the same amount) because the share price takes it into account.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

I know that none of them are free money in the strict sense; that's why I put 'perceive as ...'. But I have certainly seen entirely financially-aware people rejoice at opening a dividend or a Premium Bond cheque at the breakfast table in much the same way as they would at a tenner picked up in the street.

[redbird]

The breakfast rebate feels like free money because I have to eat breakfast every morning regardless, and my habits include a pastry of some sort (bagel, or croissant, or muffin, or what-have-you) purchased on my way to the office on workdays. Ebay might count if someone else did the work of selling and shipping.

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

We must have very different lives - I've never received any money of any of these types.

[ceb.livejournal.com]

I haven't either, though I could do ebay if I had the time and organisation.

[rmc28]

None of them, unless something sells on ebay for considerably more than I was expecting.