Make me an offer! Submit a proposal!

These have to be among the most annoying and frustrating words in the English language. Why? Because of the way my mind works. To be able to make an offer on anything, I need to know what it is, how much it is worth, under the current market conditions, and what's a reasonable amount I can then push the point, without putting the other person off.

My mind works largely on the principle of building mental models of the world. To do this, I need to know as much about what it is I'm supposed to be doing or thinking about. In the case of making an offer, I need to know:

1. What I'm making an offer on, and what it is

2. Can I make an offer in the first place? (if it's something overseas, I may not be eligible)

3. What's fair under current conditions? For example, what is a particular item worth right now?

4. What is a fair margin for haggling?

Now, I may or may not have this information on hand, #4 is particularly difficult, as that depends on the other person. In some cases, I may not know what an item is really worth, so even setting the base price for an offer is difficult.

Now for the worse one... Proposals. With proposals, whether that be a proposal to do some work, or a proposal to pay off a debt, I am working with limited information. The big thing I need to know is what are the boundaries that I can't go beyond? What can and can't I do? For example, if it's paying off a debt, some of these boundaries might be:

1. How long before I must make a payment?

2. What's the minimum payment the creditor will accept?

3. Can I put it on hold and extend the repayment period, or catch up in a few months?

4. Can I vary the repayment if circumstances change? i.e. can I pay a bit more if I have some spare money?

Now on the issue of debts, the Tax Office are very good. They state most of their conditions up front, so it's easy to put forward a proposal, because the boundaries are fairly well set. They state how long a debt must be paid off in full, which sets the minimum payment amount, and they offer a range of frequencies to suit. They also state what happens if you fail to meet the agreed repayments.

Some banks, on the other hand, just say "Put forward a proposal", without addressing any of the other boundary conditions. For me, this is akin to trying to simulate the behaviour of a rocket, without supplying any formulas to describe gravity, acceleration or other matters of physics!