Reasons We Spend

Posted by D.P.
at June 10, 2008

I was pondering some the dumb purchases I’ve made in my lifetime and what motivated me to make the decision to part with my hard earned dollars.  I had often watched in wonder as other people had expensive “stuff” and wondered why I didn’t have the same.  I guess I began chasing what they had and undertook to increase my income and then proceed to buy more in a way to demonstrate I had the same resources as those people I was admiring.

About 15 years ago I wasn’t getting any closer to this undefined goal and began looking deeper at what the differences between what I was doing and what others were doing.  I then had an epiphany and realized that I was going about it all wrong.  I was perusing conspicuous consumption instead of saving and investing.  The people I was admiring were probably deeply in debt and had little savings.

Changing Habits

The first thing I had to do was to change my attitude.  My issue with money had been a combination of my desire to “keep up with the joneses,” a lack of patience, and power.  Each of these is intertwined but I focused on my lack of patience.  I had to ask myself if I really needed what I wanted to purchase and if it was expensive I forced myself to save for it.  This exercise alone gave me more gratification than the instant gratification from just buying what I wanted.

Related Articles

Here are some related articles on this topic:

Related Articles

If you have found this article useful or simply enjoyed the reading and would like to have more personal finance related articles delivered to you directly, you can subscribe to Personal Money Tips by e-mail or to your news reader.

Frugality

If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Comments

No comments yet.

Leave a comment

(required)

(required)