"Money is a great servant but a bad master" - Francis Bacon
From personal experience, it's very easy to have a perspective on spending money which favours excessive consumerism - after all, it takes constant vigilance to avoid a desirable purchase, but only a split second to embrace it and throw your money at the latest and greatest dancing robot.
We've all heard of the dopamine rush that buying something epic gives us - it's fun buying stuff, right? Well, I'm here to let you know that with the right perspective on money, the satisfaction of not spending can actually provide a constant dopamine trickle that is just enough to keep the stupid purchases at bay.
How Not to View Spending Money
To make things easier, I'm now going to ask you to envision a hypothetical stick man called John. John has a terrible perspective on money, and a soft spot for dancing robots. Let me show you why:
Let's be honest, we're all guilty of being a John from time to time. Without roasting John too hard, let's break down what went wrong with this purchase:
1. Thinking you have a great deal when it's really just great marketing. It's so easy to be sucked into buying something useless by good marketing - usually by the ol' FREE SHIPPING and then mark up the price of the item technique, or the classic FLASH SALE TIME LEFT: 00:00:45. You've gotta be extremely careful to firstly consider multiple products and also the same product on multiple websites - and there are plenty of sites out there that will do these comparisons for you, so use them!
2. Spending money as soon as you get it. This is hands down the biggest problem any bad spender has. Spending paycheck to paycheck is really just not a good idea for a few reasons. The first is that you develop a habit of spending as soon as you receive a paycheck, so when there comes a time that you don't even have anything to buy, you'll buy stuff out of habit - and this isn't a good thing. The second is that if you ever have an emergency or something you actually need to buy you're gonna need money. If you don't have any money you're gonna need a loan, and then you've made your way into debt and it's all downhill from there.
3. The YOLO mentality. Unfortunately, only living once doesn't justify a bad perspective on spending - if anything it should justify a good perspective. Like I mentioned earlier, it only takes a split second to press 'Buy Now' or swipe your credit card, but it takes a lot of vigilance to constantly refrain from doing so. This split second is what I (and many other cool folk) call a 'yolo' moment. The problem is that sometimes you 'yolo' a purchase and it turns out to be actually good. What we often neglect are the dancing robot 'yolo' purchases that end up collecting dust. Avoid the YOLO mentality at all costs. Take a second (or even a day!) to think before making a purchase.
How to View Spending Money
Let's say John has an identical twin by the name of Janet, who is also a stick person. Even though Janet also likes dancing robots, she (unlike John) has a great perspective on money. Let me show you why:
Janet's hit the nail on the head here guys, and here's a few reasons why:
1. Viewing not buying something as being given money. This is perhaps what changed my spending the most of everything you'll read today. Next time you are about to buy something, and then you don't, try and view that non-purchase like you're being given the money instead. If I did buy a dancing robot I would be $50 worse off than if I hadn't bought it - so really I could be given $50 and I'd be in the same position! Likewise, I might save $20 by looking at a different website and boom I've effectively been given $20.
2. Treating every purchase as a possible investment. If you're not sure whether or not you need something, think about if the purchase could be considered a good investment. For example, if you are going to buy a pair of sunglasses - do you already have a pair? What's wrong with that pair? Is the pair you're going to buy gonna last ages? How much is this pair and is it worth the extra money if it's expensive? You get the idea.
3. It all adds up. A lot of people have no proper understanding of what saving little amounts of money can do for you. Let's say you get real into saving all of a sudden and get a bunch of membership cards and coupons to try and save money - lame right? Well actually, maybe not! If you managed to save just $20 a week by being smart with when and what you purchase, then by the end of the year you would have $1,040. That's like, almost one Supreme shirt!
In conclusion - please don't be a John, be a Janet. Try to begin thinking about how you can take a few leaves from Janet's book, and change your perspective on spending money in the process. Next time you see that sweet dancing robot calling you from the shelf, question whether or not you really need it. Also, I apologize if your name is John (I'm sure you're a great spender in reality).
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