Share

Imagine you’re walking down the street, and someone from work drives by in a very nice looking new vehicle. Most of us have the instant reaction that, “Wow, that person’s probably doing pretty well for him/her self!” Most of us associate wealth with having nice things as one in the same, but that’s simply not the case. We often buy nice cars and fancy stuff, not because they will provide us some amazing value, but rather because other people will recognize that we spent a lot of money on the purchase and think that we are very well to do. The problem is that most people who have a lot of nice things are flat broke. They buy all sorts of nice things on credit and want you to think their doing well, but the reality is that they’re just as broke as you!

We need to stop caring what other people think about our financial situations. There’s no reason to buy nice things just so other people think we’ve got it made. If we play the game of “keeping up with the joneses” we’re just going to keep buying stuff that we cannot afford and never build up any significant amount of wealth. You’ll have a lot of stuff that won’t be worth anything in 5 years, but that’s about it!

Instead of buying things based on others perceptions of us, we need to base them off the value that they will provide us. Buy things because you have a genuine need for the item, because you got a great deal, and because the product will give you an extremely good value for what you pay. I use an 8 year old television, 6 year old car, and 2 year old computer even though I have plenty of money in the bank to buy nicer things. The items that I have now are still giving me all sorts of good usage left, so there’s no reason to go out and buy anything new!

Before you make a purchase, carefully examine what your motives are. Are you buying the product because it will provide you a genuine value or are you more concerned about making sure others know that you made that purchase?