Rethinking our Spending Habits

Buying is an important activity in our lives. In our lifetime, it is almost impossible not to buy something. We all need something that will make our lives easier and could help us adapt to the society better. For example 20 years ago, we didn’t have a single mobile phone in our house.

Today, almost every home in the country has a mobile phone. In fact, some didn’t even a landline anymore and have opted to use their mobile phones as the primary means of communication. At the point of transition from the landline to mobile phone, we have to buy these gadgets.

But not all buying situations are not like mobile phones wherein the need of the gadget is increasing. Chances are, we often end up buying things that we don’t need or even want. For example, there are things that are really cheap that just have to buy them even though we don’t have thought about its impact in our life.

More and more people are experiencing financial slump because there are so many things to buy that they end up spending their money in paying their debt instead of using the money for more important things.

The problem of course is within us. But more specifically, the problem is on our concept of buying. Sure you may be thinking about comparing our needs and wants but that’s just part of the problem. There are so many reasons why we end up buying something even though we don’t need them.

The following are some the reasons why:

Satisfaction 

When we have the particular book, gadget or anything that we bought, we are immediately satisfied by the fact that we own them. But our thought only goes as far as getting us the satisfaction we want from buying these products. We haven’t thought about the actual use of the product.

Credits 

One of the reasons why don’t even bother to consider the effects of buying something is that we always have our credit cards to help us out. Because we are able to pay for the products that we want slowly and monthly, we can just get away with the actual payment. But of course we all know the high interest rates of the credit card. Although you might be spending a few dollars a month, the total amount paid is just too much.

The money will come soon 

Even we don’t have money, we end up buying something because we are thinking that money will soon come to us. The money may arrive but from the fact that we are spending money even before we get it is just plain wrong.

Keeping up with the lifestyle 

This is where the concept of mobile phones comes in. Mobile phones are both luxury and necessity. We don’t want to go to the side of luxury and stick to the necessity. Some of us just wanted to have WiFi capabilities in our mobile phones so that we could check our friends in social websites.

Lack of knowledge 

Half of this idea is our fault but a fault nonetheless. We are always excited about buying something that we forgot that there are so many stores in the country that there might be a store that could offer the same product at a lower price.

Getting ourselves out from financial problems requires thinking ahead, thinking right about right now and thinking about the reality. Don’t just jump into something because we like or the money will eventually arrive. Always think twice about buying the product so that you can think ahead of its use and how it could even earn you some money.