You Have Bought at Least Two of These Twelve Things

Of the twelve things on this list you have almost certainly bought at least two. Not out of carelessness and not out of stupidity: at that moment the promise hit exactly what you felt was missing. That is also why these products sell best in the hard stretches of life rather than the easy ones. All twelve share one feature — they sell the same promise and not one of them delivers it: pay, and you will receive something that in reality cannot be bought. Respect, discipline, peace of mind, time, skill, the resolve to start. We sort them by the type of promise rather than the size of the expense: the status car on credit or lease, things whose logo is their main function, the lavish one-off event paid for with debt, the home taken at the limit of what is possible, the annual membership instead of a habit, the course instead of starting, the equipment bought before the hobby, the extended warranty on cheap appliances, lotteries, devices whose upkeep outweighs their use, and the surcharge for speed. The twelfth is the only one where the refusal runs the other way. Plus the economists' work on wedding spending and on gym memberships, the honest part about when each of these purchases is in fact justified, the middle path through the second-hand market, and the one question at the till that replaces the entire list. At the end, a two-minute check made of three questions. Smart saving, personal finance, money psychology, consumer traps and household budget — without a list of prohibitions. #PersonalFinance #MoneyPsychology #SaveMoney