Money Listens

Yesterday I wrote about Affluenza, the epidemic of buying everything we want whether we can afford it or not. Yes, the advertising agencies are partly to blame. Everything we see on television or read in a magazine encourages us to buy the latest and greatest because we deserve it and it will make us look, act, and feel great. Last week a major department store had a series of nearly full-page newspaper ads. The ads promised us we would be a “Suburban Legend” if we bought this particular Bar-B-Q grill. Or, if we bought a riding lawn-mower we would be the “Alpha Male” on our street. If you want to be a “Goddess” all you have to do is wear this dress. Give me a break. How do you keep from being manipulated by these ads? You must have an affluenza shot. Each time you are tempted to spend money poke yourself really hard. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I already have something like this?
2. Can I borrow one from somebody?
3. Can I wait and buy this another day?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, don’t buy it. Then go to the bank and put the money you would have spent into your savings account. Then, when your car breaks down, you won’t have to take the riding lawn-mower to work.

This entry (Permalink) was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 12:58 pm and is filed under A to Z. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.