GOLDEN RULES
❚ Beware frictionless spending ❚ Focus on spending for deep happiness ❚ Work on your willpower
you couldn’t shop on it.
These days your lounge is a shopping mall whenever there’s a screen open. If you are awake, you can shop.
Even the action of buying has lost friction.
Writing out cheques and counting out cash have largely gone.
These days PINs often don’t even need entering. If you’re too lazy to get a card out, just wave your wallet at the terminal.
As friction diminishes, people need more willpower and anticonsumer defence strategies. Here are some of mine. Willful ignorance: I virtually stopped watching TV years’ ago, so I don’t see much advertising. I’m squeamish about violence, and bored by reality shows. I know less than I used to about things I could buy. As a result, I don’t yearn for them. Cutting screen time reduces consumer pressure.
Place avoidance: I dislike shopping. I detest malls. Replacing recreational shopping
‘‘These days your lounge is a shopping mall whenever there's a screen open. If you are awake, you can shop.’’
with more healthy pursuits (walks in the bush, trips to the beach, etc) increases willful ignorance, and physically separates you from temptation. Double win.
Big picture thinking: Do you want another shirt, or do you want a mortgage until you are 72? Fair question. Is that coffee a coffee, or is it the partial sacrifice of your early retirement? Focusing on the big uses for money makes it easier to avoid frittering.
Happiness focus: Focus on using money to bring deep happiness. Ask yourself: ’’Will knocking four months off the mortgage make me happier than bringing forward the purchase of a new car by a year?’’ Train yourself to ask the question.
Increasing personal friction: Many people do it. They leave their credit cards at home, or don’t carry change, if there’s a vending machine at work. They’re sabotaging their ability to spend.
Joyless sneering: I know it doesn’t sound very pleasant, and I don’t do it out loud, but I am suspicious about the personal finances of the best-dressed, besthoused people I know. When I find myself inclined to envy, I defend myself with speculation about the state of the envied party’s debts.