DUSTY WALLET
Why keeping up with the Kardashians is worse than the Joneses.
Much like beauty, spending, or what constitutes reckless spending, is in the eye of the beholder. Aspirational spending is the buzzword of today and it means different things to different people. Is it really just spending money on luxury items to match a lifestyle you dream about, but can’t really afford?
“Some of this spending has to do with the way we absorb media now, especially millennials,” says Chantel Chapman, a Vancouver-based financial literacy advocate and founder of Holler For Your Dollar. “In the past, it was about keeping up with the Joneses and you kind of had an idea what the Joneses were like. Now we are keeping up with the Kardashians, which is a walking commercial for consumer goods and keeping up with celebrity lifestyle.”
The result seems to be a desperation for people to show the world they’re doing something really cool, and posting it on social media makes it a bragging keepsake forever. Certainly, people are willing to pay a lot for experiences.
Prices for the National Basketball Association all-star game events in Toronto this past winter — a-once-in-a-lifetime show for the city — climbed to as much as US$3,885 for just the slam dunk contest, according to StubHub. The actual all-star game’s top price soared to US$6,500. Justin Bieber wants US$2,000 for a meet-and-greet opportunity during his 2016 tour, according to media reports. If you wanted to hang out backstage with lead singer Ozzy Osbourne when the Black Sabbath tour rumbled into Vancouver in March, that’s $2,500. One can only imagine the astronomical sums we might be willing to pay to see a Canadian hockey team in the Stanley Cup finals given what a rare occurrence that has become.
But perhaps even worse is that this spending philosophy is being passed on to our children, as we dole out dollars to meet their every whim, too. “We aspire to great things for our kids and are so committed to it, we will buy almost anything for them,” says Brett Graff, Miami-based author of Not Buying It. She says raising a successful child is not about spoiling them with the latest gadget or best trips. “Kids who start ahead in school don’t have better toys,” she says, adding that interaction with parents plays a larger role. The lesson young children must learn, she adds, is “need versus want” — something that can be applied to everything and not just for children.
There are two sides to every spending decision: one is the value you place on the acquisition and the other is how you are going to pay for your aspirations. Too often, though, debt is fuelling some of the spending. Household debt in Canada is at an all-time high and some of that is clearly going for prizes we can’t necessarily afford.
Is there a solution to all this spending? Sure, you could aspire to something a little less exciting. How about the final Toronto Maple Leafs game this season? You can still post a picture of yourself on Facebook and the social media site even has a sad button these days. StubHub has tickets for just over $50 — hockey infamy is clearly a lot cheaper.