Wants are interesting. People want to buy everything that they come across. Most of the times when people shop, wants take preference than needs. For example Gold. Even if people do not buy gold, will anything happen to them? Nothing – still they buy Gold, Diamonds, costly stones etc.
Let us take another example. You can very well live without soft-drinks (cold-drinks), by just drinking water – still you buy soft-drinks. After all soft-drink contains carbonated water and a sweetening agent, but people still buy them. Mind it we are not joking – most soft-drink businesses are million dollar business selling something we just don’t need but may want. Huh!!!
People buy what they want to buy. Later they might even regret their buying decision, but they buy anyway. Interestingly they do this mistake again and again in their life wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars in unwanted things during their lifetime.
There are many reasons why we buy unwanted stuff or what we don’t need. One of the most important reasons is the social status. Gold falls in this category.
Let us take another example. One person we know bought a huge house in Singapore while he was posted there. He did not need a house there as he was on a temporary posting. However at that time he could afford it. As time passed by, recession kicked in. He lost his job, came back to the US and then faced foreclosure of his home in Singapore. He bought this house as a status symbol, telling all his friends about his achievement, and very soon regretted his decision to buy the house. He not only lost thousands of dollars in the deal (his house was sold for peanuts), but was also ridiculed among his friends.
One simple mistake of a bad buy, and he paid throughout his life.
Do you want to do the same?
Don’t buy anything that you DO NOT need. Buy things according to your need, and not according to your wants. You will save money. Even if you have to pay a few extra bucks, but if you really need something – go buy it. But if you are getting something for really cheap but there is no need for it in your life, do not buy it.
However you could argue that buying a house in a foreign country is a horrible financial decision. Most people won’t do it. Agreed. But then this is just an example. If you keep adding the monies you have spent over a lifetime on unnecessary things, probably if not a house, you could have bought a great holiday trip or something of more value, that would be worth a thousand times all those things you bought and never used.
How do you differentiate between want and need?
This is a good question. Sometimes there is a thin line of difference between want and need. For example you should a buy a desktop computer or a laptop? Now this one is tricky. Lets see. Suppose you are business person on the move and need internet while traveling – a laptop is what you should get. However if you need a computer occasionally – to email, socialize, chat or browse at home – a desktop computer is good enough.
Now even here you should decide what kind of computer you should buy. A very high-end computer is very costly. So if you are a designer and need to install high-end memory-eating software, go for the high end computer, else a basic computer should solve your purpose.
Please understand the objective of this article is that you buy the right things and in the process save money. We hope henceforth you will buy things you need and not what you want.