Time to throw away money!

You know what really bugs me? The way people are always buying stuff these days. Nearly everyone (in the USA at least) likes to think that they're some kind of mini-millionaire, and they only need to keep track of big expenses like mortgage/rent payments, car payments, school tuition, etc. Do you want to know what keeps so many of us in debt, and why so many of us will have a bitch of a time retiring? We piss away our money on stuff we don't need.

Yeah, I know, it's advice that's been around since the Stone Age. Back when Oog was complaining about how he was living from mammoth to mammoth, Ug hit him over the head with a big stick and told him it was because he kept spending his dried mammoth meat (mammoth jerky was the currency of the day) on every new upgrade of flint spearheads that came out, when the one he had was working just fine. Then Oog hit Ug back with a big rock and killed him, so now we are all descended from a moronic impulse buyer.

This has worked wonders for the economy, of course. Vending machines, Starbucks, fancy cell phones, and no end of other things for us to buy. We're surrounded by advertisements for this stuff, and none of it is stuff we need. Yet we still buy it, partly because we're only half aware of the fact that we're spending money, and partly because its a huge part of our culture. Not buying fancy junk like cell phones, trendy clothing, video games, and lattes you don't really need make you an outcast from popular culture. I've overheard conversations between teenage girls about how they've got some money they want to spend. They go to the mall as a social activity, not because they want to buy something in particular. Come to think of it, most malls don't have stuff anybody really needs, with a handful of exceptions.

What the hell is this? Why are we so absorbed into buying "stuff"? We don't even realize we're doing it most of the time, I expect. I see people at my school buying a bottle of water almost every single day. No one needs to spend 50 cents every single day on a bottle of water, but they do. I buy one bottle a week, sometimes less, and refill it at home.

"But what's the big deal?" You ask, "50 cents is pocket change, it makes no difference." Oh really? Let's see, if you spend fifty cents, oh, let's say, four days in every week for eight months, you spend... holy crap, that's around $68 bucks! And that's just for a 50 cent bottle of water at my school; think of how much you might be spending on that $3 latte you buy every other day. Assuming you have the math skills, try keeping track of what you're spending. You may be surprised about how it adds up.

Of course, nobody cares. We would rather bleed away money in exchange for thinking we can afford these little indulgences. "Sure, I've got some financial problems," we think, "but it's not like buying the occasional doughnut is going to ruin me." Maybe not, but is it really worth it to hit that vending machine every day at work? Bring a sandwich or something. Oh wait, you are so absorbed into the culture of buying things that you have forgotten how to prepare food for yourself? My mistake.

This isn't supposed to be a financial advice column, but if you leave this page a tiny bit wiser then congratulate yourself. Otherwise, go about your life as you always have, secure in the fact that this is America, gosh darn it, and you've got every right to spend money on a premium cable package that has maybe five or ten channels that you actually watch.

This cynicism is brought to you by me (duh), as inspired by this guy's article. I don't completely agree with everything he says, but I don't hold that against him. If you ever find yourself in complete agreement with somebody, slow down and think about it for a few minutes.