I Am A Compulsive Buyer

Savings, Savings, Savings………

There was a chapter in our 9th grade Hindi textbook about consumerism “Upbhogtavad Ki Sanskriti (उपभोक्तावाद की संस्कृति)”. One of the questions in that chapter was -

“How do you think the definition of happiness has changed due to marketing and all?”

I had written a beautiful answer to that question for which I was appreciated in front of the whole class. I don’t remember the answer but it had to do with something related to our morality, upbringing, and controlling one’s desires. At that time, I felt that I would never fall into the trap of consumerism and all the shiny marketing tricks.

Yes, I was being a little too arrogant. But, things escalated from that point onwards.

I got interested in gadgets and wanted every useless piece of new technology. I also started reading these fashion blogs. Being stylish and wearing branded clothes was a status symbol at my hostel circle. So, I started demanding more clothes and shoes and sunglasses and everything fancy. Till now, I was only demanding and was not actually getting a lot. I was still a teenager who lived in the confinement of a boys' hostel and I didn’t get enough pocket money.

But, once I got into college and was getting fixed pocket money every month, my hands started to itch. Because now, I could actually buy by anything under my budget. I could experiment with different products. I could go out and eat new dishes. I could buy books and stationery I would never use. I could buy ingredients for my cooking experiments that would sit there on the shelf till they expire and rot. Arborio rice for the risotto, balsamic vinegar for salads, dijon mustard, spaghetti, whole wheat pasta, siracha sauce, dragon fruit, shitake mushrooms, olives, artisanal sugar-free ice creams, ginger ale, tonic water, and the list is endless.

Then there were apps I would subscribe to, music instruments and accessories, gifts, cellphones that were not at all necessary but were tempting. The sense of buying them would give me the perfect dopamine kick that I wanted.

Dopamine, Dopamine, Dopamine

There is a class of antiparkinson drugs that are Dopamine agonists. These drugs have known behavioral side-effects like compulsive buying, gambling, etc. Agonist means they work similarly to dopamine in our brains.

As Naval Ravikant says “The culprit is always this cheap Dopamine.”

Controlling these temptations is a daunting task. If I see something interesting online that I would love to have but don’t actually need, I might control the urge of buying it at first. But then, that urge will grow and grow and grow inside my head in the anticipation of the dopamine kick that I would get. And then there would be a point where I would just give way to the temptation. The dopamine would kick in, I would enjoy it for some time and then regret it the whole time, promising myself never to repeat this mistake. But then, another ad will flash up on the screen triggering the same impulsive buying cycle.

The reason for this impulsive buying is that we are only experiencing the pleasure of buying and not the pain of earning money.

Everyone will tell you that you only realize the value of money once you start earning. True. But I know many who have started earning a decent amount and still don’t realize its value. So, I would tweak this statement a little bit.

I would say, “You don’t realize the value of money until you start goal-based savings.”

Let’s say you want to buy a car worth 10 lakhs and your salary is 80k. Now there is a rule while buying a car called 20-4-10 rule. 20% of your car’s value should be the down-payment. The EMI should not exceed more than 4-5 years and it should not be more than 10% of your salary.

Let’s just focus on the downpayment part which is 2 lakhs. You can either ask your parents for the money because you want to buy a car as soon as possible. Or you can save 2 lakhs to buy it later. Let’s say you save 10k per month from your salary just for the car in a short-term mutual fund giving you 10% returns. You will have to do it for at least 1.5 years before you can even pay for the downpayment. And that’s just for the car. There are other more important investments like tax and retirement planning.

Once you start goal-based saving, you will realize the time, patience, and effort that it would take to gather such a huge corpus which you could have easily ask from your parents.

We are seeking that quick dopamine rush which is not possible this way. Once you have to wait for something for so long, you start evaluating whether you really need it or not. And that is when you understand the importance of money.

The same is with buying a phone or a laptop or anything too expensive.

I am learning it the hard way and I am sure you must have had or will have to go through the same experience.

I hope you start thinking about your expenditure and start saving.

Ciao….