Why Do You Buy The Things You Do?
My friend’s Ferrari GTB.
I recently met up with three of my long-standing good friends to catch up after a far too long COVID induced hiatus.
We all know each other very well, having had several foreign business trips together. And although we are all financially successful and similar, we each have different priorities and values when it comes to our lifestyles and money choices.
One of my friends drives a Toyota Previa, which cost him £10,000. One drives a Ferrari 488 GTB, which cost him £240,000. And another drives a Porche 911, which cost him £130,000.
The car line up for my three mates: Ferrari 488 GTB, Porche 911, and Toyota Privia
In case you are wondering, I drive a Mercedes E-Class estate, which cost me £20,000 secondhand.
Why we buy things and the impact they have on our happiness is something that I've been researching for my new book The Money Miracle. I know my friends enjoy owning and driving their expensive cars and that they add to their happiness. But I wonder if they would enjoy them quite so much if there was no one around to notice them or to whom my friends could compare themselves.
In his brilliant book Desire: Why We Want What We Want, author William B. Irvine poses a thought-provoking question.
"Suppose you woke up one morning to discover that you were the last person on Earth: during the night, aliens had spirited away everyone but you. Suppose that despite the absence of other people, the world's buildings, houses, stores and roads remained as they had been the night before. Cars were where their now-vanished owners had parked them, and gas for these cars was plentiful at now-unattended gas stations. The electricity still worked. It would be a world like this world, except that everyone but you was gone. You would, of course, be very lonely, but let us ignore the emotional aspect of being the last person, and instead focus our attention on the material aspects.
In the situation described, you could satisfy many material desires that you can't satisfy in our actual world. You could have a car of your dreams. You could even have a showroom full of expensive cars. You could have the house of your dreams - or live in a palace. You could wear very expensive clothes. You could acquire not just a big diamond ring but the Hope Diamond itself. The interesting question is this: without people around, would you still want these things? Would the material desires you harboured when the world was full of people still be present in you if other people vanished? Probably not. Without anyone else to impress, why own an expensive car, a palace, fancy clothes, or jewellery?"
So, Irvine is saying is that most of our non-essential lifestyle spending is done with other people in mind and usually quickly wears off. Which requires the purchase of yet more material things to refresh the excitement and keep impressing other people.
The stoic philosopher Epictetus said that "Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants."
When you don't want for much life gets so much easier, you can spend less time trying to earn more money to buy more things to impress more people, and more time enjoying life's simple pleasures. Going for a run, watching the sunset or meditating all cost nothing but deliver so much.
By all means buy beautiful and expensive things if they will make you happy and you can afford them. Just make sure that you are clear about for whose benefit you are buying them.
“By all means buy beautiful and expensive things if they will make you happy and you can afford them. Just make sure that you are clear about for whose benefit you are buying them.” Tweet This
