Simplistic Thoughts

I was recently reading Men With Pens, a great site for blogging tips and other online resources. They also do various blog reviews which they call “Drive by Shootings“. They visit a blog and point out the good and the bad about the design, layout, and the content (They will be reviewing Simplistic Thoughts on October 26). Their latest review was a website called The Enhance Life. After reading Men With Pens’ review of the site, I decided to visit it to take a better look and see what they were talking about.

While doing so I came across an interesting article titled “Over Spending & Impulse Buying: 8 Reasons Why You’re Not To Blame“. As the title describes, the author talks about 8 ways people are influenced to overspend and buy things they don’t need and how it isn’t entirely their fault. While I agree with the fact that companies try desperately hard to get consumers to buy their products, I believe the final responsibility lies with the consumer. Not taking personal responsibility is one of the reasons that so many people are in debt.

Marketers will constantly be coming up with better and more cunning ways to try and convince you to buy something. Most of us are also raised to believe that the more we buy the better we will feel and media keeps this constantly installed in our minds. But it is you who gets to make the final decision whether or not to buy, and it will always be you who has to pay for the debt.

In order to make a smart decision, you must first realize that you are in control to make the decision. You have the power to control whether or not you spend money. A buy one get one free sale might be a good deal, but if you are struggling to pay rent then it isn’t something that you actually need then it probably is a bad decision. It’s true that marketing is becoming more sophisticated and better at influencing us to buy things. I am certainly guilty of this myself and have purchased things I don’t need. However, to put the blame on the marketing, advertisements, product dsiplays, or anything else besides yourself is very similar to blaming the kids who told dared you after you got in trouble.

But putting the blame somewhere else is the reason why so many people are in debt. Putting the blame elsewhere means you have no control over the situation and therefore can’t change it. As Steve Pavlina of Self Development for Smart People discusses in his new book, you must realize that you have the power to control your life. Once you realize that the responsibility is yours alone, you can take steps to change it.

So how can you stop yourself from being influenced and stop your spending?

1. Education- The more you understand about finance the better you will be able to improve your situation and the less likely you will be to spend. Also, learning about marketing and advertising will help you understand how you are being sold to.
2. Cut out the temptations- Stop window shopping. it’s just another excuse to get yourself to the store. Through away ads before looking at them.
3. Create a spending Budget and Stick to it- Creating a budget is a great way to limit the amount of money you spend. You have to stick with it to make it work.
4. Cut something out cold turkey- Do you spend a lot of money on DVDs, electronics, clothes, etc. Completely cut it out for a month. It will seem difficult at the beginning, but it gets much easier after a while and you will be much less likely to spend your hard saved money.
5. Stop watching so much TV and reading so many magazines- The media is constantly trying to influence us to purchase something. Cutting out the TV and magazines helps take away some of those temptations.