There is little or no conflict about what to buy.
No laborious, gut-wrenching decision paralysis.
Rational choice strategy hardly matters at all
when you see something you want. Just get it!
Evaluation is easy; justification easier.
It’s amazing how decisive you are in the face of
inadequate information, time pressure, ill-defined goals.
Need I add – shortage of money.
But when goals are unclear the trouble starts.
Unless you know what you want to accomplish
no mount of stuff will get you there.
And with any ill-defined goal, how do you know
if your decision was right or wrong? Of course, you don’t.
Factor in all the financial choices you make every year and
there is room for ambiguity, waste, and large amounts of folly.
I’d like to think that buying a house and a car remain
the exceptions in this non-comparative process of decision making.
Here, if anywhere, is when you must actually weigh the evaluation
of options for their superior merit prior to purchase.
Most people get it that these should not be impulsive.
The challenge is to move more of your other spending
toward the satisfaction of longer term goals.
There is no reason to believe this makes for less fun.
Copyright 2010 William M. MacKay
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