The Online Investing AI Blog

It’s natural for us to be concerned with what people think of us. A nice house, car and clothes are supposed to tell other people that we are successful. And personal electronics has taken this trend to a whole new level.

For most people, buying a new house or car is just too expensive. That’s why a pimp phone is so alluring. It allows us to have the trappings of success but doesn’t cost nearly as much as the other stuff. But since it is so much cheaper it is easy to forget the true cost of the phone. As I have mentioned before, $100 may not seem like much, but it turns out to make a huge difference in our finances.

So, what we are really doing is sabotaging our financial future to maintain the illusion of success. Because if you think about it, that’s what we are buying to get status. We are making our finances worse while making it look like we are in a strong financial position.

Ultimately, I think it is about finding a new source of status. Most people think they are successful if they look successful. I beg to differ. I think true status is something that lives in your heart. It’s not something you can buy for $100 per month.

The challenge is that it is so much easier to just pay the money and feel better about ourselves. To seriously improve any aspect of our lives takes consistent work. It takes years to gain financial freedom. It can take years of daily exercise to make our body look great. Making the changes in our habits and our bodies to actually feel successful takes a lot of hard work. Buying just about anything is easier.

It seems to me that to really be successful we need to change ourselves. We cannot attain success or happiness or fulfillment by buying anything. Although it is difficult to change our habits and thoughts overnight, I do have one suggestion that might help.

I suggest buying nothing that will make us feel good about ourselves or give us “status”. Instead of buying something, do something. Maybe it is going to a gym. Maybe it is taking a class. Maybe it is learning a new skill. Maybe it is fixing a problem that has been bothering us for years. It doesn’t matter what it is. It can be anything.

The reason this works is that it gets us out of the habit of getting status through buying stuff. When we feel like we want to improve something, we will not have the gut reaction of going out and buying something that we don’t need. Instead, we will feel driven to do something that actually improves our lives, instead of something that destroys our future.

Hopefully this is an idea that you can try. Who knows, it just might work.

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