Posted By Seven Grey on Feb 8, 2014 | 1 comment

Childhood Views on Spending: Buying Goods

I was raised believing when I spend money, I should spend it on durable goods, something I can have and hold for some extended period of time. I believed, and was mostly taught, this was a frugal and thrifty way to live. As a youth I rarely purchased things like candy bars, food, or anything that was “consumed” in a short period of time. I only spend money on things that I could keep. The same held true for spending money on entertainment. I rarely spent money on movies, concerts, or other intangibles. My overall world view philosophy was that if it did not have durable or tangible value, I would do my best to avoid spending.

College Years

In college I started thinking for myself; I was no longer living at home and every class at the university was pumping new concepts, ideas, and ways of thinking into my head. My world view began evolving rapidly and I began questioning many things I had been told by those around me while growing up. It all started with dating. I still tried to be frugal—after all, I was still a starving college student. I would be creative with dates to try to create rich and fun experiences for my dates. For one date we tried to find every elevator on campus and ride it top to bottom in an experiment of “elevator jumping” to see which elevator had the fastest accent/descent and thus the most fun as you jumped in the air at the end of the ride (i.e. more “hang time”).

Durian fruit in Malaysia. This stuff stinks and to me is horrific to eat.

While in college, I discovered it was really fun to go out to eat; I had a very limited diet while growing up due to lower income as well as a mother who didn’t have a huge skill set in the kitchen. I developed a craving for Thai, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Turkish and Ethiopian foods. I found the food to be amazing and well worth the money spent. Today, perhaps the single most treasured thing I’ll pay money for is to dine at a street cafe in a foreign country like Poland eating the best local foods with someone living there. The street cafe offers an amazing visual stimulation of pedestrians walking past dressed in the local fashions which interestingly are often in English advertising businesses like “Joe’s Gym in San Diego California” or “Bill’s Hardware in Miami Florida”. When I see these shirts being worn by locals in Czek Republic I would ask them if they had ever been to San Diego or Miami and would be told they had never been to America. They just like the shirts and the American names. Sometimes they have no idea what “hardware” or a “gym” is. They had seen the city on TV and thought it was a nice shirt. It is fascinating!

Adult Views on Spending: Buying Experiences

As an adult, I recently realized my views have completely changed and are a polar opposite of how I spent money as a youth. Today, I believe in buying experiences and see spending money on things—on tangible goods—as a waste. I would rather travel the world collecting experiences and memories that I can keep for 50 years rather than buying a plasma TV or new car. I am in love with sitting at sidewalk cafes in foreign countries because of the variety of stimulus. Smells of fruit and vegetables of the nearby market drift through the air combines with the aromas of the cafe’s kitchen. Often there is a strong smell of vehicle exhaust as a big truck moves past. Even that has a different mechanical smell than home. It is moments like that, surrounded by smells, sounds, and visually interesting people, in the company of wonderful, laughing local hosts that I feel there isn’t enough money in the world to buy the experience, that I realize I have completely changed my views. The experience is priceless; I crave it, lust after it, and can’t wait to do it again, in a totally different way, in a different city of a different culture, with different dining partners. I also believe you don’t have to travel to buy great experiences. You can find them right in your local city by making an effort to spend quality time with friends, family, and local community groups. People can have rich experiences participating in their local theater by helping produce a play, singing in the church choir, or planting in a local community garden. Rich textural experiences can be found anywhere from your own backdoor to the most exotic third world country.  In the end, I realized my views have rotated a complete 180; today I’d chose buying rich cultural and social experiences over owning the latest super juicer, coffee table book, or microwave oven.