With the Lunar New Year soon ending, some of us may be busy shuttling from house to house collecting as many red packets as we can (yay to being a child!) while a great portion might have already started the annual ritual of counting one's riches. Whatever stage of CNY you are at, the gist is that we all suddenly become rich at this time of the year, and almost naturally, we tend to become more generous, both to others and ourselves. Most of the time this instant fortune works to our benefit, because hey, who can't do more cash, right? But at the same time, it also calls for some serious thinking as extravagance might not always be the path we want to take... Here are different kinds of spenders (or rather splurge-rs) I have met throughout my life!
The Collector
Characteristics: Spends a significant portion of income on a certain item, hardly uses it, and is not willing to get rid of them when they pile up.
It's sad, but I have to admit that I'm the kind of spender that one would term a 'collector' - That is to say, I buy things that I hardly use at all. Having just graduated from high school and relying only on freelance tutoring, I do not have a massive financial reservoir, so the type of things I tend to spend a lot of money on would be clothes, but a collector can buy many other things ranging from the cheaper stuff like pens, to the costly ones like electronics, depending on the financial budget of the person.
A year and a half ago, I discovered Tao Bao and ever since I've been sourcing my cheap clothing and shoes from that online marketplace. I have lost count of how many items I have bought from China, but it is probably enough to fill an entire wardrobe. I feel guilty sometimes because I do not wear the clothes I buy very often. They are mostly too tight, so I have no choice but to toss it into the depths of my wardrobe and never look at it again.
That said, many collectors are actually semi-collectors - I'm a semi-collector, I'd say, because while I am willing to get rid of the clothes that I do not wear anymore, I simply do not care enough to post them on Carousell, or book a flea market table to sell them off. Despite having two wardrobes full of clothing now, I still always feel the urge to buy more clothing, which is inherently an unhealthy habit. The only saving grace is that I am a stingy collector, so nothing (apart from gifts) in my wardrobe costs more than SGD10 - a feat for a teenage girl, huh?
The Mountain
Characteristics: Spends little on a lot; mostly on insignificant items that are otherwise unimportant, but bought anyway because it is on promotion.
The Mountain is termed as such because his/her spending pattern initially looks like that of a thrifty person, but if you look at the big picture, you will realise that the accrued expenditure slowly builds up into a huge one dedicated to insignificant items - money that could have been saved. Quote 'mountain out of a molehill'! A mountain might like to pride him/herself in his/her ability to source deals and promotions, often keeping check on how much has been saved e.g. "Using this coupon I only spent $30 on a bottle of wine that usually costs $120!" and they often do not realise that they did not actually 'save' $90 because on normal days they would not even buy the wine to start with. Compared to the collector, the mountain has a higher capacity to be disastrous as proportionate discounts for higher-value items can easily reach the hundreds, thereby making the deal seem more attractive to them.
The Comfortable
Characteristics: Habitual spender who refuses to seek cheaper alternatives due to fear of stepping out of comfort zone
It took me quite some time to think of a name for this kind of spender, but I chose the comfortable with respect to the term 'comfort zone', which is a really important idea when analysing the spending habits of a person like this. A comfortable spender is one who would, say, take a familiar series of winding roads back home instead of the newly built shortcut, thereby spending more money on petrol when it could have been saved. The average response to such a spender would be, "Walao, then like that waste money sia." but before we pass any judgement, consider if we ourselves are guilty of being a teeny-weeny bit too comfortable with our expenditure. Think we are impervious to wasting? Think again! Consider the FairPrice Green Rewards Scheme that offers consumers a 10 cent rebate if they bring their own shopping bags. Shoppings bags are available almost everywhere for as cheap as $1, so acquiring one and bringing it out during shopping trips should not be too much of a burden, right? While response has been fairly positive, a poll conducted in 2013 revealed that the "Top reasons respondents gave for not bringing a bag included finding it troublesome, inconvenient or they were lazy." ... Sounds familiar? Sure, 10 cents might not seem a lot, but waste not, want not, and just like the mountain, little savings can soon accumulate into huge ones.
The Occasional
Characteristics: Very average spender who splurges extensively, once in a while, but in an increasingly extravagant fashion.
The occasional spender is a ticking time bomb in the sense that his/her spending pattern is generally acceptable - There is modest practice of money-spending and once-in-a-blue-moon splurges, but as time passes by, the occasional bouts of extravagance follow a linear, if not exponential increase eventually leading to an unsupportable level of expenditure. For example, Lily has just been employed with a graduate pay of $3000, and compared to her previous measly pocket money of $1000 given by her parents, she is greeted with endless possibilities as to how to spend that extra $2000. She spends conservatively as she was always told to keep some money for a rainy day, but the novelty of a fatter income gets the better of her and one night she decides to treat her family to a good buffet dinner. Her first instance of extravagance is a painful $500, but she considers it worth it in exchange for good memories. Presuming she spends $1000 on herself a month, she is left with savings of $1500 which she dilligently saves in her bank account. Towards the end of the year, Lily is still earning $3000, but she looks at her savings account and realises how much money she has been saving in the past few months. Excited, she books a week-long getaway to Bali with her family, costing her $2000, and again she brushes it off as a worthwhile spend. In following year, she decides to up the game and travel to Europe for 2 weeks... What she does not realise, however, is that her splurging is slowly evolving, becoming more frequent and extravagant with every instance, causing her to spend more with the same amount of income. While this is not necessarily her fault, we have to learnt to take control of our Basal Ganglia, the part of our brain associated with pleasure and the infamous reward system. With every instance of extravagance, the mind is inclined towards rewarding itself again and again, each time faster and more intense. If one does not have the income to support his/her increasing extravagance, the occasional might find him/herself deep in debt in the near future, especially in modern society where everything is brought forward by credit.
Of course, something harmless and joyous like the Lunar New Year is not capable of spelling poverty after riches, but it will definitely do good if we would just sit down and think about the faults in our spending pattern, so that we may become wiser spenders day by day.
xoxo
Valerie
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