Do you always need the latest?
We live in a time when the latest and greatest comes every single year. Every company comes out with a new product with the best and latest features every single year. That puts us consumers in a very difficult situation. The question we need to ask ourselves is, do we always need the latest?
The answer is No. You don't always need the latest, you only need what's essential for you.
Purchase Decisions As a Minimalist
Today, I would like to share 3 questions that I ask myself every single time whenever I am planning to purchase something for the long term. These questions have helped me focus on the essentials and not on the latest in the market. Even if you are not a minimalist, I hope these 3 questions will help you make better purchase decisions in the future.
Can You Afford it?
Photo by Michael Longmire on Unsplash
This is a simple question. But the answer is a bit complex. Affordability just doesn’t mean having the cash to buy the product. It also means being able to sustain that purchase for a longer period of time. A lot of us including me make the mistake of buying products in credit or installments.
This is a big mistake I have made in the past. I have had to suffer for being lured into easy long term purchases with a credit card. But I learned my lesson and that is why I am sharing this with you. We never know how our cash flow or income will be in the long run. We can never predict that it will be smooth every single month. For this reason it’s really important for us to be smart with our purchases and buy upfront with cash.
We also need to keep in mind if buying that product is sustainable for the longer term. We shouldn’t spend all our savings on that one purchase and then have a hard time meeting our daily needs. Let’s be smart about our next purchase decision by planning for the long term.
2.. Need or Want?
I hope we are all familiar with these 2 terms. But the problem is as we grow older we tend to ignore the importance of these two very basic terms. We need to define whether the product that we want is a need or a want. If it’s a need then it’s a craving for the short term. Like a dessert we will crave it but it’s not good for our body in the long run.
Photo by Brenda Godinez on Unsplash Photo by Yoann Siloine on Unsplash
For example: We already own a decent camera. We see the release of new cameras. The Canon Eos R5 or the Sony A7Siii. I think to myself, ‘‘I want that camera! It has all the latest features to improve my videos.’’ But we need to first evaluate if upgrading our camera is a need. We might be better off improving your lighting or audio. A lot of us content creators ignore the importance of lighting and audio. But as we create more we realize how they are highly important. In this case that craving for a camera is just a want in that moment.
3.. Essential Features?
Photo by Sarah Dorweiler on Unsplash
Answering this final question will help us decide on the essential features we need in the product we want to purchase. Essential features are unique to each and every consumer. At present the range of products that different companies produce is unbelievable. Any category we look at we have an abundance of options. While having lots of options might seem like a great thing, but this paradox of choices make us suffer from decision fatigue.
Decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making.
Photo by Victoriano Izquierdo on Unsplash
For this reason before we look at the list of available products, it’s really important for us to decide what features are essential to us. As long as we have that list of essential features, it will be really easy for us to find the product that best fits our need.
During the final year of my undergraduate studies I used this iPhone 6. A phone that was released back in 2015. I bought this 2nd hand only because it had the essential features that I needed. Unfortunately, I broke the screen and eventually broke the home button. But I still used it for almost a year. The essential features were still functioning. This might be a too extreme for a lot of people but I hope you get the point!
Here’s the video I made regarding this topic.
I hope these 3 questions can help you on your next purchase. But I would love to know how you decide on your long term investments. Do you have any specific steps that you follow? Do you have a checklist? Let me know! Thank you!