Cashier: The ready-made chicken wings and the video game, Wii Resort, will be $70.
While lining up and watching all these people buy groceries, business supplies and other “adult-preferred” products, I found myself staring at the two items I picked out and thinking “Aren’t these things for kids?”
It got me thinking some more. Do mature people spend less money?
I know this sounds a little ridiculous but hear me out first. It’s true that as we age, items on our wish list become pricier but aren’t there fewer items in there as well? Even if a kid hasn’t added that lavish vacation yet, he will eventually right?
Here’s a theoretical example:
Let’s say that Joe and Sam are young kids. Joe, like everyone else his age, likes video games. When he grew older, he fell in love with guitars and subsequently spent a ton of money on them. Later when he finished college, he realized that guitars helped him meet many girls but he was never good enough to turn professional. He moved on, but he’s found a new love – cars.
Sam on the other hand was always a little bit more mature. He never really liked video games much, but he certainly loved guitars as much as Joe. They spent all their money on the equipment for years, but he too realized that playing guitar is really a hobby and not necessarily a career. When Joe bought a car, Sam was jealous and wanted to lease one as well.
Sam, for some reason, never liked video games. He seemed to have “skipped” that phase and went straight to guitars. If Sam could fast forward a few years and know what he knew about guitars early, would he have spent all the money on them?
Part of me believe that splurging is tied to experience and maturity. If I knew what I now know back then, I would’ve spent much less than I did.
Doesn’t that in a way suggest that mature people spend less? If I could somehow skip ahead of the thinking of my age group, wouldn’t I somehow be able to control my desires a little better?
This post might be way out there, but it’s some food for thought! Let me know what you think!
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree, to a certain extent. It might be a stretch to think you can be a step ahead maturity-wise, but hindsight is always 20-20. This resonated with me well because I skipped the video game stage. Growing up, I wasn’t allowed to have a video game system, so I never spent money on video games, gameboys, and the like.
Still, if we are always a step ahead, that means we’re going to spend our money in other ways. You’re advocating skipping a step, not skipping hobbies all together. If Sam skipped over video games AND guitars, he probably would have found something more mature to focus on. Golf? That’s a pretty expensive hobby, too. We love spending money on our hobbies, and while I think it’s important to limit our spending, we also have to indulge once in a while.
There’s definitely always something to focus our attention (and thus, money) on. The idea has tons of flaws but I thought it was well worth discussing
Like I said, food for thought.
Like what Daniel said – if we don’t spend our money on one thing, it’s another. I don’t think that’s going away based on maturity alone. It could be argued, I think, that more mature interests will be higher-value, and at some point could even be called “investments” (if the interest in cars became restoring and reselling classic automobiles, for example). In most cases, however, I think “The only difference between men and boys is the size [and cost] of their toys” still holds true.
Now that I think about it, maybe immature people end up spending less money? I mean, if we are still thinking about video games when we are 50 instead of cars and boats, wouldn’t that somehow allow us to spend less?
I wished my husband would skip all the phases but I believe that they will end up not having a “normal” life. My kids make all kinds of mistakes but I rather them try it out and know it’s not for them than to be told that it’s not a good idea.
In almost all cases, the lesson learned is much more important than the price they paid.
Interesting take on this. To a certain extent, I think most parents practice this but there needs to be a point where they stop letting them try it out first. What I mean is that in the extreme case, shouldn’t a parent stop their children before they commit crime?
When it comes down to it, what is the right level of pressure is all just a judgment call.
Great point Emily. Not a week goes by without a conversation about some of those horrendous tv shows from when I was a kid, what music used to be popular, etc. And if you missed watching Saved By The Bell or Full House, you were the loser. Sometimes it’s better to participate in the silly phases, or we’ll miss out on a lot.
Each of us has a different something that just “grabs” us and entices us to spend our money on it – just as we all have different likes and dislikes.
It might not be maturity, but a sense of personal likes.
Some people are content with just the simple things, and some have to go for the fancy. I don’t think it is necessarily a question of maturity, but more of personal taste.
The most fun I’ve ever had was splurging when I had little to no money as a teenager and kid. Now that I can afford things, it’s no fun.
Don’t you think it’s funny the way this is? Anybody else feel the same way?
FS
In a way, I feel the same way. I remember saving money for months to buy a video game, and I played it day and night for months after I bought it. When I got older and I could just “get” the games without too much thought, I rarely had the same attention span for the games anymore.
When you work hard for something, you always enjoy it more!
I think you’ve definitely hit on something here. The older you get the less fun it is to spend your money. Maybe because you work harder to get it?
Some people say that it’s because we are too tired to actually enjoy it!
I think it’s just that the more we have, the less value we put on each individual thing. When we have an abundance of whatever, we naturally take it for granted.
With aging, I think the choices become more elaborate and expensive.
i think that it gets worse with time as mid life crisis approaches, i have heard men in their forties and fifties buying things like video games and sports cars in an effort to recapture a youth long lost
Maybe the question should be about experience rather than maturity? It’s seems that you touch upon it in the post and people have in the comments, but it’s the experiences we have that have the greatest affect on how we feel about things today. Today we can look back on what we did or how we behaved and kind of know what we would do different if we had the change. Then maybe it takes a level of maturity for this? What’s the difference between experience and maturity?
As usual, it depends upon the situation. Those who earn a lot, mature as they may be, will most probably spend a lot as well. Normal people like us, however, tend to spend less because we recognize that fast cash is never easy to come by. I mean, I can buy a Wii now even if I wanted to but I know it’s just going to eat up my time and let’s face it, it’s not a sound investment.