How do you know if what you’re getting is worth what you’re paying for it? Does that shiny new laptop or a set of new snowboard bindings worth to you what you’ve paid for them? Would you still purchase that new car you’ve been researching for months on-line if you did the math and it turned out to be worth eight months of your post-tax income? And if you’re female, do you continue to get more and more shoes while simultaneously feeling conflicted and, dare I say, a bit cheated by the retailers?
The reason that some people are genuinely satisfied with their possessions, while others continue to acquire more possessions but get no satisfaction out of what they have is that some people naturally get things which add value in their life while others purchase things because they attach an emotion to owning the product.
This is an idea which has been known for decades, and is exploited by marketers and sales people alike. And this is welcome and encouraged – if not for all the marketing folk, I would have never found that amazing computer mouse which I use for 45+ hours a week. A comfortable, and easily 5x the cost of comparable models, computer mouse used for work is easy to justify. It would be less justifiable if I was instead a musician, for example, and only used a computer to check email once a week. This is the reason why most products from electronics, to cars, to cooking utensils, to musical instruments and entertainment systems are offered in a variety of configurations, with bazillion features and options, and at drastically different price points.
It’s tempting to go for the top-of-the-line items in every category. Who wouldn’t want a car with voice-recognition which parallel-parks itself? Or a 70” TV which is concealed inside a wall and is only visible when turned on, while automatically dimming the lights in the room? Or that sweet snowboard which allows you to carve the snow at a precision you’ve only dreamed about?
Unless you’re an expert in the same field as your object of desire, it’s very unlikely that you will make a rational and educated guess (yes, it’s a guess – study after study proves that hunches and intuition is how decisions are really made) as to what product constitutes a good value – balancing features and cost.
The super easy shortcut to make sure that marketers and sales people don’t get the best of your wallet is to value your possessions in the direct proportion to the time and frequency you spend using them. Ultimately, time is the best indicator of value and the more you use something, the longer you have to absorb the cost of your purchase.
This also helps you avoid the trap of concentrating solely on the price tag of an item while deciding if it’s worth it to buy.
It’s easy to over-estimate how much use an item would actually get. While shopping for a new TV, for example, you might catch yourself thinking what a lovely piece of design it would be as a primary feature in the living-room. How you will be inviting friends over for drinks and movies. But the reality is more mundane – you will use your new TV just as much as your old one. And if you’ve not had a movie get-together in a year, it’s unlikely to become a regular activity in your household.
Another aspect which savvy shoppers are aware of is that the difference in price between high-ticket and low-ticket items varies in the same proportion. This is not surprising – from toasters to coffeemakers, to laptops, sofas and cars, the factor of the difference in price is extremely consistent. For example if a cheapo toaster is $12, it’s reasonable to expect a top of the line (although one still mass-produced) toaster to be in the $60-80 range. This factor of 6x can also be applied to cars: a $14K car at the bottom results in a $84K car at the top – within range for higher-end BMW and Mercedes cars. Sports-cars too – $60K Corvette to $360K Lamborghini also follows the “6x factor.”.
The road to happy ownership of stuff is in recognizing this fact, and structuring your purchases in such a way as to maximize your use of the top-end stuff you buy. This also means that you will get much more satisfaction and enjoyment of owning something quality and expensive that you use all the time.
That $200 knife might seem like an over-kill next to a $25 one, but if you’re using it every day to prepare 2-3 meals – and genuinely enjoy cooking on weekends – the purchase is a no-brainer. You will get much more satisfaction from using that well-balanced and always sharp knife than by spending the $125 difference to buy a new BlueRay player that you never use because everything you watch is on Netflix.
Most people tend to realize this principle in areas and tools related to their primary occupations. But you can also increase your happiness and productivity with just a bit of effort to replace items you use the most with those you would really enjoy using. And who knows, you just might improve your productivity and happiness as well because owning stuff is a blessing when done right.

How do you know if what you’re getting is worth what you’re paying for it? Does that shiny new laptop or a set of new snowboard bindings worth to you what you’ve paid for them? Would you still purchase that new car you’ve been researching for months on-line if you did the math and it turned out to be worth eight months of your post-tax income according to ThePayStubs? And if you’re female, do you continue to get more and more shoes while simultaneously feeling conflicted and, dare I say, a bit cheated by the retailers?
The reason that some people are genuinely satisfied with their possessions, while others continue to acquire more possessions but get no satisfaction out of what they have is that some people naturally get things which add value in their life while others purchase things because they attach an emotion to owning the product.
This is an idea which has been known for decades, and is exploited by marketers and sales people alike. And this is welcome and encouraged – if not for all the marketing folk, I would have never found that amazing computer mouse which I use for 45+ hours a week. A comfortable, and easily 5x the cost of comparable models, computer mouse used for work is easy to justify. It would be less justifiable if I was instead a musician, for example, and only used a computer to check email once a week. This is the reason why most products from electronics, to cars, to cooking utensils, to musical instruments and entertainment systems are offered in a variety of configurations, with bazillion features and options, and at drastically different price points.
It’s tempting to go for the top-of-the-line items in every category. Who wouldn’t want a car with voice-recognition which parallel-parks itself? Or a 70” TV which is concealed inside a wall and is only visible when turned on, while automatically dimming the lights in the room? Or that sweet snowboard which allows you to carve the snow at a precision you’ve only dreamed about?
Unless you’re an expert in the same field as your object of desire, it’s very unlikely that you will make a rational and educated guess (yes, it’s a guess – study after study proves that hunches and intuition is how decisions are really made) as to what product constitutes a good value – balancing features and cost.
The super easy shortcut to make sure that marketers and sales people don’t get the best of your wallet is to value your possessions in the direct proportion to the time and frequency you spend using them. Ultimately, time is the best indicator of value and the more you use something, the longer you have to absorb the cost of your purchase.
This also helps you avoid the trap of concentrating solely on the price tag of an item while deciding if it’s worth it to buy.
It’s easy to over-estimate how much use an item would actually get. While shopping for a new TV, for example, you might catch yourself thinking what a lovely piece of design it would be as a primary feature in the living-room. How you will be inviting friends over for drinks and movies. But the reality is more mundane – you will use your new TV just as much as your old one. And if you’ve not had a movie get-together in a year, it’s unlikely to become a regular activity in your household.
Another aspect which savvy shoppers are aware of is that the difference in price between high-ticket and low-ticket items varies in the same proportion. This is not surprising – from toasters to coffeemakers, to laptops, sofas and cars, the factor of the difference in price is extremely consistent. For example if a cheapo toaster is $12, it’s reasonable to expect a top of the line (although one still mass-produced) toaster to be in the $60-80 range. This factor of 6x can also be applied to cars: a $14K car at the bottom results in a $84K car at the top – within range for higher-end BMW and Mercedes cars. Sports-cars too – $60K Corvette to $360K Lamborghini also follows the “6x factor.”.
The road to happy ownership of stuff is in recognizing this fact, and structuring your purchases in such a way as to maximize your use of the top-end stuff you buy. This also means that you will get much more satisfaction and enjoyment of owning something quality and expensive that you use all the time.
That $200 knife might seem like an over-kill next to a $25 one, but if you’re using it every day to prepare 2-3 meals – and genuinely enjoy cooking on weekends – the purchase is a no-brainer. You will get much more satisfaction from using that well-balanced and always sharp knife than by spending the $125 difference to buy a new BlueRay player that you never use because everything you watch is on Netflix.
Most people tend to realize this principle in areas and tools related to their primary occupations. But you can also increase your happiness and productivity with just a bit of effort to replace items you use the most with those you would really enjoy using. And who knows, you just might improve your productivity and happiness as well because owning stuff is a blessing when done right.