Money and attention affect how we experience pain and joy. People tend to feel worse when paying with cash compared to using a card. If a restaurant charges you $1 for a spoonful of food, your enjoyment diminishes because you focus more on the cost than the food itself. To reduce spending, you should make spending feel painful. For example, paying with cash rather than a credit card usually leads to less spending. Automatic debit can become a trap. A study shows electricity use increases by 4% when bills are paid via direct debit. Managing spending involves controlling how much importance you give to it. Ultimately, to reduce expenses, we need to change the system and how it’s structured. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
Debt inevitably incurs costs: the interest and the usage fee . Borrowing means using someone else’s property as if it were my own. When the purpose of borrowing is achieved, or when the agreed time to return it arrives, it is returned to another person’s possession, and the borrowing cost is no longer incurred. Costs also serve as the basis for production and are the consideration for almost all debts, regardless of the borrowing purpose. The frightening aspect of debt is that it incurs costs and requires repayment of the principal. Originally, the principal was not mine. Thus, spending with other people’s money exposes you to significant risks, especially when you spend on perishable consumption that disappears after use. If you spend someone else’s money without differentiating between production costs and costs for extinction , you are on the fastest path to destruction. Therefore, luxury can ruin even the rich. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”