Why You Spend Too Much Money and How to Stop

2 minute read
Ideas
Barker is the author of Barking Up The Wrong Tree

  • What our neighbors buy affects what we buy, as does our names, the weather, and the type of floor a store has.
  • Music manipulates us into spending in flower shops and restaurants.
  • Which products are next to each other on the shelf influences what we buy. In fact, one product can catch “cooties” from another.
  • Attractive salespeople mess with our heads too, especially if they touch the products. Truth is, we’re more satisfied after buying from good-looking people.
  • Stores use lots of tricks to get us to spend. Limits on how many items we can purchase make us purchase more. So does stocking fewer items.
  • The word sale makes us less likely to comparison shop and yellow tags fool us into thinking we’re getting a discount even when we’re not.
  • Retail therapy does work, but being happy can end up sapping our self-control in the face of tempting sales.
  • Materialism may be connected to unhappiness but buying generic products can reduce your self-esteem.
  • Luckily there are fast, easy tricks to avoid buying too much and breaking a budget.
  • Learn the key elements of influence, negotiation and persuasion.
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    This piece originally appeared on Barking Up the Wrong Tree.

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