is self control enough in this economy?
in order to save money, is it enough to just prevent oneself from buying things unnecessary or limit ourselves to only what is needed to survive? is this a way to live? is there no other easy way aside from earning so much?
sometimes i feel like even with utmost self control you still don’t end up getting rich due to expensive prices and lack of salary in general
Some things are not necessarily a waste of money, and once you buy something you aren't buying it twice, we only have to make sure that those things are really needed, I just changed my laptop days back and I have been talking about how I am going to have to change the laptop because it is not working fine anymore, this went on for two years and finally I decided to purchase a new one, the reason why I have been postponing it was because I had to invest for a while.
My personal opinion is to allow balance in everything we do, because money really isn't everything, yes pursue money but don't let it rob you of your life and well being, make sure, if you need something even if it is for fun sake get it, tomorrow isn't promised, it is a form of happiness when we feel fulfilled even when death has come to take one away.
Many older people have regrets of not living their life as they want, instead they are busy chasing money and they lost love and affection in their lives, their abandoned their love ones thinking money solves all things.
You delayed purchase of the laptop since investment was more urgent. But then, after two years of delay, you realized that not acting was its own hidden cost: productivity loss, frustration, mental bandwidth wasted. Invisible tax is generally overlooked by economists. Humans feel it daily
The more significant problem is that our economic culture encourages deferral in the name of "discipline", and silently punishes the person who goes too far with it. This is why you are correct on balance. The pursuit of money becomes pathological not because money is bad, but because the calculation of trade-offs becomes distorted. It is not only that people have depreciated devices, but also depreciated lives
The last piece of data in this cycle is older generations who are regretting not living. It reveals the way greed about collecting things does not simply deprive you of happiness. It undermines the whole payoff of your very life. Why waste wealth trying to create a regrettable legacy? Delayed gratification is what the society rewards as maturity, yet the final equation proves most people defer until gratification is no longer possible