Why Spend More Money Than You Have?

We spend money to buy goods. However, thanks to this, many emotions can also arise. Many want to spend more money. In fact, many people’s main goal in life is to have a lot of money, and be able to spend it whenever they feel like it.

While it may seem sad to admit, it  does help to buy some people to cover up or compensate for other things they lack, such as love. However, it can cause people to fall into the trap of spending more money than they have.

The current economy wants us to be in debt. The economy encourages us to spend more money than we earn, by “facilitating” our purchases, as much as possible. They make us spend money because they know everyone has some kind of baggage. 

Advertising and marketing do whatever they can to make us believe that shopping can solve our problems. While they may not do so directly, they certainly drop hints and suggestions.

To spend more money to cover what you are missing

People who tend to spend a lot of money usually lack stimuli or encouragement in their lives. They decide to go shopping to “get better”. This is because shopping feeds an unconscious sense of power and control.

There are shops at your feet and you are the one who decides what to buy and what not to buy. The customer is always right, and is always treated in an appropriate way.

Being in debt can also be a mechanism for dealing with discomfort in life. It is possible that borrowing money and falling into the credit trap will also help cover unresolved grief or hardships.

It’s easier for us to think that we can not sleep at night because we owe money, rather than what we actually feel. It is also easier to be aware of our bank account, and to get everything fixed in the bank, than to accept and deal with our dissatisfaction. 

Manipulation causes people to spend money

There are two psychological realities that make consumers easy to manipulate: fear and guilt. The persuasive mechanism that advertising almost always uses plays on these emotions. They send you an indirect message.

In an advertisement, it is common to show a daily situation where comfort and tranquility are directly related to buying a product. Of course, it is up to the people who see it to interpret what happens if one does not buy it.

There are other ways to manipulate. Cornell University conducted an experiment in 1977.  The researchers gave a false test to a group of people. One of the participants, who was an infiltrated scientist, left the room, and came back with free sodas for some of them.

At the end of the test, the infiltrated researcher asked them to buy tickets for a lottery. The people who had been given a soda bought twice as many tickets.

Follow-up experiment

They repeated the experiment one more time, without free soda. This time, only a small number of participants bought lottery tickets. They concluded that gifts encourage people to buy and spend money. This is the reason why certain brands give tastings in the supermarket.

You can also see it in other stores where they give you free gifts with your purchase. They know that by doing this, they will make you want to spend more money on their products.

There are many examples of this. In fact, certain areas of study specialize in consumer behavior. The system (especially the financial one) needs us to be eager to buy, without taking into account being in debt. They sell us a fantasy of false control and satisfaction, which is the first thing we buy. That’s what it’s all about.