Spending money is one thing we all cannot avoid. We must buy things for our everyday use – that’s just how life works. However, have you ever sat down to think about what influenced you to purchase all the recent items you purchased? Self-awareness involves developing an understanding of many facets of your life, including your personality traits, personal values, emotions, and not the least, your spending habits. Below are some factors that influence your spending habits.
Your Family
To start with, the personality type of your parents will definitely be an influence on the type of spender you are. Your parents were your first influencers. They were your heroes or role models and everything they did was right in your eyes.
According to a study, the prefrontal cortex – the rational part of the brain – isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25. So, your ability to make the right decision on whether or not to be a spendthrift or extravagant wouldn’t have been solidified while growing up; you would only just pick up what you observed from your parents and family.
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The bond with your family is deep. They helped you get to where you are today, and will not hesitate to help you in your journey to the next level, so you’ll have to reciprocate. People in your family will need help for various life issues (the same recurring Maslow needs) – feeding, shelter, clothing – and you will feel obliged to help.
Your colleagues
Your colleagues can also be classified as your family; in fact, I should have classed them above family. Because you spend the majority of your time with them, especially if you are a nine to five type (work at a 9-5 job), which means you will be influenced arguably mostly by them. Because your collegue bought a bottle of body spray, you are also influenced to buy, even when you did not really need the body spray. In all, you are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with.
Your Social Media
This is, perhaps, the most dangerous influencer of them all. Not like it doesn’t have its positives, but l think this has the most influence on us whether or not you agree. The average person with a Smartphone has a minimum of two social media apps, which are opened a minimum of 50 times a day.
Social media has evolved from just sharing your thoughts and photos; there are marketers, who use it as a tool to showcase whatever product or services they want to sell – and you will definitely fall for some of the products you see online, thereby spending what you did not initially budget for.
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Your friends
I am sure you have heard the maxim, ‘show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are’. Human nature has a way of making us feel it is okay to have what others have, after all, you work as hard as they do. Because your friend bought an iPhone X for N570, 000, you are feeling bad that you are not doing better, then you go ahead to borrow money just to keep up.
The truth is you can never know the true financial situation of another individual, except you are married to that person, and that too is not a guarantee – “Man know thyself.” That friend of yours could be getting unknown financial assistance or is living on an inheritance; on the flip side, that friend could also be languishing in debt.
Celebrities
The flashy cars, jewelry, beautiful women and fine restaurants we watch in music videos definitely play a part in influencing us. The lifestyle music artistes display in their videos takes us away from the boring life we are presently living and makes us believe in it as the ideal.
We then begin to act in a term psychologists call ‘referencing’, whereby you picture yourself in the shoes of the artistes and train your brain to act in ways that convince you of why you deserve that type of lifestyle.
