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”
Luxury goods are valuable not only because they are well-made but also because they are scarce. The proof lies in the abundance of counterfeit luxury goods. Controlling production and supply is one of the things luxury goods brands excel at. Initially, quality and reputation create luxury goods; however, the fact that the value of these goods does not diminish but continues to rise is due to the maintenance of scarcity. While customers determine the fate of the product, producers and suppliers also influence the fate of the customer. They achieve this through their offerings. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”