I am one of those people, guilty as hell. I love to spend. I am a spender, not necessarily though for expensive stuff, but mainly stuff. Stuff and experiences. Many of them.
My apartment is cramped.
God only knows how many pairs of shoes I have. One day of sales, and I have come home with 12 pairs of shoes, just in one night.
I love trying new things, and for THAT, I also spend a lot. Experiences mean the world to me. New places, new restaurants, new hobbies, new people, new whatever. If it’s new, it’s in my wish-list.
Which brings me back to why I am here. You see, I have been living in Dubai for over than 4 years, for some people, they hear the U.A.E, and then they immediately think you are sitting on a pile of money. I am sorry to break the news for you, that’s just a fantasy. In fact, many people get extremely in debt, not to mention save. It’s a very expensive place to live in.
I have recently come to a situation where finances have become a blocker for one of my once in a lifetime dream opportunities. It broke my heart. It completely broke me into tears, to think, that I am limited in my financial capabilities to do that one thing, I really want to do. I will mention it later, once I have saved enough money to go for it. However, I want to tell you, it’s a lot of money. A lot of it. At least in my own eyes, within my own means.
When you are faced with an issue, you either play the victim, or you start thinking of an action plan to solve whatever you are facing. I don’t like to play the victim, never did and never will. So, now, I have put an action plan to pursue my dream. This requires time. Time means patience, and God, it is so hard.
I have recently started thinking of saving and my friends can easily relate to my response to many things as #savingsmode.
It got me depressed.
Some friends referred to it as “welcome to the grown-up world”. But, I am a grown up. I just like to enjoy my life. Some told to put a specific amount aside each month, and spend the rest.
Thinking about money every time I am spending it felt suffocating. I am not the stingy type, nor the cheap one. I am one of those who are like, I am living now, I’ll live to the fullest.
Still, I need to limit my spending habits. I need to — if I want to reach that goal.
And since I am so into consumer behavior and psychology, what better time to explore the tricks engraved into our behavioral biases.
A friend of mine who is also into consumer behavior, mentioned the behavioral biases to me once before, and it fascinated me. When you start understanding why you act and why others act in certain ways, you begin to have a whole new perspective.
So, I thought well, as part of sharing my experience in this #savingmode journey I have laid out for myself, I might as well learn about the behavioral biases, along the way. And, if one of them rings a bell, then it will be exciting to see how those behavioral biases relate to me — or to my emotions.
If you want to Google it, just type “ Behavioral Bias Codex”.
You will find this chart.
Source: https://ritholtz.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1-71TzKnr7bzXU_l_pU6DCNA.jpeg
It turns out there is an emotional wheel as well.
Source: http://blog.thejuntoinstitute.com/the-junto-emotion-wheel-why-and-how-we-use-it
To be frank, I didn’t really do the research on either of the behavioral biases or the emotional wheel yet, but I am quite excited to know what I will find out.