Advertising is all around us. We are constantly inundated with it, over and over again. The impulse and image monsters derive their power mainly from the power of advertising. If you hear or see something over and over again, you begin to believe it. It starts to influence your decisions at the subconscious level. If you have not fully bought into your financial goals, you can fall prey easily.
Advertisers paint an ideal picture of how life should be like, according to them. You should ride the latest car, use the latest phones, wear the latest fashion, generally live your fantasy, spend now and think later. They know that spending decisions are emotionally driven, so they play that card to the fullest, bombarding your senses with their message 24/7. Soon you start considering something you once said was a no-no. Pretty soon you start justifying it, especially if your neighbor just got one, and pretty soon, you go get one yourself and figure out how to pay for it later.
We seem to carry around an unwritten wish list, items we wish to have someday. Most of the decisions are powered by advertising. The moment a new device gets to the shops, our current one seems not to serve as well anymore. There is always a feature the new model has that we need. We believe the new item will make us happier and our lives better. Our software will run faster, our filing will become easier, and our productivity will skyrocket.
Over and over again we tell ourselves the same lie. There was a time some home appliances were referred to as labour-saving devices. They will take over manual labor so that we have time for more important things. Years later, we are short of time than we were years back. We buy appliances based on features, features we will hardly use the moment the appliance reaches home.
The easiest way to fight this monster is to plan ahead and stick to our financial goals. When we develop the mindset of having assets pay for our luxuries, toys, and gizmos, we turn our desire for better things into a drive to create bigger assets that will pay for them. When we get to this point, we turn the advertising monster into a friend rather than a lethal enemy.
