Why Do We Spend Money So Easily?

Because our brain treats "me right now" and "me in 30 years" as two completely different people. We see our future self as essentially a stranger. And nobody really wants to hand their money over to a stranger.

So when you spend $100 today, you're making yourself happy. But when you save that same $100, it feels like you're gifting it to some unfamiliar old person 30 years from now. Who really wants to give up today's pleasure for a stranger?

The brain "discounts" future benefits the further away they are in time. The greater the distance, the less that stranger's needs seem to matter. As a result, future well-being loses out to today's coffee or the newest gadget.

Another mistake we tend to make is measuring prices in money instead of in life.

If you earn 50,000 so'm an hour and want to buy something that costs 1,000,000 so'm, ask yourself: "Is this thing worth 20 hours of my life?"

Money is a renewable resource, but time isn't. When you calculate the time you've actually spent on something, the brain instinctively shifts into protective mode.

Overall, spending money is a source of dopamine. We don't actually enjoy the thing we bought so much as the act of buying it.

In other words, spending money is an attempt to satisfy an emotional hunger. We're not really buying clothes, gadgets, or coffee — we're buying that short-lived "happiness hormone" we feel we're missing.

Anything new quickly becomes ordinary. Yesterday's "dream iPhone" is just an ordinary phone today. To get a fresh hit of dopamine, you need something new again. And that's how an endless, pointless cycle of consumption gets built.