he probably couldn't fit in more red flags if he wanted to 😆

Whenever someone out of the blue writes to you "I want to collaborate" while you're not an artist, it's 100% a scam.

Unless you enjoy such conversations, the next best move upon receiving such an offer would be to report them to the admins so they can ban that account.

@U060FHA3K28 Can you send me a member ID of that account? You can view it by clicking on their name and then clicking on the tree dots menu.

Alright, "James" is banned.

"be careful were you point it" then big explosion. C/C++ pointers :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing: :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing:

The other thing is, I feel like the money spent on a thing could probably be spent massively better (if I was going to spend it at all), on doing something rather than just buying something. e.g. travelling / holiday with friends / whatever.

Difficult to make that decision in isolation. Humans tend to operate on the principle of "diminishing marginal utility". How long before the pleasure of X reverts to the hedonic treadmill plateau? Is there a way to buy X second hand? Or is there a way to try something that is not quite X to de-risk the experience? How well do you know yourself given similar past experiences. You mention holidays etc, but the opportunity cost of the alternatives is a very personal decision that requires extensive analysis of the protagonist. The end of my 2p 😄

From the way you did the math, it sounds like you either don't have credit cards or you don't like to use them, so I might assume you are fairly risk-averse. If that's the case, and you have 70% of the cost available this month then it doesn't sound like too much of a stretch that you might have the other 30% within a month or two and then you could buy it without touching your savings. I didn't get credit cards until I was nearly 30, so I'd always only purchased things I could afford at the time, until that point and at first I was fairly cautious with credit cards and always paid them off every month. As my income changed, I got offered more cards and higher credit limits until it got to the point where I could actually buy a house with my credit cards if I had felt inclined (no, I never felt inclined -- it would have been a stupid financial decision -- but it was possible which was an interesting concept to get my head around). When I was "young, free, and single" and on a consultant's income, I tended to just buy whatever I wanted, and go on vacation whenever and wherever I wanted, and deal with paying it off "later". When I moved to America, I had quite a running balance on my UK cards, but I sold my house and paid that off, and started all over (at zero credit) in California. Twenty years later, I have more credit cards than I can count and there's a balance on a few of them, but I also have a partner and a mortgage (about $400k right now I think), so "luxuries" are discussed and budgeted for... much like when I was young, had no credit cards, and much less income. Your priorities change over time, and your attitude to debt and relative value change as well. Feeling like "I CAN'T AFFORD THIS" is a good mindset to be in: you're less likely to get into debt and you'll have savings "for a rainy day" such as you might need between jobs etc.

Yeah, I'd say if you feel you can afford it, go for it! I stumbled upon https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ later in my career, and found that his frugal nature was similar to mine. He just thought about it a ton more than I did. And invested more sensibly. He's worth checking out if you are interested in frugality, stoicism and financial independence.

First thing I thought of is why you want this thing? Sometimes you can know the answer and knowing will either give you conviction to buy or not to buy. Most of the time you won't know, in that case I would buy if I can afford it. understanding oneself, why we do what we do and desire what we desire is one of the highest leverage activities. Buying the thing will help figure out why you want it so bad.

Save for another month - then you probably won't want it any more anyways.

Or you're still into it and then it's a no-brainer!

I saw this in some blog: If you have a doubt about a candidate -- no hire.

Here, a meme for you:

If I am to buy something it should have value to me (and/or the person I am buying it for). The items should be of sufficient quality for there purpose. I should also have reasonable funds to cover the cost or be able to manage the risk associated with debt incurred. Generally I consider the concepts of treats / luxury as quite negative and mostly a product of marketing psychology. Treats are often something you don't really need or a short-term mask to avoid dealing with the issues that are affecting your life. Alleviating those issues will greatly improve your life far more than a short-term treat. In my view, the terms treat and luxury should be considered synonyms for waste. Consider how many mobile phones are replaced unnecessarily each year driven by marketing and profit (there are many more examples of waste, but hopefully the point is clear without an endless list of waste)

Someone did an opportunity loss calculation on the cost of an iPhone, if the money was invested (wisely) instead. The loss was astounding. It’s never about an item in isolation, there’s also the alternatives to that item. I.e., it doesn’t really matter whether the 70% are in savings or not, because they could be in savings. At the same time, if you were to apply that logic consistently, and to the extreme, you’d compromise with nearly every experience and convenience in exchange for… what? Dying as the richest person on the street?

Someone did an opportunity loss calculation on the cost of an iPhone, if the money was invested (wisely) insteadWell Apple invests this money after people buy. And in this case the investment works for them 😂 I'd say you should cut the middle man -- which is Apple in this case.

@U05254DQM Are you quite minimalist in your possessions? I think I am, I've had friends around my place and they ask "where's your stuff", or joke that I don't actually live in my place. I last time I spent what I consider a lot of money on myself was buying a painting about 8 years ago. I don't regret that as I get joy from it every time I'm in my living room.

@U013YN3T4DA I have spent much of the last few years moving to a more minimalist life and it has been quite a liberating experience (although there is still much to do to unclutter my life). Recently I have sold off or donated physical media such as books, CD's and DVD's that have long taken up space and not being used (using streaming / digital versions instead). I also use freecycle to give away things that have no value to myself but may be valuable to others.

When I moved from England to California in '99, I left pretty much everything behind (and gave a lot of stuff to friends). I took my big, brass bed -- because that was slightly cheaper to ship than the cost of buying an equivalent new one in America -- and I stuffed the drawers on it full of the best of my books, magazines, and CDs... and clothes 🙂 I live a much more minimal life here in California than I ever did in England -- and my money gets spent on experiences rather than stuff now, and I think that's a better balance for me.

I started to attend dance lessons. It's not really needed but it's pretty alright. And you get a skill in something.

Back in 2008, my wife and I joined Arthur Murray Dance Studio locally and learned ballroom and Latin dance and that was a lot of fun -- my wife was a professional dancer for a while, decades ago, and she always wanted me to learn... and it was a great social experience. Unfortunately, she fell and broke her ankle in early 2009 and I was out of work so we couldn't continue it. But, highly recommended!

😉 https://youtube.com/watch?v=oj-S6T4oZeU