Imagine for a second that you’re going on a weeklong cruise with your significant other. And you have two ways of paying for this adventure.
You can either 1) pay for the whole trip four months in advance or you can 2) simply pay as you go.
If you were asked which form of payment you would like to pay, which would you choose?
Paying as you go may be the most economically efficient way to pay for the cruise, but how do you think you would feel throughout the cruise if you had to pay for every single thing that you ate, drank, and experienced?
If you decided to pay as you go, then your trip would constantly be filled with thoughts like, “Is this glass of wine worth it?” “Do I want to spend $100 to go ziplining?” and “How much am I really enjoying this?”
|By having these thoughts constantly rattling around inside your head, your enjoyment of the entire experience would greatly diminish|.
In the book, “Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter,” Dan Ariely and Jeff Kreisler call this “the pain of paying.” Ariely and Kreisler say,
"The pain of paying is what we feel when we think about giving up our money. The pain doesn’t come from the spending itself, but from our thoughts about spending. The more we think about it, the more painful it is. And if we happen to consume something while thinking about the payment, the pain of paying deeply colors the entire experience, making it far less enjoyable.”
The term “pain of paying” is based on the feeling of displeasure and distress we feel whenever we spend money on something.
But does this mean that the “the pain of paying” is a bad thing?
Well, it depends.
There are a lot of situations where you may want to increase the “pain of paying” and there are other situations where you may want to decrease the “pain of paying.”
For example, you might think to yourself that you’re spending too much money on a daily basis and therefore you may want to feel more “pain of paying” to curb your spending habit.
You can increase the “pain of paying” by using cash instead of your credit card or signing up for automatic notifications to let you know whenever you spend money.
On the other hand, there are certain experiences, like a honeymoon or a vacation, that may not happen often.
In these situations, it may be worth it to you to reduce the “pain of paying” and just enjoy the experience.
You can decrease the “pain of paying” by paying in advance.
When you pay in advance, you’ll definitely feel the “pain of paying,” but when it’s time to go on the vacation, all the associated “pain of paying” you would’ve felt throughout your vacation will be gone.
Every experience, every drink, every delight will feel “free.” This is because when we eliminate the “pain of paying,” we spend more freely and enjoy consuming things more. When we increase the “pain of paying,” our spending goes down as our awareness goes up.
The point is, we can increase or decrease the “pain of paying” that we feel at any time. But we should do so deliberately, based upon how much we want to enjoy or limit our spending, rather than just letting it increase or decrease without our knowledge or control.
#Thanks💰💰