Of course if it was that simple, we’d all be thin. Knowing that ice cream will only bring 10 minutes of joy doesn’t stop me. Maybe I’m stressed or sleep deprived or happy. Maybe I’m hungry or hot. Maybe the unhappiness of being fat is less than the happiness of that ice cream.

It seems easy to say: stop buying/ eating stuff you don’t need. Actual, in the moment change is hard.

Awesome Brad. Good luck on your FI journey. Meditation has a way of slowing down those thoughts, or at least making it possible to let them go without attaching to them. Give it a try.

http://thehappyphilosopher.com/meditation/

Something I heard as you were a guest on a podcast was that you would chase around all these thoughts in your head. My mind runs a million miles an hour and I find myself doing that also. You mentioned meditation I believe. Never done it but worth a try. Keep up the good work.

Brad

Thank you Harjot. I’m not sure I would know how to draw such a graph. I do have other graphs in my first article on this topic that dance around that issue.

http://thehappyphilosopher.com/how-understanding-the-marginal-utility-of-money-will-make-you-happier/

Basically the deeper into your life you trade time for money, the worse deal you are getting. Time becomes more precious the less of it you have left, and money becomes marginally less effective as you gain more of it.

Sometimes things are a great price, but a poor value 🙂

Thank you for reading. You bring up a good point about the marginal utility changing depending on how useful it is to us now vs. how useful it was in the past. Just because something has utility in general doesn’t mean it has utility for us. The deeper I dig, the more I realize many of my possessions really don’t have much utility at all.

For the record, I once bought a box of cups from a garage sale. It seemed like a good idea. They were a steal. Then I got home and had a box of glasses I had to make room for. My home at the time was 800 sqft. The happiness for the cheap cups went way down. I should have bought the super hero glasses I wanted from Target.

It is surprising to me how people do not appreciate that the excitement of a purchase diminishes over time. That expensive car is awesome for a few weeks and maybe a few months, but then it is a car. It is a expensive car with expensive maintenance, but still a car. I try to press this point to my parents all the time.

I agree with that quote. Before I really understood the marginal utility of money (I always felt it was there but didnt practice it) I wanted the fancy car for whatever reason. Now, I drive a 3 year old $24K that suited to my climate and commute time and I look at fancy cars and get excited that I dont need that anymore. The more frugal I am and feel, the happier I am. Its like I get it and other people dont. I’d happily educate them, but most arent receptive (yet).
Great Post!