Save Dollars by Not Making the Unnecessary Necessary

I was reading a motoring magazine article recently which was reviewing a new 'luxury' vehicle when it struck me how companies have long made extra sales and profits by making the unnecessary seem like a necessity. There are cars that can now parallel park themselves, ones with rear-end cameras, computer controller displays in the dash etc. It appears that the public has bought into gadgets that were once considered luxuries such as automatic transmission, power windows and door locks, to be considered as essentials. The American auto industry is in trouble partly because it spent so much of its time (and money) putting in fancy gadgets in their cars at the expense of build quality and reliability. Even in the 80's, American car manufacturers would put in digital dash boards, and power everything from doors, windows, seats and seat belts. Unfortunately, the public bought it and paid dearly for it.

So instead of buying an item because you NEEDED to replace it, people were buying things because they wanted to replace it. Advertising, peer pressure or design were all instigators to wrestle money from consumers' pockets. Heck, even my elderly parents wanted a new flat-screen LCD Television when their old CRT set was still in perfect working order. I guarantee that with their eyesight being the way it is, they could probably not tell the difference between the new and old TV set.

Not only is this type of expense a drain on one's bank account, the frivolous waste brought on by rampant consumerism has been extremely bad for the environment. Tens of millions of old CRT televisions and computer monitors are being thrown away annually, and finding themselves in landfills in poor countries used as dumping grounds and whose populations`health is now being adversely affected.

Many new technologies such as MP3 players are designed with a limited lifespan, so that if it breaks down, it is usually cheaper for one to buy a new one that to repair their old one. Read Internet forums on iPods and you will find consensus that their batteries don`t last longer than a couple of years, whereupon they will more likely be discarded and a newer version purchased. Longevity is no longer important to many companies because longevity no longer produces continual sales. Cellphones come upon with new `must-have`or `necessary`features that render perfectly good phones obsolete in their owners`eyes.

If you want to save money, assess what your real needs are, ignore the advertising, peer pressure anfd hype and buy what most closely fits your needs, not your wants.