 Today, we're going to help you make decisions when it comes to buying things. We have five mindsets we want to talk about, either njrude22.com here with another common interest vlog, and today's topic is about buying things. We could talk about, there's 100 different ways to talk about whether you buy things that you need, want, and whether you're influenced by marketing and so on. We're going to talk about five things. The first most important thing that anybody should ask themselves no matter how much money they have, if they want to keep it, or if they're poor and living in debt, is do I need it, and can I live without it? That's the most fundamental question you can ask yourself. If the answer is no, then don't buy the thing you're talking about. Of course, this doesn't apply to necessities like food and power and electricity, so that shouldn't even fall under this mindset, so that's that. The second thing I think is important is, do you have any extra money lying around? Is all your debt paid off? Do you have a reliable income stream, a job, or a hustle, something like that? Even though you may have that extra money lying around, the thing to ask yourself is, would I be better off keeping that money aside for something more important in the future? I don't know how many people have done this. They bought something and then six months later, might need some money and go, damn, if I didn't only buy that stupid thing, whether it was a phone or a drone or a camera, anything electronic, clothes, and then you're like, man, if I didn't spend that money, then I would have the money now. You got to ask yourself, might you possibly regret this big purchase, even if you have some extra money lying around? Of course, then you're going to get to the point where your wants take over, and you're going to ignore the, can I live without it mindset. You're hell bent on buying this thing and in the very short future, you're going to buy this thing, but you could still ask yourself questions such as, why do I want this thing? Why do I need it for something or is it for entertainment? Will it free up time for me to do other things or save me money in some other way? I guess one of the important things is, is it for a job related thing, not job or if you're self-employed, the new piece of equipment, will it help you make more money in the future? Those are things that you should probably ask yourself, if it's just a toy to play with, I don't know, maybe you should rethink that, sleep on it and rethink your decision to buy something. But okay, now we're getting down the line here, and you're still hell bent on buying it. Now, you're sort of stuck with something, like, wow, I have a lot of options to choose from. This is in most cases, like in the consumer market. And by design, they usually have three distinct grades of products. You have your crap entry level stuff, low end stuff made in China, sold at Walmart in the section that's not locked, and they'll let you shoplift it or whatever. Those are the cheap end, the low end product. And you should probably know, even if you need it, it's probably not going to last and the quality is going to stink. And here's what they do, like they have this cheapo model, and then just a little bit up, they have the mid-range. And the mid-range is pretty, pretty big. Like you could, let's say we're talking like a hundred dollars, the cheap item, a hundred and under, and then the mid-range is going to be from like a hundred to three hundred, and the options start expanding in this mid-range. You can have low-end mid-range, and it's a lot better than the crap, but it's still not nearly as good as the high-end mid-range. And then you go through all this comparing features, and it can drive someone nuts. And then of course, you look, you can dream, let's say some premium models are like most likely far out of your reach, high-end luxury products. And like I said, this is the problem with consumer goods. This is by design. They design it so that just a little bit out of the way there's another feature or quality of the product that you want. And then each little notch up is just, it's within your reach, twenty bucks more, and then it becomes forty bucks more, and then you don't, you lose your thought. And you just all of a sudden you're in the market for a really high-end item, and a lot of times you'll buy it. And you'll probably be, I forget about it, but in two, three years later you're going to say, man, this is already obsolete, and you're back shopping again for a similar item or so. Just don't forget, this is kind of important to remember. The iPhone 4, does anybody remember the iPhone 4? That was considered the best of the best. Just think about that for a minute. Once people are hell bent on, let's say, a middle of the range product, they go and start searching for reviews. And the reviews just are, I don't know, it's really not real anymore. Some of it is, a lot of it isn't. There's fake reviews that give a good product a bad name, and fake reviews that give a bad product good marks. So it gets so confusing, and you really don't know what to believe. And then you start getting desperate, and you search online. I need to find a website that has reviews. And those, too, are a bunch of crap, because they most often are just affiliate links, where someone will take the 10 items and just write a few paragraphs about them. You could tell that they haven't used them. They're just reading the product description, and they rank it by stars, and people follow that, and they click the link, and they buy it in the person website. It's usually a Chinese or foreign website, because they're all these new ones that have popped up in the last five years or so. You can't, they're not even reputable. I've never heard of these people before. Now you have this fancy looking, probably semi-well designed review site with pictures of your favorite products. And if you see the one you were thinking about, it's ranked high on sale, you're going to buy it. Don't do the reviews anymore. If you can, and this is why a brick-and-mortar store sort of still have some values, can you listen to the product, you test them out, and see if you really like it or not. But at the same time, Amazon lets you buy and return things in both directions without any penalty. Well, you've got to be careful. If you nine out of 10 things you buy, you return, Amazon will probably put a limit on you. But anyway, if you made it through this video, here's some fun things you could do with your extra money. Say you don't buy things and you've made a conscious decision to live more frugally. You can also redistribute your money. Let's say I spent a hundred bucks a month extra on something that I cut out of my life. Say it's coffee, and I put that $100 in a coffee jar or coffee can or put it in the bank. Then you can have money at the end of the year for Christmas shopping or a party or a vacation or just save it and invest it in something. Just keep in mind, being frugal and saving money and living within your means can also have negative effects where you're not doing anything and you become like a hermit and you don't wash your clothes and then you only eat like one thing. You can shrivel away. I mean, everything when you become obsessed can have a negative effect. But saving money is good in the long run and asking questions and challenging yourself before you make reckless purchases is always a good decision. If you like the video, hit like and subscribe and I'll see you next video.