Can’t Get No Satisfaction!
By Wendell Sherk, Missouri Attorney on May 14, 2007 in Life After Bankruptcy, Missouri
Jonathan Clements of the Wall Street Journal says, “…surveys show that Americans are no happier than they were 30 years ago. The key problem: We aren’t very good at figuring out what will make us happy.” Clements points out that happiness is fleeting and we don’t always recall how we felt when we pursued goals in the past.
The pursuit of material happiness often leads to debt and sometimes bankruptcy. Everyone has heard of shopaholics and it is an addiction for some. The “rush” of taking a drug, winning at a slot machine or the poker table, or buying new things seem to have chemical effects in the brain that demonstrate these activities can drive irrational behavior.
If you combine the constant pursuit of “satisfaction” with the rush of shopping, you get a toxic financial mix. The instant thrill of the buy has replaced the instant thrill of the hunt.
Sometimes, it “just” takes more discipline and constant focus. As our blogger friend Mapgirl says in a similar vein in I Can’t Buy No Satisfaction, “Being able to see beyond your next payday can be really hard, especially if all you can envision are just more bills.” Drawing satisfaction from these long-term accomplishments can be far more intense and ultimately rewarding than the temporary high of a shopping binge but you have to have “been there, done that” to know.
And sometimes the debt load can be insurmountable. When that happens and you have to do something like visit a bankruptcy lawyer, an important lesson to take away from the experience is what you can do to minimize or avoid a future financial disaster.
If you genuinely might have a shopping addiction, get professional help with a trained psychotherapist. If you just need to keep your fixed costs as low as possible, then there are plenty of resources on-line today. For example, My Open Wallet just previewed its 100th Carnival of Personal Finance with 100 articles on every topic imaginable. I’m going to spend a week just digging into it myself. And it’s free — so I bet I’ll save some money while I’m at it!
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