One financial lesson they should teach in school is that most of the things we buy have to be paid for twice. There’s the first price, usually paid in dollars, just to gain possession of the desired thing, whatever it is: a book, a budgeting app, a unicycle, a bundle of kale. But then, in order to make use of the thing, you must also pay a second price. This is the effort and initiative required to gain its benefits, and it can be much higher than the first price.
My Steam library says hello…
I don’t know if this is to mean you only paid for your games once, or if you’re like me and have a ton of older games you bought again to have on Steam because they don’t even have CD-Keys to be added manually from an original purchase (like Doom 1995).
I took it to mean that they’re like me and buy a bunch of games but never put in the time to play most of them.
You paid half price! Nice!
Example?
I can buy as many books as I want but it doesn’t do me much good unless I invest time to actually read them
Not OP but my example would be the last 2 books I bought. They are still sitting unread and I have not gotten the full value out if them yet as I haven’t taken the time to consume them. Also education, I paid tuition and now I am working to keep my grades up so I can get the value from that.
I really don’t think everything is this way. I buy a shirt, I put it on. Not much to invest there.
But some things are definitely this way as anyone who has brought Ikea furniture home can tell you.
If shirts were single-use items, I would agree. But I would say you pay every time you wash and iron it, and put it back to wear again.
Not saying I necessarily agree with this sentiment for “everything”, but from a purely monetary point of view, here’s a few example that I assume follow the spirit of this line of thinking:
- Cars; you must pay for maintenance & fuels
- Homes; you must pay for upkeep & utilities
- Computers; electricity costs, and you could even go so far as to say the software you use
You can buy cheap shoes and save money, but you’re going to pay for it when they fall apart fast and your feet hurt.
You can save money and eat fast food, but you pay for it with your health.
You can save up and get the nicer car, and you pay less for it in the long run with upkeep.
You can save up and get the nicer car, and you pay less for it in the long run with upkeep
Unless it’s a Mercedes
BMW maintenance is a nightmare too.
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Could you please include some body text as to why should people know this, and how would that help them? It’s our second rule. Thank you :)
Good point. I didn’t think long term enough.
How about a bag of chips or a cigar?
The price for each of that is a tiny chip of your health.
The second price of eating junk food that isn’t great for you long term and tobacco is carcinogenic so your second price is death.
