Money = √(All Evil) [Commandment #2]

Commandment #2: Thou shalt not buy on impulse. Yet another way we adolescents waste money is by buying things on impulse.

Let’s say you’re waiting in the line at Ralphs with your mom. You’re bored with shopping, and your mom is chatting with the cashier about the sale on pomegranates as if it’s the best thing since Bohemian Rhapsody, so you’re bored to tears and wish you hadn’t come with. Then, an incredible discovery! You spy a pack of 5 gum ® on the shelf! You whip out your handy dandy wallet, and you find that you have $1.29. The gum is $1.29. I’ve struck it rich!, you think as you hand the cashier the money and walk away with your prize.

An adolescent is seen here facing her biggest fear: shopping. (photo credit to meshio.com)

But as you’re walking out of the store, you start thinking about what that money was for. You were gonna ride the bus home from school the next day, and your parents had only given you $1. That was the dollar you spent on the gum.

Suddenly, your senses don’t seem so stimulated as you put that stick of gum in your mouth.

Now, don’t try and deny it: something like that HAS happened to you before, whether it was gum that you bought or candy or anything else. Every adolescent has done that at some point in their lifetime. Impulse buying accounts for a LOT of the money that we waste. What we need to do is start thinking about whether we need it, or whether we want it.

Come back tomorrow for Commandment #3.