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Comment by tempsy | Hacker News Reader

I've never had the thought "let me spend a bunch of money on disposable things because it'll be more expensive a year from now"

I don't think that's how most people think about their purchasing decisions at all.

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Yeah, you haven't lived through actual inflation. In Argentina we're used to "buy it now because it will be more expensive next month". My laptop is more expensive used on mercadolibre than what I paid for it brand new 5 years ago.

In the US they have 5% inflation rather than 200% but the effect is still true, just less strong.

I have had the thought that I should buy 'luxuries' that I've been saving for, before they get unaffordable again, even if it makes things a little tighter than I'd like in the near term.

I think people definitely do exhibit this behavior. It’s part of what causes FOMO.

They also exhibit the opposite - waiting to buy things that they think will go on sale later.

While neither of us can extrapolate behavior of “most people”, I and a lot of my middle class peers definitely this exact thought and acted on it.

Feel free to going into detail about what exactly this applies to.

I’m not talking about buying a house that is considered an appreciating asset. I mean going to dinner and buying clothes and other disposable goods/services.

Really? Because that's how I think and have been thinking since the money printer got cranked up in 2020.

The US money supply has been getting smaller pretty much all of this year.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL

So you spend excessively on clothes and eating out and traveling because it’s going to get more expensive next year, despite now getting paid 4-5% for cash when that hasn’t been true for almost 20+ years?

I can understand this about an appreciating asset like a house, not buying clothes and trinkets.

I took out some loans in 2020-2022 to buy a car, go on vacation, buy some synthesizers, gamble on crypto. I figured loan rates would go up so get them while the money was cheap.

disposable things? why do you think that's what people are buying?

so YOLO spending isn’t talking about clothes and traveling and eating and going out? what is it then if it’s not that?

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