From the dictionary of vocabulary.com, if someone is impulsive, it means
that they act on instinct, without thinking decisions through. If you worked
for an entire year to save money for a car and then suddenly decided to spend
it all on an outfit instead, that would be an impulsive purchase.
It continues, impulses are
short, quick feelings, and if someone is in the habit of acting on them,
they're impulsive. When stores like Shoprite stock chocolate at the
checkout line, they are hoping you will impulsively decide
to buy it. When you call the person you have a crush on after promising
yourself all day to maintain an air of dignified reserve, that's impulsive
behavior.
We might also call impulsive behavior whimsical or capricious.
One of the hardest things to do in life is say NO! Saying no is
particularly hard for personalities who are people pleasers. In finance, saying
no to something you like is hard.
When I was younger, I liked wristwatches and books to the extent that I would
use all my pocket money to buy wrist watches, of different colours. It became
hard for me to say no. I also don’t enter a bookstore at all if I know I don’t
want to spend because I know myself, I will spend my last kobo on books.
I once went to Ibadan to buy books, from Ago Iwoye. You won’t believe
that I virtually spent all my transportation fare in the bookshop hoping to
collect money from my mum to return to School. Unfortunately I miscalculated as
I didn’t get her. So, I had to trek from Ring road to Orita challenge and hitch
hiked a pick-up going to Ijebu-ode, to drop at Oru junction, and from there I
trekked into Ago Iwoye at dusk, simply because I couldn’t control my urge to
spend on books.
For some people, it is not books, it is shoes. For some others, it is
chocolates. While some just have to buy a new shirt every week. If you will be
rich, you have to spend less than you earn. And if you will spend less than you
earn, then you have to be able to say NO…to your impulse to splurge.
Have you been in a traffic hold up, or car park when you wanted to go on
a long journey, and bought Gala, plantain chips or Ice cream simply because you
‘felt hungry’? Have you entered a petrol station and bought a cold drink
staring at you from within the transparent fridge because you felt you were
thirsty? That is the marketing trick at work. You are supposed to buy on
impulse because the marketer is communicating to you that you ‘need’ what he is
selling at that very moment. So if you will say no successfully, you must come
up with your own strategies too for controlling your impulse.
Some personal finance experts recommend carrying a 30-day list about
wherein you will write anything down that you have the urge to buy together
with the date beside it, and keep that list for 30 days. You will review your
list every 30-days. It is believed that that way, you will be able to cut out
the unimportant but urgent ones. And those items still left on that list in 30
days will be the items you really need. (Some say
Personally, I use the EXTREMELY IMPORTANT OR NOT Test, whereby I
ask myself, “Is this thing EXTREMELY IMPORTANT?” “If I don’t take it, or buy it
now-now, will it affect me significantly?” “Can it wait?” Are there
alternatives to, spending my hard-earned cash on, it (that does not require
money)? Within 60 seconds most times, I am able to talk myself into saying no.
You can try either of the two methods or even come up with yours. If you
already have a method that you use that works for you, please share it with me.
Thank you.
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