The other day I volunteered to help out with a study and there was this one example that was kind of interesting as it involved items and possessions. The scenario was I could either take home some money or this mug that had the institution’s branding on it. It was done in an interesting way where there was a chart written on paper where one side had values starting at twenty five cents which increased in value up to ten dollars. On the other side was the word mug. Basically, for each line I would have to check off if I would rather have the money or the mug. Example, like with the first option would you rather have twenty five cents or a mug? With the last option would you rather have ten dollars or the mug?
The funny thing is I would have ordinarily just said the mug and treat it like a souvenir from the place. However, the fact that they made me choose between money and the mug immediately put me into finance mode. I kept thinking in terms of value such as whether or not the mug was worth more than the value next to it to determine which one to take. If that mug is worth eight dollars as an example then it is better to take the ten dollars and buy the mug which gives you an extra two dollars.
I find myself doing this all the time when it comes to buying and investing in things. Regardless of what the price tag of an item is I always try and determine what the actual monetary value of the item is in its bare bone form. It’s kind of important I think because many times you are simply paying for marketing and hype. As well, this way too you tend to judge the item’s value in your own life where despite how well it may be for someone else it may not actually be good for you. I find this is a big reason I don’t just buy things because they are say a good deal too.
Getting the best monetary value can in many ways save you time too. In some ways the more stuff you get for your money the less you need to actually make for necessities as an example. I do the same for free events. If like a ticket normally costs one dollar to go to a show then there shouldn’t be that much urgency to take advantage of it just for the sake of doing so. Although, there are people who would go simply because of the free sign. Like there, thinking about the monetary value kind of puts a different perspective to what you should invest your time in too. It stops you from just collecting junk too if you are one of those who has an issue with it which in the end can cost you money.