I get startled when people who actually make considerably less than I
do tell me how much money they spend. One part of me wants to ask "How
the flip do you eat?" while the other part of me wonders "How can you spend that much money on... stuff?"
The answers to those questions do not reassure me, as, respectively,
they are usually "Through loads and loads of crippling debt that I have
no intention of paying off," and "because I have swallowed the world's
pathetic guidelines for contentment and happiness hook, line and
sinker."
I have one friend who had over wracked up $20,000 worth of debt that
they finally, eventually crawled out of. I have another friend who was
taken to arbitration over their debt before they were twenty-five. I
had an old roommate whose credit was literally so bad that I was denied
a credit card just because I lived in the same house! And these aren't
medical debts we're talking about either, nor are they mortgages, auto
loans or college tuition payments. These people, for whom I care a
great deal and who I also generally esteem as clear-thinking, sober
individuals, managed to go tens of thousands of dollars in the hole
with stuff.
I started to wonder, "Is there even something I want that I could spend $20,000 on with my credit card?"
So I decided on a little thought experiment. If I were set free into
the turbid depths of my own self-indulgence*, how much money could I really blast
through? What would I buy? What would the Man be knocking on my door to
take away from me when my rent was six months overdue and I hadn't paid
a credit card bill in ten years?
For the purposes of this experiment, I'm setting forth a few
guidelines. First, it's going to cover things that I can buy with a
credit card. The potentially largest money-sink in my life, tattoos,
goes right out the window there. While many tattoo shops take credit
nowadays, the majority of shops (at least, of shops that I like) don't, and wise they are to do so! However, you'll note below that there are many other indulgences that can just as easily be set to the tune of bank-issued plastic.
Secondly, I'm going to set myself up with a spending limit of
$20,000 – this is about as much credit-card credit as I can scrounge up
if I just started sending out "Hey, gimme' a credit card!" notices left
and right. Perhaps I'm underestimating my own credit score here, but
for the sake of the experiment, I think it'll work. Besides, this is
about as much as any of my friends who went neck-deep in debt were able
to get before their life as slaves to the usurers became sealed.
Third, I'm not going to count debts that are considered more
"investments" by many, e.g. house buying, student loans, medical bills,
even automobile payments, though in my mind if we got some sort of a
vehicle, it would be a luxury (and it would probably also be a Vespa.)
This materialism experiment will only use splurge-able expenses as the
variables.
Fourth, I'm going to replicate my own shopping habits that I've been
ingrained with since I was a child being dragged back and forth to
garage sales with my mom. In other words, I'm going to shop smart. This
could skew the experiment, granted, as most people who splurge go all out, buying brand new things
at the first places they find them. But that's not me though. I don't
think I could do that even if I wanted to. If this is an experiment
about how far my materialistic desires can go, then it has to be done my way.
So, without further adieu, the experiment du jour!
Clothes
– Despite being a boot-boy, I'm pretty easy as far as clothes go. I'll
admit I could use a few more Ben Shermans, some more Fred Perrys,
perhaps even some choice cuts from the Stone Island collection. I'd
probably spring for some Arsenal kits in there (both vintage and
recent) and maybe a few more odd and end things here and there. So,
this is me being let loose on FREE MONEY, right? That's what a credit
card is, right? Well, let's break it down.
Four Fred Perrys = ~$100-$200 (depending on what I can find on
eBay.) A couple more Ben Sherman shirts = ~$80 (the Ben Sherman store
in SoHo is surprisingly affordable.) Arsenal jerseys (we'll start with
two, for fun) = $40 on eBay. Stone Island jacket = ~$80 at Century 21.
Stone Island sweater = ~$60-$120 (it really depends!) Lonsdale jumper =
~$30-$60 (again, eBay is my friend) Vintage red & white Arsenal
scarf = ~$40
Another Alpa jacket to match when I wear black pants = $90 And just for
fun, another suit... = $50-$120 (Filene's Basement and North Jersey
thrift stores are the places to go for suits.)
So, if I splurged like a madman on clothes, we'd be at... $570-$830.
This is certainly more than I'd probably ever spend on clothes at any
one time, but I know people who make less than I do and still manage to
waste pay twice as much for whatever clothes they're buying on a weekly basis. If I did go on a shopping spree like this, it would provide me with enough clothes to last me for years. Or at least until the next Arsenal kit comes out.
Let's round it off and just say I spend $1000 on clothes.
Great start on diving into crippling debt, but we've still got a way to
go to max out that $20,000!
- Travel - If I have
an expensive as all-get-out vice that I'm simply itching for an
opportunity to indulge in, it's travel. And thanks to the wonderful
efforts of airlines and rental-car agencies to nickel and dime us at every flipping turn, travel can certainly be put on a credit card, and travel can certainly kick your arse with debt.
Now, time to wax philosophical. Where do I really want to go? Like, what's in my top five? Well, there's Cornerstone, which thanks to gas prices and the nickel & diming I alluded to, cost almost as much as me and my wife's honeymoon in Ireland!
Speaking of travel to Ireland, that far green country would definitely
be next on the list. Screw it... let's just say a general European
vacation, starting in the Swiss Alps, going into Germany, maybe heading
up through the lowlands (I want to see the respective homes of Robin
van Persie and Dennis Bergkamp rather sorely) and then into Eng-er-land
(preferably for a Saturday afternoon), up to Scotland to visit Otto & Co., and
home to Eire where I can feel free – free as an Irishman returning to
Ireland, which, let me tell ya', feels pretty flipping free!
I guess, after all that, I'd hit up Israel, then Japan.
If we do Cornerstone right this year (read: DON'T
go with Dollar Rip-You-Off), it should cost about $300. Trip to
Europe... We're looking at about $2,000 on flights and, I dunno, what
would you say? Another $1,000 on hotels & accommodations? $1,200?
I'd look into getting tickets to an Arsenal match, but honestly, I hear
that it's better watched in pubs now that they have their plastic
Dubaibury. Eurail passes go for something like $1,400 for two people
for two weeks... (wow, this is getting expensive!) so floundering
around Europe for a larf is probably going to give us a severe jab
there. Japan? We're looking at another $2,000 for airfare, another
$1,000 for accommodations. Israel, probably about $2,000 (again), but
we'd be able to crash with friends at least.
Daggum. Travel would be something like $9,700 for us!
Suddenly my wardrobe ambitions don't look so bad... that brings us to a
total of about $10,700 so far. Hey! I'm half way to maxing it all out!
- Computer Stuff – This isn't even so much a luxury as something that just needs
to get done for us, but people splurge on computer equipment all the
time, so why can't I? Anyway, one computer in a household where I'm
always wanting to write or play Lord of the Rings Online, and the wife
is always needing to check e-mail or design promotional materials for Berít New York (or put a new listing up on Etsy or whatever) we really need a network.
Now, we already have a second box that could do as a work horse for us, so what we really
need are a new monitor, a new desk, a new bit of power-management
stuff, and something that could let us create a home network. In my
subsequent excursions into the realm of computer upgrading, I've found
that NewEgg.com
is about the best thing on planet Earth. We could probably grab a
monitor for about $120-$150, or somewhere therein. We can get a wired
router (I don't dig on wireless at all – call me old fashioned) for
less than $100, too. That would pretty much take care of the computing
needs as far as I can tell (any IT experts are more than welcome to
correct me!) Maybe if we're talking splurging here, we can throw in a laptop for another $600-$800, and a server for another $150.
So, computer stuff in total adds anywhere from $220-$1200. All right, so we're up to about $11,900 in debt! Score! What's next?
-
Books
– I have an embarrassingly long list of books I desire to procure,
read, mark up, and form a library out of. Say what you will, books can
be just as bad as crack, especially at the prices publishers are
charging these days. Then again, that's why God invented eBay...
I'll take a pot-shot estimate and conjecture that I could burn about
$800 on books easily without thinking about it much. Depending on when
new good books come out, I could also plunk in another several hundred
annually (if not much, much more) but the books that I off-hand want to
buy just to have would be around $800. Maybe I'm
miscalculating though. Manga would be included in this, so let's tack
on another $300. Again, minimal.
The books bring us up to $13,000! I might totally break myself yet!
– I got an iPod for $50 from me mate Davis already, so that
takes care of the portable MP3 player issue. Now, to all those CDs,
records and iTunes downloads that I do desperately desire...
Another $1,000. Easily.
$14,000 now... do I have any more materialism in me? Do I have what
it takes to utterly deplete my credit record, or will I still have
something left at the end of the day to spend on food and shelter?
I'm thinking really hard... clobber? Check. Travel? Check. Computer components? Check. Books? Check. CDs? Check. Weapons? Ahh...
Weaponry – I'm a sucker for sharp, pointy objects made to make people go dead. This is definitely one of those areas where shopping like a super-saver will not work out for you in the end. I could go on a shopping spree at Arms & Armor and probably lose around, well... let's guestimate $6,000, easily!
I did it! I managed to blow away $20,000 on stuff that I really
don't need (barring the computer bits)! Woohoo! I can be a consumer
whore, too!
Ahem... Eherm.
I have to confess though that I really had to stretch my imagination
at points on figuring out how to lose two-thirds of my yearly income.
What's also distressing is thinking of how little I'd have left for
more important endeavours like, say, building the Kingdom of God.
...
People who do not have, and yet have heavier responsibilities than
I, somehow manage to spend tens of thousands, if not hundreds of
thousands, annually on personal accoutrements. I just have to wonder
though – why? Is it so important to have everything now? Have
people been deluded so much by the empty promises of consumerism that
they really can't just calm the heck down and live with a wardrobe that
isn't completely renewed every two weeks? Do they understand that when
you sign up for a payment plan you still have to, y'know, pay?
When I consider the rabid, frenzied nature of consumerism in America – and it's a nature that I have to literally strain myself to understand – it comes as no surprise to me that we're getting the comeuppance that we're getting right now.
There's a somewhat vague passage that this all makes me think of. It's in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 16:
"And this was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her
daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not take up
the hand of the poor and needy. They were over-proud, and did
detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as seen
fit."
But that's a whole other blog entry for another time...
* - Did
you see what I did there, folks? Because that's basically what this
world does... it sets us "free" into a life of bondage to sin, misery,
confusion and, well, bondage. Being set free into self-indulgence
really isn't being set free at all, but ah! There is another one of
those "big idea" type posts that I mentioned yesterday. Stay patient.
You'll get to see me harp on this soon enough.
