Why is life so expensive?

Why is life so expensive?

Jordan Goodman (Personal Finance Author) gives expert video advice on: Why is life so expensive?; Why are things so expensive?; How much is the cost of living expected to go up in the coming years? and more...

Life is so expensive because people's tastes are more than their income. Our entire culture is based around consumption. You don't see a lot of ads for saving or investing on TV. It's all about spending, and people are very good at marketing things and making you want to buy stuff whether you want to or not. There is a difference between wants and needs, and a lot of people buy based on their wants instead of their needs. Particularly around the holiday times, they get wrapped up with the music and smells and everything going on in the malls and they end up spending more than they can afford and making up the different with debt in many cases. So that's why people are spending more. They are wrapped up in the culture of consumption. They want to have it now. It is also a culture of instant gratification. In the old days, our parents might have actually saved up for something before they actually bought it. Today we buy it first and figure out how to pay for it later. That gets people in a lot of trouble.