One financial lesson they should teach in school is that most of the things we buy have to be paid for twice. There’s the first price, usually paid in dollars, just to gain possession of the desired thing, whatever it is: a book, a budgeting app, a unicycle, a bundle of kale. But then, in order to make use of the thing, you must also pay a second price. This is the effort and initiative required to gain its benefits, and it can be much higher than the first price.
Example?
I can buy as many books as I want but it doesn’t do me much good unless I invest time to actually read them
I don’t love this example because enjoyment of the object isn’t really a cost. If I buy a book or a videogame or a movie, the time it takes to enjoy the media is the value, not the cost.
If you’re talking about maintenance and upkeep on your car, that is a different type of cost that has to be weighed against the cost and time expenditure of a bus pass or whatever your alternative was.
In other words I feel like this is a catchy phrase that kind of falls apart once you start to dig at it.
Exactly. It’s a deepity.
I really don’t think everything is this way. I buy a shirt, I put it on. Not much to invest there.
But some things are definitely this way as anyone who has brought Ikea furniture home can tell you.
If shirts were single-use items, I would agree. But I would say you pay every time you wash and iron it, and put it back to wear again.
Not OP but my example would be the last 2 books I bought. They are still sitting unread and I have not gotten the full value out if them yet as I haven’t taken the time to consume them. Also education, I paid tuition and now I am working to keep my grades up so I can get the value from that.
You can buy cheap shoes and save money, but you’re going to pay for it when they fall apart fast and your feet hurt.
You can save money and eat fast food, but you pay for it with your health.
You can save up and get the nicer car, and you pay less for it in the long run with upkeep.
Unless it’s a Mercedes