spending habits

Study Says Luxury Changes People for the Worse

Filed under: Wealth

A new study found that when people are exposed to luxury they become more self-centered and less empathetic towards others.

The study was put together by Harvard professor Roy Y.J. Chua and London Business School assistant professor Xi Zou as a step towards understanding how luxury goods effect the human psyche, and as a means of explaining the harmful decisions of wealthy groups like Wall Street executives. In the study people were asked to make a series of decisions designed to pit self-interests against society-interests, and the people who thought about luxury immediately before the test made more selfish and potentially harmful decisions than those who didn't.

The results seem to suggest that businessmen who have meetings at posh resorts surrounded by opulence and luxury will make more profit-driven, self-interested decisions than those who meet in a modest conference room. What do you think, does being surrounded by luxury make a person more likely to think only about themselves?

Via psfk

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Tags: lifestyle, luxury, psychology, spending, spending habits, SpendingHabits, study, wealth

Fiscal Attraction - Spenders and Savers Live in Wedded Bliss

by Annie Scott (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

The Wharton School of Finance and Northwestern University are currently collaborating on a paper called "Fatal (Fiscal) Attraction," concerning the spending habits of husband and wives.

According to the authors, Scott Rick, Deborah Small and Eli Finkel, "Surveys of married adults suggest that opposites attract when it comes to emotional reactions toward spending."

Rick also worked on a separate study with Carnegie Mellon's George Loewenstein and Cynthia Cryder about "tightwads" and "spendthrifts" (which I always thought those were synonyms. Oops), and the "pain of paying." The study "found that the extent to which people said they found a pain of paying strongly predicted their savings and credit card debt, but were unrelated to income," reports Kristina Cooke, Reuters.

Whie you might think that there would be less drama if you and your mate had similar spending habits, it turns out that if you dislike spending, you might have sought out someone who likes it, and vice versa.

Basically, next time your husband or wife asks "Why are you spending so much?" in exasperation, you can truthfully answer: "That's why you love me, baby."

[via Reuters]

Tags: marriage, money, spending habits

The World's Most Frugal Billionaires

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Celebrity Shopping

If you were a billionaire what would you spend your money on? Most people have this vision that all billionaires spend like crazy on lavish amounts of bling gilded in gold, diamond-encrusted gadgets, expensive designer handbags, ridiculously huge homes, and private jets. Some of these things are pretty standard among the rich, but some other things aren't that may surprise you. There are a handful of billionaires in the world that are very choosy with where they indulge -- for example although they may have a few fast cars they may also be cutting their own hair.

One of the biggest and most frugal billionaires of them all: Warren Buffet. He still lives in the same home he bought back in 1958 for $31,500 and he drives a modest (considering) 2006 Cadillac DTS. For more of the most frugal billionaires see Forbes' complete list.

Via Trendhunter

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Tags: billionaire, billionaires, expire-images:2008-12-11, frugal, millionaire, millionaires, modest, spending habits, SpendingHabits

High-End Retailers Seeing A Slow Down

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Celebrity Shopping

There has been a definite slow down in the spending habits of the average American consumer this holiday season, and although the super rich weren't predicted to be affected the modestly rich, or "aspirational consumers," were another story. They were expected to slow down with the rest of us, and it seems those predictions were right on. Some of the biggest retailers catering to both the very wealthy and the merely "well-off" are making note of major slow-downs -- and even a loss of some of their customer base as many of their lower-income clientele retreat from stores like Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom to Kohl's and JCPenny's.

Are you spending less this holiday season?

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Tags: aspirational, consumers, economy, holidash, holidays, shopping, spending, spending habits, SpendingHabits, wealthy

Aspirational Consumers Spending Less

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Celebrity Shopping

Although the super-rich are still spending money like they always do, they aren't the only ones who support the luxury market and signs seem to say that some other groups, namely the next level down, are getting a little tight-fisted with the cash. Many high-end retailers are reporting disappointing sales and drops in demand by as much as 20%, and the usually highly anticipated Christmas shopping season is looking "cloudy at best."

So far the most affected consumers seem to be households earning $50,000-$150,000, with spending suffering less as household income increases. However, experts warn that if this trend continues even the richest spenders may begin to curtail some of their habits.

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Tags: aspirational, consumers, economy, luxury, masstige, shopping, spending, spending habits, SpendingHabits