Friends are extremely influential! It’s hard to overstate how much. A buddy of mine told me a story that I believe illustrates this perfectly. “My wife and I drive older model cars right now. They have a lot of miles left in them, but they don’t look pretty anymore. They have a few dents. Latches, buttons, and seals are starting to fail. My wife felt embarrassed driving her jalopy to work. She explained that it didn’t feel professional. I expressed my opinion that they had a good amount of life left in them and that buying a new car just so other people didn’t think you were poor was a good way to become poor.”
“I am pretty sure that she physically heard me, but the idea dripped off her like water off a duck’s back. If anything, it made her more sure that she needed a new car. Since we had enough cash in our car savings, we began shopping. We found a used car that checked all the boxes for us, four-wheel drive for winter driving, good condition, the right age to avoid overpaying on a new car, AND it looked super fancy. A real eye-catcher.”
“We discussed the decision many times, during which I told her that I still felt the same. Buying cars is like burning money. They lose value by the mile and only provide transportation. We should get the full value out of the old one before jumping into the expense of the next one. She frowned and changed the subject. It seemed clear that she wouldn’t be dissuaded. We made an appointment to relook and buy the car on Friday. On Thursday, my wife was chatting with a lady she had just met.
