Excessive Consumerism: 11 Reasons Why to Avoid It

Excessive consumerism ruined so many lives in America and it will continue to do so. Controlled consumerism is perfectly fine when going through life. When consumerism becomes excessive, it becomes a problem. Owning more stuff will only improve your life so much before it starts to worsen it.

Think back to when you were a young kid. You didn’t need a lot of things back then. All you needed was some form of entertainment, food, clothes, and a roof over your head. It’s when we started getting older that we started comparing ourselves to others around us did we think about what we want.

That’s when we started to care about our place in the world. Some people satisfied this by buying as much stuff as they possibly can. Material possessions showed that they were moving up in the world and it satisfied where they are in life. Once they start to feel good about purchasing things, they do it over and over again.

That’s where excessive consumerism steps in. The world where credit cards are not used as a way to get rewards or as a last resort. It’s used as a way to fund their entire life. This path has the highest probability of bankruptcy. I like to buy expensive things here and there.

After all, I have a $500 a month fun money budget that I can use without any justification at all whatsoever. However, I rarely go over that budget. On the months that I do, I gladly spend less the month afterwards to make up for the difference.

Lifestyle creep are two words that can make a good thing go sour. A raise is not the time to go out and live it up. It’s a time to protect your future.

What is Excessive Consumerism?

Excessive consumerism is consumerism that has been taken to the extreme end of the spectrum. It’s over the top consumerism. One of America’s favorite past time is to consume as much as they can. It’s not just in America but it’s prevalent across the world.

Materialistic possessions bring us comfort, security, and temporary happiness that we have the power to acquire those things. Too much stuff leads to our downfall. Moderation is good for us as we generally enjoy a state of homeostasis.

However, when we need to take on additional debt to buy things that we don’t need to impress people we don’t like is when it becomes a problem. Keeping up with the Joneses is a recipe for disaster, especially since the Joneses has different goals than you.

At the end of your life, people are not going to remember how many watches or cars you owned. People are going to remember who you were as a person. The ones who actually benefit from excessive consumerism are companies who are selling the idea of excessive consumerism.

They don’t care about your well being, they just care about how many dollars can be transferred from your pocket to theirs. Don’t be willing to hand over money to someone who doesn’t care about you or gives you a second thought. Don’t take money lightly.

It doesn’t grow on trees and takes a large amount of effort to have a lot of it. You don’t pay the price with money, you pay the price by the amount of time it takes to produce that amount of money you spent. It’s an expensive price to pay for temporary benefit.

10 Reasons to Avoid Excessive Consumerism

One reason to avoid excessive consumerism is to SMASH that social share button and post to your favorite social media! Your friends can benefit significantly from learning about the dangers and harms of buying too much stuff. We were all guilty of it at some times in our lives.

One of my friends said “savings? Save for what?” She truly meant that there was no need to save money, have an emergency fund, and the like. She practices consumption to the maximum without a care in the world. Remember that rainy days happen even to the most fortunate.

So with that said, let’s go to the reasons why you should avoid too much consumption.

1) You Escape the Rat Race Sooner

The rat race is not a race that you want to be on. It’s never ending and has no winners by the end of it all. If you avoid excessive consumerism, you save more money and invest more of it in the stock market. Squirrel away your money for your future. In many parts of the world, you can comfortably live on $20 – $25,000 a year.

Especially if you already spent a lot of money buying fixed goods like furniture and clothing. These are expenses where you just buy once and no need to buy again for years after. I own tattered clothing and unappealing clothing that I wear when I don’t need to go outside.

I also own appealing clothes for nice and special occasions. My wardrobe has what I need. No more and no less, it’s just the right amount. With less money spent on clothing, I dump everything that I can into a broad market index fund like the S&P and make my money work for me.

It’ll do wonders for you if you follow the same path.

2) Like Gluttony, Excessive Consumerism Overloads You

When you eat too much food, you feel sluggish, bad, and lazy because you have so much food in you to digest. You stay in one place to pass the time on so your body can digest and give you more energy to tackle the day. There’s one problem with this approach. You overate.

Now, your body stores that energy for a rainy day down the road. Much of this stored energy comes in the form of extra pounds and weight. That’s what excessive consumerism feels like. You feel so stressed that you have so much stuff you have to manage throughout the day, if not years.

There’s no way you can manage everything and still keep your sanity. One thing breaks one day so you get another one. Then the next day something else breaks and you have to tend to that. Your life is already cluttered enough with things you have to do. No need to add one more thing to keep yourself even busier.

3) Your Overall Financial Health Improves

We all know the formula for financial success is to spend less than your income and invest the difference. However, when there’s too many things that you purchase and buy, you suddenly need debt to float you across the river. Then you have to pay interest on top of the debt just to survive going forward.

That’s no good. You are at the complete mercy of banks and lenders who gave you money so you can fund your lifestyle. So then, a salary raise that you get isn’t going straight to you. That money is going straight to the financial institutions who are funding you.

Lifestyle creep goes in line with consumption that is overboard. The feeling of not having any money burden is a feeling that is difficult to beat. No one owns your time if that is true. You are free to do whatever you want, which is great.

4) You Have More Living Options

You have much more choices if you don’t like your living situation. Excessive consumerism forces you to be stuck in one place. Don’t get stuck. The optionality to switch whenever we want is very valuable. More stuff ties you down even further.

It’s more difficult to be nimble and move to another more attractive area if the opportunity comes up. When I moved from college to Alabama, I didn’t hire a moving company. I fit everything I needed in my single hatchback car. It was much easier to move across states and it was really cheap to do so.

Moving became harder after I moved back from Alabama to Texas. Now, I can’t transport all my stuff in one trip. I have to hire movers for the furniture and generally more stuff I bought over the years. My landlord would be smiling if he heard this. It means I am stuck.

It’s not a good spot to be in.

5) Less Chances to Get Ripped Off

When you don’t buy as much stuff, you don’t get tricked by clever advertising tricks anymore. Those “50% off!” signs no longer phase you if you buy less things to add to your collection. Companies pour billions into figuring out how to seduce you to pull out your credit card.

When you resist the temptation and go along your merry way, the power is completely with you. Companies are powerless against you. There are less chances of you overpaying for something. Companies figure out how to get its customers to pay the most for a product, not less.

When you skip buying altogether, there’s no chances to overpay at all.

6) No Need to Sell at a Loss When You Move

Have you ever been to a moving sale? The owners sell these things at a fire sale price because they are motivated sellers. If not, it was going to end up in trash anyway. When you avoid excessive consumerism, there’s no need to sell these things at a loss because you can just take it with you.

The used market is ripe for people like you to step in, buy things for cheap, and sell for a profit. The thing you have going for you is time. For someone who’s moving, time is working against them while time is working for you. You have the negotiating power.

There are so many deals ready to be snatched up when you avoid buying too many things. New is expensive while used is not.

7) You Get Better at Practicing Delayed Gratification

The number one indicator of success isn’t intelligence or family upbringing. It’s delayed gratification. When you know how to say no to a lot of the “deals” that are going on in the market, you have the power. You know how to sacrifice today for a better tomorrow.

Your future self will thank you for saying no to a lot of things. The win isn’t just on saving money. The win is on practicing self control for you in other situations down the road. You get much better at living life on your own terms instead of somebody else’s.

Delayed gratification helps your life in more ways than one.

8) You Focus on What You Have Instead of What You Don’t Have

When you avoid excessive consumerism, you feel content with what you have and who you are as a person. You don’t look for external sources of validation because you are already validated by yourself. You don’t need that fancy and shiny beautiful clothing because you don’t need to impress others.

There’s no need to peacock around to gain attention because you don’t care for it. You become much happier as a result because stuff doesn’t make you feel anything anymore. It’s no longer a big deal to buy the latest and the shiniest toy. That is a blissful life.

The well put together advertisement doesn’t phase you out, either. You’re already happy with what you have and there’s no “grass is greener” theory that’s tugging at your heartstrings. There’s no one else who can tempt or manipulate you into doing what they want you to do.

You just turn to the next channel after seeing the ad and move on with your life.

9) Excessive Consumerism Impresses Others at Your Expense

Who are you really buying that extra bit of stuff for? Are you really buying it for yourself or are you buying it to make others jealous? Do you really need to make others jealous? Excessive consumerism makes you focus on the wrong person. You should be focusing on impressing yourself instead of others.

Stop caring about what others think of you. The goal is to be rich not to look rich. Most people buy a brand new Tesla partly because they want to drive a revolutionary car. Deep down inside, they’re buying it to show off to others on where they are in life.

Whether they want to admit it or not, there are some vanity reasons people make purchasing decisions. The price they pay to impress others is enormous. News flash. Others will be jealous and impressed for maybe a day. Afterwards, they won’t care that much for the brand new toy you bought.

10) More Environmentally Friendly

One way to leave a better Earth than how you found it is to plant a lot of trees. Another way is to buy less stuff. There’s less packaging material that you’ll throw away. There’s less landfill that fills out Earth. No need to burn the trash that adds Carbon Dioxide to the Earth’s layer.

When you avoid excessive consumerism, you are making the planet better for everyone else around you. The great part is that there’s no extra work you need to do. All you have to do is to avoid the temptation. It’s one small philanthropic act that you’re doing which has a huge impact to the world.

Companies spend a lot of money and research on how to package their products the best to induce customers to buy. Companies spend more money on packaging than the product itself in some cases. When you avoid buying that extra stuff, there’s less landfill and trash for others to bear.

11) No Chances of Bankruptcy

When you don’t buy another thing, there is literally zero chances of bankruptcy. There’s no need to take on debt to buy the latest new model car. When you avoid excessive consumerism, there’s just no chances of you ending up talking to a bankruptcy attorney to find out the next steps.

The coronavirus pandemic shocked so many people across the world. Consumers and businesses declared bankruptcy and forced people to take a long hard look at their finances. Savings rate skyrocketed. Many people who were living paycheck to paycheck and barely making ends meet were in for a shock.

Debt is a monster that forced so many people into bad places. Keep purchases to a minimum and you’ll be just fine. There will be no need to take on additional debt to finance your life. Keep this in mind the next that you are thinking whether you need a second dining table.

Do you need a second dining table or can you live on the one dining table you already have?

Excessive Consumerism May Ruin Your Life

No one’s life was ever ruined because they practiced a minimalist lifestyle or practiced the right amount of consumerism. However, people’s lives were ruined because of excessive consumerism. Excessive consumerism is the enemy while minimalism is the ally.

Avoid it at all costs. Otherwise, the life that you worked so hard to build may crash down in the blink of an eye. Life comes at you fast. There’s no telling what one event can do to negatively impact your life. I got into car accidents before and believe me when I say there were no warnings.

You probably already have enough to live on for the next year or so. Avoid the temptation the next time you’re out in the grocery store. Put that thing you want to buy back into the shelf. One lady friend I know owns 100 pairs of shoes. She never uses or wears them at all whatsoever.

That is what marketing and ads do to you. They are good at convincing you that you need the product. You don’t. All you need in life is a roof over your head, food, clothes, internet connection, and technology and you’re good to go. Everything else is extra things that companies convince you that you need.

In the stone ages, we didn’t even have a roof over our heads. We made do with the wilderness and fire. Somewhere along the way, that changed. I’m not saying go back to the times of the stone ages. I’m saying evaluate whether the things you need truly contribute to your survival.

I want you to live a life that you are happy with down the road. Buying more stuff is not going to make you feel that way. Choose what matters to you the most carefully.