Ramit Sethi examines how couples call themselves modest spenders while buying a $2,200 mattress on credit. They rationalize luxury purchases as necessary and get defensive when the numbers don't match their self-image. The gap between how we see ourselves and how we actually spend is where the real problem lives.
It's easy to feel like you are a simple, modest spender, and frankly, it's hard to argue with that because, of course, our spending feels innocent and justified if we don't look at the actual numbers. Almost always, when I talk to a couple who believes this, who has made this part of their identity, and I pull back the curtain on their simple, modest spending, I will often find things like a $2,200 mattress that they bought on credit. The funny thing is, they don't even think that's a lot of money. They go, well, you got to protect your back, Ramit. Do you understand that that is a luxury, especially relative to how much money you have saved? And they almost become enraged, as if me telling them that they actually purchased a luxury doesn't make sense because for their identity, they refuse to believe that they would be the kind of people who purchase the luxury.
