Samir Gardner argues that expensive consumer purchases like cars and sneakers don't bring lasting happiness and trap you in work. A $20,000 car costs roughly ten months of labor at $12 per hour. He urges spending on essentials and investments instead of holiday-driven consumption.
What's good, y'all? It's your boy Samir Gardner. Hope y'all doing good. So I want to talk about finance and everything because many people— and I'm talking about you, I'm not talking about, uh, society and everything— but y'all want to buy stuff like, for example, sneakers or phone, iPhone 12, iPhone 18 or something, and you just but you just buy that thing like it's gonna make you happy, like it's gonna make your life more better, like you're gonna be just way better, like your life is gonna be way easier, your life is gonna be like this and everything. You gotta understand, even if you're depressed, anxious, or something, well, don't buy. I swear, it's the one thing, bro, don't buy. I'd rather you spend money on, you know, whole foods, you know, uh, wild rice that costs like $50 or a pound or something, bro. I swear, when you are spending your money, bro, you're not making yourself any happier. And I'm not saying, oh, you spend your money on investments— and that's another thing, investments is another way, way different thing than spending money at Christmas to buy the new gift. Like, bro, many people don't realize, but bro, people get happy only at Christmas. Be mindful, bro. Be mindful. Many people don't really get sort of happy except at Christmas. They just wait for a certain date to be more happy than the other dates, which doesn't really make sense because the dates doesn't exist usually. You know, I saw like, I think, a study back in the past and they said like people like the suicide— suicidal jobs way, way lower when there's like the celebration of the year and everything. What you gotta understand is, bro, buying stuff, bro, is not gonna make you happy. I'm gonna tell you like a thousand times, if y'all wanna buy something, oh, then do it. But y'all gotta be mindful of the second thing I was gonna talk about. That is, when you buy something, bro, You are literally selling a part of your life because you have unlimited time. You have limited time. I mean, you don't have, well, you don't have like 200 years in front of you, bro. You maybe have 120, maybe 130 if you're healthy, and that's rare for a lot of people. But you gotta understand, when you— a lot of people don't realize this. Look, let's say you make $12 an hour. And you work about 40 hours a week, right? So I'm gonna tell you how much time is it gonna take for you to buy that $20K car. So yeah, you're working, let's say you buy that $20K. Okay, so it's gonna be 40 hours a week times 12. Times 4 equals 1920. You get 1920. Let's say you get $2K, $2K per month, and you buy that $20K car. How many months is it gonna cost you of your life of you just working? 8. It's 8 months of your life. You are tied to your jobs simply because you bought that car. And are you happy at your job? Are you happy waking up? A lot of people don't understand it's not even 40 hours a week, it's like 60 hours because the time you wake up early, you do this and that, just your mental is already at work when you're working. And I'm not bashing 9 to 5 and everything, but a lot of people gotta understand this. Bro, it's gonna be— wait, I said 8 months, but it's 10. 10 months. 10 months of your life, bro. $2,000 times 10 equals $20K, and that car was $20K. So just by you buying something, you're going to be tied to your job or your source of money or income simply because you bought something. You basically sold your soul just to buy something. And I'm not saying go into minimalism or do this and do that, but bro, be mindful. And this is like what the previous video I talked about. When you're all mindful, you can actually like reflect on your actions, your, you know, just your actions and your beliefs and everything, because you get a second chance to think through your action, okay? When you are more mindful. So when you are buying that $20K car, just know you're gonna have to work to just pay that, except if you have a lot of cash, if you can pay cash right now. But when you just rent everything, when you don't even have the money, it's like you're just slaving your ass. Like, it's just, you're slaving your soul just to work for somebody else. It's easy like this, bro. It's easy like this, okay? You understand? It doesn't make you happy, plus it keeps you tied to something that makes you unhappy. How are you gonna find happiness in those two things? Buying something will not make you happy, and when you buy that thing, you become unhappy because you have to work at something you don't even like, like for the most of people. Well, it's easy like this. It's just easy like this. So, but I'm doing one-on-one consultations right now. Uh, you know, it's for free. So just go in the description and hit the link. So that's it for the video.
