Thursday, August 2, 2012

The "Best time to buy" myth

As I was watching a commercial today from Toyota, the character in the commercial was puzzling about the "best time to buy."
I'm curious why people are so anxious about the best time to buy, whether it's cars or houses or purses or shoes or cell phones, people seem so obsessed with waiting for the best deal. I understand that financially, a lot of people have a lot to be concerned about and saving a few bucks is a priority, but really, gambling with predictions about when will be the best time to buy? Is that not still gambling? In my humble opinion, the best time to buy something is when you need or want it.
The best time to buy a car.... waiting to get the best deal on a car is ridiculous. If it is a luxury car that is extra, that is one thing, but if you need a new car, and are trading in your old one, as the deals on new cars gets better, your old car devalues. How long do you really want to wait to strike the perfect balance over what, a thousand or so dollars that translates to $10-$20/month? How, in the long run, does that save you money if you have to put that thousand into your old car so that it will last until your "best time to buy?"
Clothes, again, the same thing. How does it help you to wear tattered clothes until something goes on sale?
Rather than set your sights on the best time to buy, how about looking for the best product to buy? A car that costs a bit less, rather than waiting for something specific? Clothes that cost a bit less...

Consider this for a moment. Black Friday. The biggest shopping day of the year. For a lot of people, it's about the fun and excitement and hub-bub. But people always think that they are saving money. From a retail perspective, Black Friday is the money maker. If you bomb on that day, your entire fiscal year is down the toilet. With the margins so low on everything that day, you  might wonder how it is that retailers can make a profit. Easy, volume of sales. On Black Friday, the "best time to buy" many people, not everyone, but many many people, buy crap that they don't want or need simply because it's marked down.

There is no "Best time to buy." Buy what you need, when you need it, and buy products in the price range that you can afford. Don't wait for MacBooks to go on sale if you have an Acer budget. Settle for what you can afford and save that extra for what you need next. Spending more than you can afford on a product that is above and beyond what you need, because it costs less than what it normally does is akin to living outside of your means. I can't afford Kobe beef every night. So either I buy better meat and eat it less often, or I buy cheaper meat. I don't wait, and wait, and wait for Kobe to go on sale and then fill my freezer. That's nonsensical. Someday I will be able to afford it whenever I want, that is the goal. But right now, I try to live according to my income and not by stretching every penny to the most luxury things I can manage and sacrificing everything else for the sake of it.