Ross' Rules: you can't take it with you

We Rosses have been known to spend a few dollars here and there. Summer villas on Lake Como, silk toilet paper, Tiffany cuff links...is it our fault for liking the finer things in life? Should we be consumed by overwhelming guilt by such freewheeling spending habits? Seeing as we are neither catholic or poor, guilt is a concept as foreign as the population of a 7-11 parking lot. For you see, what is the point of having more money than you can spend if you can't spend it?

Being a Yale man I hardly put much stock in anything that comes from the bloated egos over at Harvard. However, they have hit upon an interesting idea: that virtue is a vice. According to their research, consumers who base their purchase decisions on short-term regret tend to make more practical purchases whereas consumers who focus on long-term regret make more extravagant purchases.

From the Harvard Business Review:

People who unduly resist self-indulgence suffer from an excessive farsightedness, or hyperopia—the reverse of typical self-control problems. Rather than yielding to temptation, they focus on acquiring necessities and acting responsibly and they see indulgence as wasteful, irresponsible, and even immoral. As a result, these consumers avoid precisely the products and experiences that they most enjoy.

Now I know that many out there have no choice in the matter, but to willingly deprive one's self of that which brings them joy borders on masochistic and unreasonable. Especially so when one has the means to spend at will.

So the next time you are trying to justify your next extravagance remember that short-term regret is temporary and that guilt and luxury sleep in separate bedrooms.