Wants vs. Needs: Managing Your Personal Surplus

Trent Hamm

It would be easy for me to look back and say I regret the hundreds of thousands of dollars that I blew through during the third decade of my life.

I don’t, though, at least not in a general sense. My memories of those years are filled with a lot of peak experiences that I wouldn’t trade away at any price.

What I do regret is how much I wasted on the ordinary experiences and things that didn’t really add much at all to my life. I bought so many things without thinking about them at all along the way. I threw down $20 bills over and over again on quick experiences that, in the end, didn’t really add a thing to my life. It was mindless, thoughtless spending—the type of things that brings ...