Lowering Your Status Line Can Create More Freedom in Your Life
Hey you! You don't need that thing you're about to buy.
Six years ago, I learned one of my most important life lessons buying a brand-new longboard. At the time, I’d been riding a used longboard for just over a month, one I’d gotten off a friend for $40 and fixed up.
Then I was sucked into a black hole of downhill longboard videos on YouTube. I decided to buy a racing board. It had been a whole month. I was ready, right?
I headed to my local skate shop. There, on the rack by the window, was a brand new and bodacious racing board ($332). I fell in love and “had to have it.” The skate-shop-ist (who saw me coming a mile away), rang me up for the board, then did his job beautifully.
“You know,” he said “if you’re going to be racing, you’ll need to get some slide gloves ($50) and slide wheels ($60), and just so you know, the bearings that come on that board aren't great. If you're interested, I sell the bearings that were used to set the land speed record.” ($82)
I had been longboarding for just over a month, on my perfectly awesome used cruiser board. But I heard those words and was drawn. "Land speed record, my good man?” I replied." I'll take them! and all of the other things you mentioned! Immediately!”
I still have that board, and the slide gloves (which were banished to the basement after perhaps five uses).
That day, I spent $514 on the board+wheels+gloves+bearings. FIVE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN DOLLARS. Simply because I wanted something new. I spent 1285% more than I did on my used board, after a month, because of a simple craving.
I was way above my status line. What’s the status line, you ask? I’ll introduce you. Your Status Line is a measurement of how much money you pay over what you strictly need to, just for perceived status or “shiny-ness”. Here is a sweet infographic I made to explain the concept:
As I write this, there is a newer board of the same brand that I bought five years ago, gently used, on Facebook marketplace for $130. If I wanted to get aggressive and assemble a longboard myself from gently used parts, I could do it myself for under $100. The contentment-boosting rewards from building it would be far higher than simply buying new if I went this route.
Now I’m not saying to stop wanting cool things. If you want something, fantastic. Especially if it adds fun or value to your life. But in our modern world of hedonistic surplus, people have discarded/are looking to get rid of whatever you want, somewhere near you! Buy used!
You can add fun at a fraction of the cost, keeping the money you save to add freedom to your future.
I made two significant mistakes when I bought that new board:
I overpaid simply because I wanted something new.
I over-over paid for something that I perceived to be “world-class.”
I didn't need world-class! I had started in the sport a month ago! If we compare the amount I overpaid with the amount I could have spent on a used board, here's what we come up with: $514 - $130 = $384.
In this situation, my Status Line was set at $130. The lowest price I could have paid to add the same amount of fun to my life was $130. I paid $384 over my Status Line just to have a new thing+trimmings.
This phenomenon is everywhere in our choice-obsessed world, but here’s my favorite example:
People overpay like crazy in the world of alcohol. During my time in college, I was a bartender to pay the bills. One of the things we were trained to do was get people to pay more for booze, so we made more tips. We did this by exaggerating the status line.
“Sure, that tequila is fine, but this one (that costs $10 more than the house tequila) is made with agave grown above 13,000 ft and harvested only after it's been digested by llamas! Hence the $10 difference, plebian.”
How many times have you fallen for this? Let's do some simple math. Let's say you eat out at your favorite restaurant three times a week, and overpay an average of $9 above your status line for alcohol each time. You feel you can “afford it”. $9 three times a week ends up being $27 each week, $108 a month, and $1,296 a year.
Invested yearly in a good index fund, $1296 compounds into more than $20,000 a decade. Even if you don't invest it, you can buy a perfectly good used mountain bike for $500 to add fun to your life, and still have almost $800 in savings for when you need it most.
We all know that small expenses add up. Many people I know hate looking at their bank statements because of the compounding guilt. You can change compounding guilt into compounding wealth, simply by changing your perception of the status you "deserve.”
For most people I know, booze is a great place to start, and the compounding effects echo into the rest of their lives.
The difference between good booze without marketing and good booze with a fancy story and status can cost you thousands of dollars a year. Those dollars saved can become a source of fun, or a second income one day if they are invested well. Theoretically, right now you can afford the difference between “good” and “good with a story that costs more.” Your future self cannot. Don’t let yourself get used to overpaying just because you “can.”