Keeping up with the Joneses

They call it 'retail therapy' because it is supposed to make us feel better. But it has always been said that money can't buy you happiness. I bet that the more materialistic people are, the more unhappy they are. It can be a very frustrating experience trying to stay ahead of others.

People want to compare themselves to others.

In our society the criterion tends to be what you own. The real question is why, if people think that owning things will makes them happy, does it not do so? The problem is that if you feel that your sense of worth or your value is tied up in what you own, then the things you own are likely not to hold their value for very long. In our market-driven society, things are very often yesterday's fashions or not worth what they were. If you determine your personal worth from possessions - things that are outside yourself - then you are setting yourself up for a very big disappointment.

This preys on my mind a lot. Especially when I look around and covet other people's possessions and see how they covet mine. I have everything I could ever want but deep down a little green monster screams that it still isn't good enough. It isn't all relative. It's dog eat dog.

Even with all this being said, don't be surprised when I buy the Lexus this summer.