How much time do you spend making money decisions?

[whoisjohngalt]

So, we FINALLY bought a house. There are a few things we want to do before we move in, cost ranging from a few hundred to thousands of dollars.

Does the amount of money (and no, I am not talking about buying a stick of gum in Target) effect how much time you spend making the decision?

Would you equally "research" carpets vs refrigerator? Or would one decision would be easier and quicker to make bc it's cheaper and not as "permanent"?

Lena

[The J]

Wall-to-wall carpets and refigerators would probably get equal consideration, since both are semi-permanent. Area rugs, unless they're expensive ones, wouldn't really get the same.

The amount of money, and how long I expect to be stuck with the results of the choice, determine how much time I spend.

[Urban Chicago]

I'm the worst at that. With almost any money decision, I make up my mind within minutes, but then spend days second guessing and debating with myself, only to ultimately decide to do what I wanted to do at first.

[bobbysgirl]

I think it depends on how much detail is needed to be worked out before purchasing something. Research is important to me because I like to make informed and educated decisions. We took over 2 years to find the right house. The consequences of going into the wrong one were too high. Rent was considered a COst of doing business. My fridge was chosen when a good sale came on the one I already researched.

[phil5185]

With almost any money decision, I make up my mind within minutes, but then spend days second guessing and debating with myself, only to ultimately decide to do what I wanted to do at first.

I remember that method from a management class - it has a name - something like 'baselining'? You quickly pick an answer and then compare all other options to your baseline. Unfortunately, I don't recall whether it was considered a good method or a bad method.

[quotequeen]

For me it depends on my mood and how much patience I have at that time more than what the item is.

[thyme4change]

I'm moody and lazy. So, I could spend years (decades) agonizing over which toilet is better, but the minute our dishwasher started leaking, I drove to store, bought the one the sales guy recommended and had it delivered the next day. So, I guess with me necessity plays a huge part.

It also helps if I feel that I really have the authority to make the decision. I'm sure this will be a poor representation of my marriage, but sometimes my husband says "Do what you want" and I know he means it. Other times he says "Do what you want" but I know when he has to live with the repercussions of that he will have an opinion. So, that causes a lot of anxiety in my decision making process.

[jennml]

Jan 6, 2011 10:03:02 GMT -5 The J said:

The amount of money, and how long I expect to be stuck with the results of the choice, determine how much time I spend.

Ditto

I actually enjoy researching and figuring out the top options in whatever category I'm contemplating a purchase. Example: I spent about a month researching bedding, i.e. thread count, fabric types, duvet vs comforter, hypoallergenic, etc. etc. etc. Once armed with a plethora of on-line info and a baseline budget, I braved Macy's during one of their big pre-christmas sales and got exactly what I wanted for 1/3 of the retail price. ;D The hardest part was picking out the darn colors...It's hard for me to visualize a final look, plus my bedroom has a random lavendar color on the walls (which I love but is a pain to coordinate with).

I've done the impulse buy thing and it almost never works out like I imagine. My first bedding set was a cheapy, bed in a bag from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Pretty and serviceable until it was washed and started to pill That's when I decided it was time to research and buy some quality stuff for my favorite place.

Next up those sexy, satin sheets so I can run and jump on my bed while wearing some silk PJs and slip and slide around LMAO.

[jennml]

Oh, CONGRATULATIONS on your new house

[so1970]

congrats on the house dont go with cheap carpets and make sure the padding is high quality also. i know you probably see carpet that looks the same on a huge roll with a super low price but you get what you pay for . if the weave is not as tight the carpet will not last. on appliances they are warranted so i dont worry as much.

[Clifford]

If it takes a trip to a store - or to a type of store that we don't usually visit - or to a website, I always sleep on it. That gives me time to go through the second guessing before the purchase. Learned this rule the hard way...see the YM sins thread about my timeshare purchase...

[so1970]

i love my timeshare what happened do you not end up with time to use it or was the service not what was expected?

[Clifford]

Jan 6, 2011 13:53:55 GMT -5 so1970 said:

i love my timeshare what happened do you not end up with time to use it or was the service not what was expected?

I was 21, did not have the 15K for the purchase, nor the income to cover the monthly notes or the maintenance fees. I know they did a credit check, but I was in no position to buy. I got swept away by the sales pitch and signed before even checking my account balance. I filed buyer's remorse documents and surrendered the property back before any damage was done to me or to them, but I remember the nights of anguish over the spur of the moment decision. The timeshare unit itself was awesome, so I can see the appeal, but it was a colossal overspend for me at the time.

[Deleted]

Wow- depends a lot on my interest in the subject, the potential price differences, and the consequences of a bad decision.

I spend lots of time researching travel because I enjoy it, we spend a lot of money on it, and I don't want disasters on our vacation. DH is much more patient about getting multiple estimates for work to be done on the house, or electronics purchases. I'm happy with just about any electronic toy as long as it functions when I turn it on and doesn't run out of memory.

I'd be more careful with something like carpet- it's a lot of money, you have to live with it a long time, and there are wide price differences. When there are massive price differences, I always try to find out why they exist (brand name? quality? appearance? durability?) and then make a decision as to how high-end I want to go.

[Deleted]

Pretty much anything that costs more than $1,000, I am going to research to some extent. Anything that I have heard has reliability issues, I am going to research. We researched front load washers pretty heavily before buying one, because we had heard certain models had big problems. We also research anything we have had problems with in the past. We researched our HVAC system to death, because the one before it had been such a problem (It was also way more than $1,000). Our couch took forever to pick out for the same reason. I’ve never had a problem with a refrigerator, nor do I expect them to do anything but keep my food cold, so I probably wouldn’t research it too much. I’d give consumer reports a quick look to see if any brands were having reliability problems.

[dancinmama]

I agree with theJ - costlier purchases that I'm going to have to live with for a long time get more research than less expensive purchases.

Sometimes I will do the research for a purchase and just cannot find what I want at a price that I'm willing to pay, so unless it's an emergency, the purchase will get shelved for a while. I did this when our dishwasher broke and ended up doing my dishes by hand for a few months until I FINALLY found what I wanted/needed at a price that I was willing to pay. I am soooo glad that I waited, even if it did mean some extra work for me, cuz I ended up finding EXACTLY what I was looking for. - quiet, configured so that it could hold a boatload of dishes, cleans the dishes well, and has an "economy" cycle for saving energy.

[ummboutthat]

Would you equally "research" carpets vs refrigerator? Or would one decision would be easier and quicker to make bc it's cheaper and not as "permanent"?

Hmmm....yea cheaper and NOT permanent are easy for me. like I'll upgrade my car radio to that mobil DVD player. but deciding on what color I'm going to paint my car this Spring...yikes I'm still thinking and it's been 2 or 3 months already!

[motherto2]

I totally research everything. I just researched an electric popcorn popper I will research, look around, price things, keep an eye on the price of something and then decide that's what I want, but I'll wait on it. Then, I just happen to find it for a great price, and spur of the moment purchase it. But that's only because I know what the item runs, and if I can really score a good deal on it, I know the time is right, rather than waiting. Did that with my current car, and my appliances. I'm a huge DIYer, so I'll research the heck out of something to figure out how to do it, and then bite the bullet. I tossed and turned on staining my back patio for about 4-5 years because it's huge and if it didn't work, I'd be stuck. Then I decided if I didn't like how it turned out, I'd just go over it with a stain that was more dense. I finally did it this last spring, and I absolutely love it! Everyone asks who I had to it, and some are shocked that I did it myself. Others aren't because they know how I do things myself rather than pay someone else big bucks ;D

[Deleted]

Big purchases are a long process for me. I kiinda get the idea I would like whatever, I start asking people about theirs, pay attention to ads about the thing, once in a while do a google about the thing to get educated and then one day I see what I want at the quality I want for a price I am willing to pay. Things can be on my "I should get" list for a long time.

[whoisjohngalt]

WrongSide - thank you for the coupon!

Lena

[debtheaven]

I research stuff that will be around for a long while, ie at least five to 10 years. I'm in Europe so we don't do "starter homes" here. Closing costs here are 8% so people don't just up and move easily.

I don't research big appliances that much (ie washer, dryer, dishwasher), we have a local appliance store that I have used for 30 years. I trust them. They only do mid-range and up but I go with them for the convenience and repairs. I used to do the same with the local carpet / flooring store.

I go to the sales / cheapest places for the small appliances, and yes, I research those. Seems counter-intuitive LOL.

I like supporting local commerce, within reason of course. This said, Lena, carpet is unsanitary, and with two small boys, I would encourage you to use it as little as possible. It has its advantages (ie soft, nice to lie on / crawl on), but I certainly would not buy expensive carpeting with small kids.

When DH moved in 13 years ago the first thing we did was replace the downstairs carpeting with tile. For the first time, we could actually SEE and FEEL the amount of dirt we all tracked into the house, and it was totally barf-making.

We only have carpet in two bedrooms now, our bedroom and one older kid's bedroom. We wanted to tile his bedroom (it's off the tiled LR) but he insisted on carpet, it's VILE now, but he wanted it, he got it. We will replace it in a year or two when he moves out.

[bimetalaupt]

Topic: How much time do you spend making money decisions?

Read more: notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=finance&action=display&thread=1088#ixzz1APbR7WjS
My late wife used to joke about how many times I would spend hours working on a deal and say no.. In total I spend about 50 hours a week working the Bond/Stock market.. With Options, Shorts and re-balancing.. We also have oil and gas drilling and about 10 years ago i started collecting art.. Mostly Picasso.. it is a lot of fun and I can see my collection grow...

It is all work and with the crazy world banking systems : not as much fun as it was when I had nothing but a dream.

Bi metal Au Pt

[gsbrq]

It depends on how quickly I need to make a decision, and how much the cost outlay is.

I don't like parting with large amounts of money, so I tend to research and ruminate excessively, and have to force myself to just pick one at some point. Once I make my choice, I do it quickly and I don't tend to second-guess it.

I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about carpets, because worst-case scenario, I'd have to live with an imperfect choice of carpet for a while before I could afford to do it again--which is no big deal to me. But I researched my new dishwasher for a ridiculously long time, because buying the wrong one could have stuck me with a machine that was loud or didn't clean properly...which is much worse, IMO, than carpets that aren't quite right.

[Deleted]

I spend some money easily and some not. I have to save up for big ticket items, but usually we just get estimates and go with the best offer.

But a few days ago I decided I needed a new mattress pad. I wash every time I wash the sheets, by the way. It isn't the same thing as the waterproof mattress pad that we also have (and love!) because our dog sleeps with us. The waterproof one is so soft that you wouldn't even think there is a layer of rubber under there.

Anyway, I have been looking for weeks for the top mattress pad. I think the one we have is from before I got divorced in 1998. You would think I was buying a major appliance. I have looked at several sites, read all the reviews, and really put way too much energy for a purchase that will be less that $50.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

It depends on what I'm buying.

For instance, the last time I bought a car, I needed something that was far more comfortable than my current car (which was in excellent condition, but difficult for me to get in and out of). I went to the car dealer, found a car, bought it and drove it home in less than 2 hours.

Granted, I went out looking for a car with a short list of possiblities and wound up choosing the first on the list.

I spent more time looking for and researching my vacuum cleaner!

[sesfw]

For me it's how long I'll have to live with my decision. A church key I can throw away or donate next week. Paint color I can redo fairly quickly and easily. Furniture, and carpeting is a different story. Major appliances, the only real decisions are color, and whistles and bells.

A lot of information is available on the internet so you don't have to deal with pushy commissioned sales people.

[busymom]

I agree with the J--the more something will cost me, the more time I spend on research. Oh, by the way, don't go cheap on the carpet (or the padding). A former builder of ours had put in cheap carpet, & after 10 years the carpet seriously needed replacement!