I’m a big fan of GetRichSlowly.org, a personal finance blog written by J.D. Roth, a guy who dug himself out of $35,000 in debt.
One of his best tips can be summarized in one word: Wait. If you see something you gotta have, don’t buy it right away. One of three things will likely happen:
1. You will no longer want it.
Roth advises writing down the name of the item, the date you saw it, the store and the price. Wait 30 days. (If that’s too Draconian, try a week. Or even a day). Chances are, your desire will have cooled.
2. It will go on sale.
This happened to me recently. I hesitated about signing up for a four-week class on jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman that cost $125. But then the course showed up on Goldstar, a free weekly e-mail offering discounts on cultural events, I was able to enroll at a 50-percent discount.
3. You will figure out a way to buy it for less.
A few weeks ago, on a college radio station, I heard a smokin’ hot tune by guitarist Larry Coryell. I punched up iTunes to buy it. No dice—it wasn’t available. The CD is out of print, and Amazon had exactly one copy from a private seller for $99. Ouch.
I almost pushed the “buy” button. But I decided to wait. By the next day, I’d managed to track down a copy of the LP (remember LPs?) on eBay for $20. I’ve now sent it away to a company that will convert it to a CD for me for only $14.
I learned two things from the experience: Jazz is an expensive hobby. And it definitely pays to wait. Try it.
