DON’T Buy Things That Do This…
The Amplified Impact Podcast
August 9th, 2023
Today’s joyride takes us into the wild world of cars and perceptions.
Buckle up as I spill the beans about my trusty 2015 Toyota Prius C – the little car that could, and did, for the past six years.
No fancy wheels here, just practicality and a splash of rebellion against societal symbols.
Sure, I’ve ruffled a few feathers with my T-shirt and Prius combo. But I’m all about breaking free from the status quo.
You won’t catch me sweating over scratches anymore, either.
Rocket, my Prius, has earned its battle scars, and I’ve learned to roll with it.
But lately I’ve been pondering the whole “quality vs. cheap” debate. So now we’ve been eyeing the glitzy appeal of a new car, particularly the Tesla.
So, when the chance came to test-drive a Tesla, I hopped on it.
Fast-forward a few days of exhilarating drives, and guess what? I found myself on the “Hedonic Treadmill.”
That rush of luxury? It normalized quicker than I thought.
Turns out, upgrades aren’t always the golden ticket to lasting happiness.
Before you take the plunge into fancy upgrades, consider renting first.
Test the waters and see if that shiny new thing really brings the joy it promises.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“This is what psychologists referred to as that treadmill, where we adapt to the hedonistic pleasures of life, where as you rise through these different levels of comfort and luxury, you get acclimated to it.”- Anthony Vicino
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Episode Transcript:
Anthony Vicino:
So one of the things I’m kind of proud of is the fact that I’ve been driving a 2015 Toyota Prius C, which is the small Toyota. It’s not even the big fancy one. It’s like the tiny one. I’ve been driving one for the last six years. We have hundreds of thousands of miles on that bad boy. And I bought that car for like $12,000. Now it’s completely paid off. And I I kind of brag about this because a lot of times, people like a lot of the content that we create, obviously on this podcast or on the YouTube channel or whatever, we talk a lot about building.
Anthony Vicino:
Wealth and how to do that. And there’s this disconnected think in a lot of people’s minds when they look at somebody and what they perceive would be the symbols of wealth. And then seeing the reality of it is like, oh, this guy’s just wearing a T shirt and driving a Prius, right? There’s like this mental dissonance that happens. And I kind of like that. But the truth is, I’ve been driving that car because I just don’t care about cars, and I’m cheap. And the first month that I had it, I cared so much about any little ding or scratch on it. And then it was just getting beat up so frequently, like, everybody and their mom would just open their door and smash into the side of Rocket. Rocket’s the name of my car because he’s not fast.
Anthony Vicino:
It’s an ironic name. And at first I was like, damn, this really sucks. People just, like, smashing my car, leaving scratches and dings and dents and everything like that. Imagine owning a more expensive car. And that just caused me so much anxiety that I was like, no, I don’t care. I don’t care enough about this thing to go buy something fancy and nice and shiny just to live the part. And the thing that I’ve been thinking about recently is, well, okay, well, maybe sometimes buying quality is a nice thing, right, rather than just buying the cheap thing. And for the last year or two, my girlfriend Jamie and I, we’ve been talking about maybe buying a new car and maybe upgrading.
Anthony Vicino:
Maybe now is the time. And I was more interested in this a couple of years ago, like 2019, when we started invictus capital, started raising capital from investors. I thought it would matter a whole lot more to them, like what car I rode up in. And so I was like, maybe I need to get a nicer car just so that they take me more seriously on these meetings. And then the truth is, hindsight has played out and was like, doesn’t matter, does not matter. Nobody cares. And most of the investors that have tons of money in your life, not in your life, but that have tons of money, they probably drive way less fancy cars than you think. All that’s to say is I kind of written off, like, okay, getting a nice car, it doesn’t matter.
Anthony Vicino:
But there was one car that I’ve been interested in for a while, which is a Tesla. For whatever reason, I’m a big fanboy of Elon. I think he’s really fantastic entrepreneur, built some really amazing companies. And so I look at Teslas and I’m like, man, if I was to get a new car, it would probably be a Tesla, just because I think they’re really neat. But I never really driven one. Well, I had the opportunity a week or so ago when Jamie and I, we went on to Florida to hang out with my personal trainer, Phil Daru, to shoot some podcasts and do some training. And so we rented a Tesla. It was the first time I’ve ever driven one.
Anthony Vicino:
So for, like, five days, we drove that thing a lot. We drove it everywhere and put the paces to it so I could really understand, do I like this? Is this cool? Is it fundamentally better than the Prius? Because I was thinking, like, if I end up really liking this, maybe I’ll get one. And here’s the interesting thing. Yes, it’s cool. Yeah, it was neat. It was a lot of fun. It was fast. It had all this cool technology.
Anthony Vicino:
It was all these things that were, like, so much better than the Prius in so many ways. But after three days of driving that thing, on the fourth day, I was like, I had just adapted to it. It was just the new normal. I was on what was called the Hedonic Treadmill. This is what psychologists referred to as that treadmill, where we adapt to the hedonistic pleasures of life, where as you rise through these different levels of comfort and luxury, you get acclimated to it. And it’s no longer a luxury because now you expect it. Now it’s just the normal. And so now you have to elevate what true luxury is.
Anthony Vicino:
It has to go even higher, and then you acclimate to that. And this is how lifestyle creep occurs, right? Like, you get money, you think, oh, I need to get a nicer apartment. Then you get that. Now it’s normal. So now you feel like you have to get the next nice thing, and that becomes normal. And slowly but surely, you start to rise to these levels. As your income increases, so do your expenses, and your lifestyle starts eating away at it, and you never feel like you’re really getting ahead, and the things that you own end up owning you, right? And this became very clear to me as we’re driving that Tesla around. I was like, man, it’s only been a couple of days, and I’ve already adapted to this.
Anthony Vicino:
This has already become a new normal. And the truth was, it wasn’t that much better than the Prius. It really wasn’t in terms of how much actual happiness and fulfillment and whatever that it gave me. It really wasn’t demonstrably more. And so I think a lot of us would do well to think hard about the purchases that we’re making in life and whether they’re actually adding joy and pleasure to our life or if it’s just a thing to check a box or if that pleasure is going to be short lived. And I think one way that you can test this is by renting things, right? Like rent that fancy car before you buy it, rent that nice house for a couple of months and then see if it’s something that you want to buy. Rent that nice watch for a while and see if it’s something that actually gives you pleasure to wear after three weeks, right? I think renting something to test it and see if it’s something that you truly, genuinely want before buying it is a really smart move because in most cases, the really expensive things that I’ve bought in my life, I end up just very shortly after purchasing them, coming to resent them, or just not even think about them. Like genuinely not thinking about them at all whatsoever, not even a little bit.
Anthony Vicino:
So hopefully this brings you a little bit of pleasure. Hopefully you didn’t adapt to it too quickly. And then I need to escalate and prove the output of this in the future because this is all I got, people. This is the best you get, so hope you enjoy it. If you did, I’ll see you back around these parts tomorrow. If you didn’t, well, you better come back tomorrow and give me another chance. But until then, either way, stay hyper focused, my friend.
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