Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Mental Accounting: Why It's Easy to Blow the Tax Refund

Tamerlain · 05-31-2007, 06:15 AM

That's a really interesting article. I read another one a few months ago that had another interesting mental accounting thing people do.

Let's say a coffee costs you $1 usually. If the place you go to for some reason increases the price by $5, so your coffee is now $6, you'll likely go somewhere else to buy your coffee that day. But, if you want to buy a television and it's $100 at one store and $105 at another, you likely won't care where you buy it.

I'm guilty of that kind of mental accounting. From reading that article, it must be because I assign a different value to coffee versus a television. And even now that I'm aware that I do it, there's still no way I would spend $6 for a coffee; but I have no problem spending $100 or $105 on a television.

-Tamerlain

05-31-2007, 06:15 AM	#2 (permalink)
Tamerlain Insane Location: Victoria	That's a really interesting article. I read another one a few months ago that had another interesting mental accounting thing people do. Let's say a coffee costs you $1 usually. If the place you go to for some reason increases the price by $5, so your coffee is now $6, you'll likely go somewhere else to buy your coffee that day. But, if you want to buy a television and it's $100 at one store and $105 at another, you likely won't care where you buy it. I'm guilty of that kind of mental accounting. From reading that article, it must be because I assign a different value to coffee versus a television. And even now that I'm aware that I do it, there's still no way I would spend $6 for a coffee; but I have no problem spending $100 or $105 on a television. -Tamerlain __________________ I never let school interfere with my education.