Experiences or Things (Which Is More Fulfilling?)
There was a time in my life in which I decided that things were a smarter choice to invest in. That experiences are momentary but things may last a while. I knew that I enjoyed experiences more but truth be told, I couldn’t afford them. So I sort a greater value in the extended temporariness of buying stuff instead of making memories. A logical conclusion and possibly even the right one at the time, I still wear the shirt I bought that day some six years later. On a constricted budget, the logical conclusion was to buy something that would last a few years instead of spending money on having a good evening or weekend at best.
This ideological debate which birthed itself due to me going shopping, has been in the back of my mind ever since. With time it’s been adapted, adjusted and updated but never left. So today I’m giving it the respect it deserves by finally answering the question once and for all. I mean, I already know the answer because it’s in my head, but I would like to solidify the results of my experiment by sharing it with the world.
I think the whole argument is bogus. Shocking right? I know it would be a waste of our time if I really believed that, which is why I’m continuing with this writing regardless. Fundamentally they need each other, which is why it’s a poor argument to try to decide which is better. But, that’s a boring answer because it doesn’t explain much of anything. So, I’m going to offer a breakdown of the relationship between buying things and having experiences. In the hope that by better understanding how they relate to each other, you the reader can decide on a wise preference instead of trying to pick a winner. As with anything in life, times change and we do too. Understanding the breakdown gives you the opportunity to switch sides as times call for it, rather than being dogmatically glued to one or the other.
To put it simply, we need things to have experiences. If you want to go anywhere, to do anything, you’ll need some things to make that happen. That’s why this argument is kinda funny. Let’s switch our attention to include the word purchasing to better understand the argument. The new question is, Should we prioritise purchasing things or experiences? Unless you have an unholy amount of money and can buy anything you desire without restraint, some wise decisions need to be made with regard to how you spend your limited resources. Wise decisions that have deep-reaching implications on almost every aspect of your life.
We will start this discussion by focusing firstly on the decisions that birthed this conversation to begin with. If your ability to spend is strictly limited, for whatever reason, focusing on purchasing things is quite a reasonable decision. Things have a life span and so do experiences. Depending on the things you buy, it’s reasonable to assume that they will long outlive experiences. Think of a vacation around the sum of a few thousand dollars, you could easily fill your wardrobe with clothes for years with that money. Experience vs Thing. This is why capital-constrained individuals may be wiser to invest in things (depending on what you buy of course), because experiences themselves do not offer the same long-term returns. I mean I guess good memories are a form of long-term return but we will get into this later on, if you don’t have a lot of money good memories can become a luxury. By investing in solid tangible items money becomes a reality, one that stays with us to provide returns for the life of the item we purchased. This is why it’s important to invest wisely with the things we purchase (especially under capital constraints). This whole argument goes out the window if you spend your money on two-dollar wish.com things. However, assuming you spend somewhat reasonably, buying things can become quite a wise long-term strategy.
But anyone who has ever lived knows that memories last a lifetime, which is sort of the philosophy of investing in experiences. You buy good times not just for the moments in which you live them, but also to be able to look back and remember. This too could be considered a long-term investment but it’s nuanced. Some memories can provide emotional fulfilment even while we are living through tougher times in the future, which makes them one of the best investments of all. But, other memories we forget right after we make them, it’s a risky investment strategy. In my personal opinion, experiences are really the only thing we have, life is one big experience. But, we have lots of little ones inside this big experience and they cost money! The biggest downside of investing in experiences is that they’re often short lived, and the long ones can get expensive… Let’s use a music festival as a stereotypical example of a ‘memorable experience’. You spend a few hundred dollars for two or three memorable nights. Nights that often don’t get remembered in full due to substance use (subject to the individual of course). You’ll have the time of your life but it’s over as soon as it begins. To then only be lived as a memory from there on. To cut it short, experiences only last as long as you live them, which is rarely as long as something you might buy with the equivalent money. But, they’re memorable and that’s worth a lot of money! Experiences are consumable, at least more consumable than a wisely purchased thing. We buy them, live them, and then need to buy another not long after. This makes them extremely exhaustive on our resources, because like food, we need to be continually purchasing to sustain our needs. In contrast, buying a car can be a decade long investment. People have been known to spend the same money on a week or two overseas.
The point I’m trying to make is that the conversation we’re having is not about Things or Experiences. It’s really about an investment strategy on how to live your life.
Do you invest in short-term experiences that come with long-term memories, or do you invest in long-term things that are probably forgotten the day they go? What a dilemma…
The conclusion I have come to is: Invest in things that give you the opportunity to have experiences. You might be wondering, don’t all things give us the opportunity to have experiences? Yes, they do. Intentionality is the difference here. Life is an experience, and we’re surrounded by things that are providing us with these experiences. But that sentence means nothing, you may as well say, life is life.
When we invest intentionally in things that can provide us memorable experiences, we’re marrying the best of both worlds. We are offered the long-term returns of the items we buy, and the short-term returns of the memorable experiences that they give to us. This very much being subject to the items you spend your money on of course. Though, we already have the solution to the above problem, it’s with the experiences themselves. By focusing on the experiences we would like to have, the ones that will give us life-long memories. We can invest wisely in the items that will continue to provide us with these experiences. Like a tent, a perfect example. If we purchase a good tent, one suited to our needs, it will continually provide us the opportunity to have the kind of experience we were looking for when we chose to purchase it.
I hope you can see why I feel this discussion is an irregular one to have. Our needs loop back in on themselves as Things and Experiences are dependent on one another. They function one in the same, it’s the dynamic between the two that makes all the difference. It’s all about choosing the right combination to match your unique needs and goals, not about which one is better.
In my opinion, it’s the experiences that deserve precedent over the things. Because things provide experiences, knowing what experiences you would like to have can govern your choices on what things to buy. I personally feel that buying things without intentional experiences in mind is quite an aimless decision. But, I’m not willing to call it wrong because we’re each unique and it might work for someone out there, despite it not passing my logic test. Aimless behaviour can be quite a profound strategic move under the right circumstances, after all, it’s hard to aim for something you don’t know about yet. You need to discover the unknown somehow. However, I wouldn’t recommend this strategy, not because it can’t work, but because it’s just too unreliable to recommend in good faith.
So, Things or Experiences? Honestly, that’s really a you question. I hope I’ve provided some context surrounding this question to help you to make more informed choices in your own life. That’s honestly the goal of this writing, not to tell you how to live your life but to break down how I see the world in the hope that the information will guide you in making better choices for your own. To finish off, I’ll leave an example of how I buy things to have better experiences below.
I’m a cyclist, have been for about two years now. It’s not exactly a cheap sport and requires that you buy a lot of stuff. Something which has been quite a point of contention for me. The thing is that ultimately I’m there for the experience, I buy to ride, not the other way around. My purchases are justified because they make memories, but not just memories. Repeat experiences, the holy grail. I bought my bike and have put thousands of kilometres on it since, a singular purchase has given me two years of enjoyment and countless memories. Of course I regularly purchase to maintain the bike, and buy things I probably don’t need just because I like them. The point is that these purchases are aimed at the goal of continually fueling my desire for a certain experience. The things themselves are somewhat irrelevant as they’re a means to an end, which is riding my bike, the experience. The things I buy for my bike are intentional and in line with my need for experiences. The items themselves provide long-term returns and the summary of the purchases provides short-term experiences every time I get on the bike.
Perfect Harmony.
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