Buyers regret: Is affluenza affecting your happiness?
When I bought my first home, I went through a period of buyers regret and it kept me up at night. Should I hve waited longer to save in order to buy a house rather than an apartment? Should I have bought closer to the city? Is the apartment too small for what I paid for it? The questions and doubts were ongoing despite all the research I had done. This was exacerbated by the fact that I bought it on my own and therefore had no-one else to discuss these intensely personal doubts with.
Since then, my life had affirmed my decisions 3 years ago. I have a space for myself that I can afford and provides me with the security I needed even during a financial crisis. I did not need multiple balconies. I did not need a large entertainment area. I did not need access to a pool. Why on earth did I think that these were so important at the time?
Just to be clear, I should mention that I’m an interior designer and have been working with architects and high-end clients for over a 15 years. I’ve seen houses of incredible size and finishes and understand that I’ve been lucky in my career to have been part of those projects. Together with constant inspiration from Instagram & Pinterest, I’m usually able to compartmentalise what inspiration applies where. When it came to my own home however, I fell for the affluenza mindset. In 2007 I read a book by Professor Clive Hamilton & Richard Deniss that in my opinion was a canary in the coal mine for our current situation. In a nutshell, they indicate that despite our situation, what we have is not enough. Whether we’re middle income or the 1% we have the need to question our place in the herd and determine that we’re not as successful or wealthy as we ought to be.
Photo by Kate Darmody on Unsplash
