Image via WikipediaFinancial IQ Philippines Quick Hit(s):
If you have time, read Millionaire Next Door and one of the habits of millionaires is frugality.
Throw away the cellphone after two years? Not so fast. Ditch the flat-panel TV for an even thinner model? Maybe next year. Replace the blouse with the hole? Darn it!
Consumer spending has picked up, but for some Americans the recession has left something behind: a greater interest in making stuff last.
For a number of products — cars, phones, computers, even shampoo and toothpaste — the data shows a slowing of product life cycles and consumption. In many cases the difference is mere months, but economists and consumers say the approach just may outlast a full recovery and the return of easy credit, because of the strong impression the downturn made on consumers.
It is hardly the stuff of generations past, those stung by the Great Depression, who held onto antediluvian dishware and stored canned goods until rust formed on the lids. But for the moment, many citizens of a throwaway society are making fewer visits to the trash and recycling bins.
In the case of Patti Hauseman of Brooklyn, that meant sticking with a five-year-old Apple computer until it started making odd whirring noises and occasionally malfunctioning. She and her boyfriend bought a new computer for Christmas — actually, a refurbished one.
“A week later, the old one died. We timed it pretty well,” Ms. Hauseman said with a laugh. Her cautious approach applies to other products: she is holding out on upgrading two seven-year-old tube-type TVs, and has taken to mending clothes rather than replacing them.
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