Study Shows that What You Spend On Determines Your Coolness Factor

NY Magazine recently reported that how you spend your money determines if you’re a happier and cooler person. If you’re someone who prefers material objects like clothes and shoes, for example, you’re less happy, less extroverted and a bit shallow. Those who are more experiential spenders who use their money for trips, meals and concerts are likely to be more extroverted, likable and happier.

This doesn’t surprise me. Anyone who prefers a pair of shoes over a dinner laughing with friends or a new dress over getting away for the weekend with a partner has to have their priorities a bit askew.

And this study reminds me to tell you to tune in tomorrow to my radio show Where Are You Going In That? We’re talking about shopping addiction. More than 18 million Americans are shopaholics. We have all heard sayings like “Shop till you drop” and “I shop, therefore I am.” While shopping may seem harmless, a person who lives this way in excess can develop serious problems. On tomorrow’s show, we’re going to be talking about this.

If you find that you often go on buying binges, found that purchases resulted in problems with your bank, that you hide your purchases and shopping trips from others, center most of your life around buying things or that shopping is a way of facing the stress of your daily life, this show is definitely for you!

Guests will inlcude Dr. April Lane Benson, a nationally known psychologist who specializes in the treatment of compulsive buying disorder and overshopping, who also edited the first multidisciplinary examination of her subject, I Shop, Therefore I Am: Compulsive Buying and the Search for Self. Her second book, To Buy or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop and How to Stop , offers a comprehensive program for stopping.

We’ll also be joined by Jill Chivers, a reformed shopaholic and advocate for conscious shopping. She runs the world’s first and only online membership program for women who shop too much and want to stop. My Year Without Clothes Shopping boasts a faculty of 15 world class experts and attracts members from all over the world.