Spending money on nice stuff can improve your life, but spending on fancy stuff is more complicated. As income increases, it becomes harder to spend money in a way that brings happiness. After meeting basic needs, knowing what to want is more difficult than knowing what to need. Understanding the art and psychology of spending money is a more fascinating and practical aspect of behavioral finance.
Behavioral finance is now well documented. But most of the attention goes to how people invest. But the study of how you spend money might be far more interesting -- and practical. How you spend money can reveal an existential struggle of what you find valuable in life, who you want to spend time with, why you chose your career, and the kind of attention you want from other people.
There is a science to spending money – how to find a bargain, how to make a budget, things like that.
But there’s also an art to spending. A part that can’t be quantified and varies person to person.