Delay Gratification
Defer any unnecessary expenses
Disclaimer / Disclosure long WLFC.
Almost never buy something the first time you see it. Early adopters pay a heavy tax. Price discrimination identifies enthusiasts who jump at new offerings with high prices. Meanwhile, as you wait, manufacturers frequently work out a lot of the early bugs.
There are some great tools to help organize deferred gratification. I do almost all of my shopping including groceries on Amazon (AMZN). I get 3% cash back from Robinhood (HOOD) when I buy Pepper gift cards whenever they offer 10% off Amazon cards. Stacking those two results in good prices. But I’m not going to buy anything on Amazon today. Instead of inputting any of my purchases I input them in Camelcamelcamel to get price alerts when sales hit. Tomorrow is Prime Day, so my expectation is that many of them will hit my price targets.
Instead of buying anything with my Bank of America (BAC) card, I’m holding off until a month from today, when they’re boosting card rewards for one day.
And try to hit the best month of the year for each type of purchase from flowers (March) to candy (November). My one stock idea from that piece was Willis Lease (WLFC),
Topping it off with something lucrative, I include physical stock certificates for Willis Lease Finance Corporation (WLFC). I love tangible stock certificates, WLFC is worth much more than it costs, and it is likely to be a one decision investment. Willis Lease is an undervalued company that will benefit from buybacks, an index reconstitution, and a potential deal to go private in 2015… which should make for a Happy New Year.
It was worth much more than it cost, it was a one decision investment, they bought back shares and got added to the Russell 2000 index. However, it took almost a decade for the stock market to notice!
In fact the S&P 500’s (SPY) total return was higher as recently as June. Patience is (almost) always rewarded when it comes to waiting for prices to ultimately correct. Just wait.
But the best part of deferring gratification isn’t saving 25% on Prime Day tomorrow. It is saving 100% because I often lose interest by the time the optimal price is available. The marketing engine has turned to other things, I bore of the topic, and am onto other interests without spending a penny.
Never overpay for anything. Try to underpay as much as possible. There is almost always a cushion on prices that you can avoid paying with a bit of negotiation or patience. So after you’ve registered, shopped, and put something in an electronic cart, just close the tab and wait a day or two. Right when a marketing effort is trying to get you to hit the accelerator: hit the brake instead.
