← Maetis Principles
Maetis Principles · Card 7
Think Before You Spend
Every purchase creates an opportunity cost. The question is never 'Can I buy it?' The better question is 'What am I choosing instead?'
Not 'can I buy it' — 'what am I choosing instead?'
In Practice
Before buying a stock "because everyone's talking about it," the real question is what you're choosing instead — the safer fund it would have gone into.
Generic Example
Before an impulse online order, the honest question isn't "can I afford it" but "what am I giving up instead."
What am I choosing instead, if I say yes to this?