📘 Part 3: Money, Buying Things, & Materialism

This episode's vocabulary

Strictly necessary (adj) – absolutely essential or required. → A smartphone is strictly necessary for my job in this day and age.

Marketing ploy (noun phrase) – a clever and often dishonest marketing tactic used to persuade people to buy something. → Offering a limited-time discount is a common marketing ploy to create a sense of urgency.

In the loop (idiom) – part of a group of people who have information about a particular thing. → My manager makes sure to keep me in the loop on all major decisions.

Left out (phrasal verb) – excluded from a group or activity. → He felt left out because he wasn't invited to the party.

In this day and age (idiom) – in the present time. → You can't run a successful business without an online presence in this day and age.

Squirrel away (phrasal verb) – to hide or store something, especially money, in a safe place for future use. → She managed to squirrel away a little money each month for her vacation.

For a rainy day (idiom) – for a time in the future when one might unexpectedly need something, especially money. → It’s wise to have some savings set aside for a rainy day.

Knock-on effects (noun) – the indirect results of an action or event. → The new highway had several knock-on effects for local businesses.

Derive pleasure from (verb phrase) – to get a feeling of happiness or enjoyment from something. → Many people derive pleasure from gardening and watching their plants grow.

Ostensibly (adv) – as appears or is stated to be true, though not necessarily so. → He called ostensibly to check on her, but he really wanted to ask for a favor.

Crave novelty (verb phrase) – to have a strong desire for new or unusual things or experiences. → Young people often crave novelty, which is why they are drawn to the latest trends.

Accountable (adj) – responsible for your decisions or actions and expected to explain them. → Politicians should be accountable to the public for their spending.

Fritter away (phrasal verb) – to waste money, time, or an opportunity on unimportant things. → He frittered away his entire bonus on gadgets he didn't need.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Do people buy things they don't need?

Rory: I suppose it's easy to say yes, given all the things people buy that don't seem strictly necessary, like big TVs or the latest smartphones and gadgets when the older ones work just fine. But I doubt people would buy things unless they felt like they needed them, even beyond a purely material level.

Maria: And why, why is that?

Rory: Oh, lots of reasons. They might have been manipulated by marketing ploys into thinking the things they get are things they cannot do without, or they may feel insecure because people around them have things which are better and they want to feel in the loop. No one likes being left out, do they? And of course, maybe these things are actually necessary. I absolutely need a smartphone for my work in this day and age. I actually cannot function if it's not there. So that's quite an important consideration as well.

Maria: Do you think it's important to save money?

Rory: I suppose that depends on your goals in life, but generally speaking, it's a good idea to have at least some money squirrelled away for a rainy day, like when someone or something goes horribly wrong and you have to fix something in an emergency. And of course, many people want to retire one day and that involves some kind of saving as well.

Maria: And where else might it be important?

Rory: Not sure really, maybe there are some knock-on effects of having a saver's mindset, like planning and self-control and self-discipline, but if you're saving, those things should already exist to some extent, so maybe you're just developing them.

Maria: Who do you think saves more money, men or women?

Rory: I'm tempted to say men, just because in married households, I think women make something like 80% of the major purchasing choices. So that means that women would spend more money. But that's just talking about married people. Probably if they're not married and they're living their own lives, then men and women will spend and save equal amounts, because they don't really need significantly different things for the most part, do they?

Maria: Why do many people derive pleasure from spending money?

Rory: Oh, there's lots of reasons. I think there's some kind of thing that happens in your brain or your cognition where you anticipate getting the reward, the reward being the thing that you want to buy, and in pursuing that, it makes you feel good. And then, of course, you get the thing, and that allows you to enjoy life a bit more, ostensibly. So that could also give people a great deal of pleasure as well. I don't think it's the actual spending of the money, I think it's the achievement of the goal or being able to do the thing that you want to do with the thing that you bought.

Maria: What do you think young people usually spend most of their money on?

Rory: You'd have to ask them. At a guess, I imagine they, well, just since they crave novelty more than most, they'll invest in the means to get access to that. So things like smartphones and related gadgets probably take up the majority of their budgets. They're also, well, at least they seem very health-conscious. So maybe things like gym memberships too.

Maria: Do you think the government should let people know how it spends their money?

Rory: Well, if it's collected their money through taxes, then yes. I mean, that's part of being accountable, and it reinforces the legitimacy of the system if you can see that the money is being spent in responsible ways or if you see it's being spent irresponsibly, you can address that to prevent it from happening, perhaps recoup some of the lost money as well. So, that's quite important. Of course, if you don't care about having a system being presented legitimately in that way, then it's not really a priority, but certainly in I think almost all of the countries I have ever lived in, the government is pretty transparent about that kind of thing.

Discussion

Maria: People usually buy things they don't need. Yes, that's true. Lots of people do that. So they buy, they purchase things. And usually people buy big TVs, the latest smartphones, so not the last smartphones, but the latest, the latest models, the newest smartphones, and gadgets. Do they really need them? Or can they just use their old phone? And you can say, I doubt.

Rory: I doubt.

Maria: I doubt, you know?

Rory: I doubt. That's it. I have many doubts.

Maria: I doubt that people really need the things they get. And then why? What are the reasons? Why do people buy things they don't need? You can say lots of reasons. People are manipulated by marketing ploys. What are marketing ploys?

Rory: Those are marketing techniques which are used to encourage people to buy things. So for example, if you show someone with a phone and you show them being successful, then that means if they, or it implies, if they have the phone, then you will be a successful person and you must have the phone. But that is not true, obviously. That's just something that marketing does to try to make you buy things.

Maria: Yeah, dear listener. A ploy is something about dishonesty. So it's a trick which is not good. And a marketing ploy is a phrase, right? That means that something, you know, dishonest, they tell you lies, they trick you into buying things. Get this cream and your face will shine. So people are usually manipulated by marketing ploys. People are manipulated by somebody. And people are manipulated by marketing ploys into buying things, into thinking that they need these things. And people start believing they can't do without such things.

Maria: And people usually buy things not to feel left out. So we get smartphones, we get certain clothes, right, certain gadgets, to be together with people. So people don't like being left out. So people don't want to be left out. So that's why they get things that most people have. And also because of emotions, people buy things to get dopamine hits, right? So it gives them pleasure, just shopping non-stop. Doesn't matter what you buy.

Rory: Thank heavens, none of us is like that, eh Maria?

Maria: No, no, we kind of control our emotions and yeah, we don't overeat. No, no, no, no. We just sleep, drink water.

Rory: We never buy crazy things.

Maria: No, no, never, never. We we never buy crazy things.

Rory: I have never spent hundreds of pounds on sunglasses before.

Maria: No. Yeah, I have an old laptop, an old phone. Yeah, a couple of new shoes, but that doesn't count. Right. Where were we? It's important to save money. Yeah. And it depends on our goals in life. Goals, aims, targets. Rory here used an interesting phrasal verb. Squirrel away.

Rory: Yes, but that just means to hide the money.

Maria: Ooh la la. Squirrel is just this animal, you know, usually orange or brown. If you don't know who squirrel is, just Google. Google it, go to images and write down squirrel, S Q U I double R E L, squirrel. Yeah, look at the images. So squirrel something away, hide something or store something, like this little animal when it sees a nut, they usually eat nuts. Well, usually, I don't know what they usually eat, but often people give squirrels nuts. Squirrels hide and store nuts for the future. And I can, for example, when I get some chocolate, I squirrel it away.

Rory: Or I keep it for another time.

Maria: That's what squirrels do when they hide their nuts.

Rory: Yeah.

Maria: Yeah, they keep it for a rainy day. So as soon as I get paid, I squirrel some money away. So I won't spend it all in one day on spa procedures. And it's a good idea to have money squirrelled away for a rainy day. So in English, it's not a black day. Maybe in your language is save money for a black day. It's for a rainy day because in Britain, they often have rains. So save, keep money for a rainy day. It's an idiom. Save money for a time when you might need the money unexpectedly. For example, luckily, I have some money for a rainy day. So when something goes horribly wrong, I have some money for a rainy day. Rory thinks that men tend to spend less money. I agree. I agree.

Rory: Maybe. I'm just in the context of being married.

Maria: And men, I don't think that men do need so many things as women. Just count the creams. Usually, dear listener, if you are a man and you have creams all over your bathroom, well done you. But usually women have at least 10 different creams to put on their bodies and faces and different parts of their bodies. Derive pleasure from something means you get pleasure from doing something. Derive pleasure, like get pleasure. And we can derive pleasure from traveling,

Rory: reading.

Maria: Yeah, derive pleasure from reading. And just derive from something is C1, so Band 8, 8.5.

Rory: Oh, wow.

Maria: And we can derive pleasure or satisfaction from listening to music. Young people spend most of their money on, on technology, gadgets, smartphones, video games, by the way, different gear, like equipment. Gaming gear, gaming equipment. And then if you don't know, you can just say, you'd have to ask them. You would have to ask them. So pretty much, young people, I don't know. I'm not young. So I don't know what they spend their money on. Maybe gym memberships. So if you have, if you go to the gym, you have a gym membership. The government can spend money irresponsibly, on horrible things, irresponsibly, or spend money in responsible ways, on building roads, on improving the city's infrastructure. Right, dear listener. So hopefully you spend your money responsibly. Okay. You don't buy things you don't need.

Rory: You don't fritter it away.

Maria: Yeah. And I think the key word of the day is squirrel the money away.

Rory: That's an amazing phrasal verb. Squirrel away to save, fritter away to waste.

Maria: Yeah, to have some money squirrelled away for a rainy day. A phrasal verb and an idiom. Yay, together in one sentence. Band nine.

Rory: Very nice.

Maria: We'll get back to you in our next episode. Bye. Bye.

Rory: Bye.