Don’t Pick your Girl like you Pick your Phone!

Ever purchase something you’ve really wanted only to get bored of it in a month or two? For example, you just bought a new iPhone and all its must-have accessories. During first week following your purchase, your iPhone is never idle as you adoringly fidget with its user-addicting interface. A month later all the glamour of having an iPhone deteriorates and all you do is complain about how it’s an inadequate phone. By month two you already have your eye on a newer sexier phone.

Finding out why some of us experience such turmoil can teach us a thing or two about how to choose our future mates. The anecdote above may have a striking resemblance to your last relationship with a person. You just hooked up with a girl or guy and after two months of being together you’re bored and want a new partner. Lets further examine how purchasing an iPhone is analogous to hooking up with a girl.

Lets begin by investigating how the consumer values the iPhone prior to purchasing it. There are two interesting components in the consumer’s valuing function 1) practical value 2) emotional value. The practical value equals the amount of money the consumer is willing to pay for the iPhone’s usefulness. A good way to measure this is by looking at the iPhone’s closest and cheapest substitute.

The emotional value is the difference between the price paid for the iPhone and the practical value i.e. it’s the added value that is not related to the phone’s usefulness. There are several factors that create this value, some of which include: the showing off factor, being the first to have a new technology factor, cool factor, status symbol, and other emotionally induced factors. The problem is that time is an enemy of emotional value. Upon purchasing an iPhone you might be paying $200 beyond the practical value. A month later that $200 could potentially depreciate to $10.

If you prefer not to see you assets or relationships devalue within a month, then you need to look beyond the glamour. Become self-aware of the emotional value you have built yourself and decide if it’s still worth it. Before investing a lot of time and effort on a girl or guy, ask yourself if the initial investment is worth it in the long-run haul. When the excitement wears off, will he or she ‘depreciate’ in value within a month?

The lesson:

If your iPhone will only be worth $200 in the end of the month, don’t pay $400 for it.

If your mate will turn out to be a dud in the end of the month, don’t invest your time and effort in them in the first place.