Today is Black Friday. You’ve probably noticed. Cue footage of the stampede of shoppers bursting through shopping mall doors to wrestle over a widescreen TV. It’s exceptionally easy to be drawn into the Black Friday hysteria. Since retailers first noted the uptick in sales the day after Thanksgiving which, from an accounting perspective, elevated them out of the ‘red’ and back to ‘black’ they have honed their marketing strategies to maximize Black Friday and make it an almost unavoidable global phenomenon. 

But how much value should we be placing on our material possessions (even if they are a ‘bargain’), and would our money be better spent on experiences instead? 

Multiple studies have pointed towards the idea that, on the whole, experiences enrich our lives more than the things we possess. One such study by Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University, spanned 20 years and resulted in the following stark conclusion: “Don’t spend your money on things.” 

His findings had three key takeaways:

1. The trouble with ‘things’ is that they typically lack the quality of longevity when it comes to the impact they have on our lives. Anyone who has ever experienced ‘Buyer’s Remorse’ can relate to this. You’ve built an object up in your mind and attached a lot of significance to its attainment. But the initial buzz of excitement wears off surprisingly quickly. As parents, we get to witness this at Christmas: the kids getting the must-have toy only for it to be relegated to the back of the toy cupboard almost instantly. 
2. Each purchase appears to result in a virtual bar-raising. Perhaps to counteract the effects noted in point 1), we tend to shift focus toward the ‘next best version’ or ‘upgrade’ in an attempt to satiate ourselves. Nobody exploits this better than mobile phone companies! 
3. Another key finding of the research was that ‘things’ tend to foster comparisons. ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’. 

Experiences aren’t entirely free from these characteristics of the course. Anyone who has gazed longingly at someone’s Insta-Perfect vacation with a full-on case of the FOMOs may well strive to attain this for themselves. But in terms of “bang for your buck”, the general consensus seems to be that experiences win out. 

Gilmour stated: “Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods. You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless, they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you. We are the sum total of our experiences.”

A surprising number of Boundless Life families have fully embraced the concept of experience over material possessions and have gone ‘all-in’ in this regard; selling their home and most of their things to enable them to have the freedom to fully explore the potential value of shared experiences whilst slow-travelling with their family. 

The common question they are asked is, “Don’t you miss your house/things?” and the answer is almost always “No”. In fact, many relay a feeling of lightness, of freedom, and a realization that they had - for too long - been looking in the wrong places for the sense of fulfilment they were now beginning to enjoy. 

Boundless Mom and Olympian, Jaime Komer summed it up nicely for us when we interviewed her for Boundless Conversations during her stay:

“We learn from experience. It's about creating a space for us to explore who we are. We learn who we are through experience, travel, through hearing stories…"

…We asked ourselves ‘what do we really want?’. Because we've been looking at buying land and a house -  but at our heart though, it's like we want to go exploring, we want to go travelling. I don't think I realized how possible it was at the time or how much we wanted it..."