A person who is materialistic is money-oriented. He or she believes that money can buy happiness and all of the important things in life – clothes, a big house, fast cars, and all that other fun stuff.  When we think of materialism, a few big names might come to mind – Madonna, the self-appointed material girl in her early days; Donald Trump, the Boss with a gold-plated toilet seat; Paris Hilton, the socialite with money to burn and little else to do. 

Materialism is about greed. It’s generally thought of as a bad thing, because it implies that a person is showing off all of his or her wealth to the rest of the world by placing value on objects over people. Flaunting how much money you have is so unattractive (though there is no harm in being proud of how much money you earn – hard work is something to be proud of). There is nothing wrong with wanting a little extra money to burn now and then on frivolous stuff, but it’s another thing to spend money that you don’t have. Putting yourself in debt, just to acquire some designer, brand name item that will be out of style in a few months is a little silly, don’t ya think?

People should be able to buy nice things. This is helpful to keep in mind when purchasing anything: You want HIGH QUALITY, LOW COST items. If you are looking for a new “state of the art iPOD”, why not find a comparable one, without the brand name? Make sure your digital camera has all of the features of the one advertised on TV for triple its price. Here is a scary notion – it’s a safe bet when buying things at retail price, you are paying at least double what they paid for it. Now, of course people have to make a profit, but there is really no sense in paying full price when it’ll go on sale in a few weeks.