The Amazon Tax: Stop Wasting Your Money
How lowkey spending on Amazon adds up over the years
Taking a different path today to talk about finances. I noticed I had a bit of an uncontrollable habit when it came to Amazon: if I wanted something, and Amazon had it, I would simply click ‘Buy Now’ without a second thought. One day later, sometimes hours later, I would have the product on my doorstep.
Of course, this habit extended beyond Amazon but I mostly buy things on Amazon and it started to bother me especially because I wanted to save money. I decided enough was enough and that I would give up online purchases during Lent.
When I wrote my initial goals for Lent down, I simply put: no X, no Youtube and no Amazon. I wanted to make sure I didn’t cheat on these goals by using other socials, or by buying elsewhere on the internet so I was sure to restrict things like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and, of course, any Holy Monastery Online Store.
Of the three habits I gave up, Amazon gives me the most ‘discomfort.’ I don’t miss X or YouTube, and no, I don’t miss Amazon either… but there is a feeling there.
It’s like a weird presence on my back begging not to stop. The thing is I don’t want to buy anything I just have that weird feeling about not being able to buy anything. Does that make sense? If you ever quit drinking alcohol, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
It hasn’t been easy. There have been multiple times, like with The Way of a Pilgrim, where I wanted to buy something and I had to stop myself. Remember this photo?:
The good news is that the sensation, or ‘the wave,’ eventually passes and you don’t want to buy that thing anymore. A few days later, you might even ask yourself why you wanted whatever thing it was you had in the Amazon checkout.
But the sole fact that there is a ‘thing’ there that ‘possesses’ you for even a moment is a sure enough reason to give it up entirely. And the benefits go beyond simply the spiritual: your bank account will rejoice, too.
How Much Have I Spent On Amazon?
There are a few different ways to see how much you spent on Amazon. The easiest ways to figure that out do not include using Amazon.
Indeed, I don’t think they want you to know because you might wake up and realize how much money you’ve been wasting. But if you don’t want to spend money on a third-party app, go on Amazon, click ‘Orders,’ and start adding them up.
However, I just use the Rocket Money app instead. It sorts everything by tranasaction for you. Here are the orders for my last couple of years:
Let’s make a couple of assumptions here: current age (25), retirement age (65), a 7% annual return and no monthly investments (Note: I am none of these things):
$267k is nothing to scoff at. Over my lifetime, I could’ve turned $16.5k into $267k but instead I spent it on 525 Amazon orders that I do not remember nor do I use on a daily basis. Worse yet, my order history goes back to 2010. So I wasted a lot more than I’m letting on!
If you extrapolate this out to everything you buy online, you may find that you are wasting an exorbitant amount of money on absolutely nothing. While you may not be young enough to enjoy that $267k in the future (at 65), you should think about your legacy: your kids, your wife, your family, your grandkids, etc.
Using that same calculator, if I change the retirement age (45), and invest monthly ($500), in only 20 years, that $16.5k turns into $326k. It becomes painful the more you invest. My only advice: get out the ledger, and start making it whole.
These are the basics to acquiring wealth. Should you obsess over money? No. Should you serve money? No. Should you be evil to earn your money? No.
But you should save money so that you can provide for yourself and for your family. Saving and minimalism are only one side of the token. In the future, maybe, if the interest is there, we can talk about earning more money. There will always be a cap on savings, but never a cap on earnings.
In the end, you’ll realize how little you need, and especially, how little you need to buy. Fundamentally, I also knew all of this but it took a Lenten fast from Amazon to give me enough room to breath so that I could stop burning through my cash.
Smeagol
PS - Admittedly bit of a hypocrite here. I do and will recommend books from time to time on this SubStack. You, of course, don’t need to buy any of it but whatever you do buy helps keep the stack going. Appreciate you all, and good luck for the rest of Lent.