The differences: Wants Vs Needs

Looking at our economic condition of late, it has been getting better and better by months. Fortunately, some speculations have said that the economy will recover in year 2010 and 2011. How true can those speculations go? How about the YEAR 2012? No one has the answer.

Let’s talk a while about a movie I had just watched recently. The movie entitled 2012. After watching the movie, I started to get worry about the current environmental issue as well as the climate change. Henceforth, what’s the point of having economic resurrection while we have other bigger problem to think of? However, it was just a movie, but it has sent a very important message to all mankind – “If we do not preserve the nature & environment, flora & fauna, and continue with massive development without any proper restoration plan, the earth will be left with its crust without any content within it”.

Therefore, I would like to urge the people in this world to start putting more care into our surrounding, do not be financially-minded or self-centered. We are living on the same sphere, and no matter what activities we do on the other side of the world, it is all connected back to the center of the earth, the root. If we do not start to be GREEN, sooner or later the whole world will be CODE RED, and that’s the time where all our generation will engulf in the effects and consequences created by the early generations.

Not only that, if it has reached to the level of world annihilation, like what the movie 2012 implies, no matter how hard you have fought all your life just to get the wealth what others have, it will be all gone in vain.


What I am trying to say is, no matter we are rich or poor, we can still contribute to the preservation of our mother nature. For the poor, we can stretch out our hand to give our some help and energy – less open burning, do not litter, planting trees etc. For the rich, you can extend some financial support to the “Save the World” campaign, use less air-conditioning, cut less trees, plant more trees around house compound etc.

There are so many things can be done to reduce the effect of human activity towards the devastation of the earth. Let’s start today by driving a clean-emission vehicle. Send your car to repair it is generates black smoke.


We have drifted quite far from the main path. Let’s head back to the highway and get back on the road.

Wants Versus Needs. This term is no more strangers to those who are trying so hard to survive in the current economic crisis. However, I would like to stress it once again here, because human tend to be so forgetful, and they have the tendency to forget what they have learnt whenever they are too obsessed with the things they have dreamt of for so long.

What if we didn’t want anything? Would our lives be dull? How can one find balance between wanting and having?

It’s a great question. What if we could break free from want? For myself, reducing wants has played a fundamental role in helping me improve my finances. When I stopped wanting so many things, I stopped spending. I stopped feeling bad that I didn’t have things. I became more satisfied with who I am and what I have.

We have been brought up by our beloved parents. How did they manage to bring us up strong and healthily? All of these credits have to go to their effort in leaving home early in the morning and coming home at late evening just to earn a living. They have been working hard for so many years, just to give a spoonful of meal to your mouth. They have been telling me, “Money is not easy to earn, so be thrifty”. I have never understood that until I finally step foot into the society, and starting to get my pay slip every month.

Ever since, I have controlled myself quite strictly. Every single penny you spent, you have to think, “It is necessary? Is there any cheaper way to do this?”. I have controlled myself quite well, frankly speaking. I like many things, I like many cars, I like many equipments. With the amount I earn each month, it can fulfill my basic needs, but not the luxurious ones. Hence, I have restricted myself from spending unnecessarily.

I have to put aside all the branded items, all the hundreds-of-dollars equipments and clothes. This is the point I realized that, “It was hard for my parents to spend on unnecessary things which I requested once upon a time. But, they did buy for me in the end”. How noble they are.

So, I believe that it is wise to just buy what are needed and not things that we want. The difference lies on the necessity of it. For example:

Needs – Shelter, Food, Clothes, Shoes, Haircut, Wallet

Wants – Honda City, Bungalow, Ralph Lauren Perfume & garments, 50” Plasma TV, Nike Pegasus …

You get the difference? Spending of your needs mean to satisfy your basic requirement in your daily lives. You need shelter to keep you dry, you need clothes to keep you warm and unexposed, you need haircut to keep you tidy, you need shoes to protect your foot from cuts and injuries, you need wallet to keep your bank card, money, IC..

But, wants are just an extra to your needs. With the NEEDS and without the WANTS, you can still survive well. BUT, if you have the WANTS, but you don’t even have the NEEDS, you can barely live well, I would say. I am not saying that you should not spend on the WANTS, but, spend wisely. You can do a long term planning for all the WANTS you want, provided that you have all the NEEDS in place.

By doing so, you can save quite a huge amount of cash for emergency, spoon feeding your lovely children, bringing your love ones on a romantic vacation. Just imagine, if you stop buying a perfume each month, in a year, you are going to save more than RM2k. Like what I mentioned, long term planning of 5 years. After 5 years, you can bring your love ones to Bangkok/ Bali/ Myanmar/ Cambodia for vacation with the RM10k you have saved over the years. It’s a FREE TRIP if you look at it this way, right?

Of course, sometimes you still need to reward yourself for all the hard work you have put in. Therefore, it is not wrong to reward yourself with some luxuries and branded item once in a while.

I do not know how to put these in words, but, just bear in mind. There is no better way to be financially free than having the discipline in you. Just make sure you get the right mindset, and strive towards it. Stick to it for at least 15 years. After that, you can slightly shift your mindset a little bit to the wants.

This is just my own personal opinion. Please give comments if you think otherwise. I would really like to know what are there in the opposite side of the world.

I searched through the net to find more information on this. Let's have a look at what the say:

The relationship between needs and wants is an important lesson for your children to learn and understand. A need is something an organism must have in order to survive. For example, people need air, food, water, and shelter. A want is something someone would like to have. For example, bikes, video games, and televisions are all wants; people can survive without them. Encourage your children to think about their needs and wants.

Many people have jobs and work to earn money in order to meet their needs and wants. We recommend watching the Dollars and Cents movie together as a review. Explain to your children that people can use their money to buy goods and services. Goods are things that are made or grown and usually something you can see or touch. Have your children look around them and find examples of different goods.

Remind your children that crops are goods. A service is work that someone does for someone else. For example, an auto mechanic provides the service of repairing vehicles, a teacher provides the service of instructing students, and a doctor provides the service of monitoring patients health and treating illnesses.

Discuss different services that people need and offer. A producer is someone who makes or grows goods or offers services. Farmers, carpenters, librarians, and manufacturers are examples of producers. A consumer is someone who buys goods and services. Have your children identify different items they consume and think about who might have produced them.

Your children should understand that people often want much more than they need. As a result, people must make choices about what they truly need and what they can afford. Offer different scenarios to help your children learn how to make smart choices with money. Should someone buy pet food and groceries or buy a new video game?

Children should learn to buy what they need before what they want. Also help children become smart consumers by researching products and learning about where their money goes when they purchase a good or service. Why should you buy products made from recyclable materials? Why should you support local businesses in your community? By teaching the basic principles of economics and instilling responsible consumer skills now, your children will learn how to make smart and globally conscientious choices as adults.


Another source says:

Everyday life is filled with choices of needs and wants. Some are harder to determine than others. Some are relatively simple.

Let’s take a trip to (insert favorite grocery store here, Publix for me). Veggies, check. Juice and milk, check. Cheeses and lunch meats, check. Magazine aisle, hurry Greg run! That’s the easy ‘want’ to skip, well not that easy but one I know that should be an easy skip.

The hard want is on the snack isle. Even with the recent burst of “Natural” and “Organic” chips and snacks that are flooding our grocery stores, where does the need for a quick bite become a want for great taste, or to fill a quick craving? Unnecessary foods are a big cause of weight gain when associated with laziness. Chips while playing video games or downloading music, even if natural or organic, is just an extra intake of calories without the burning.

Ok. Next scenario, which Chris gets me all the time for. Gadgets or big purchases. Just got my iPod Touch. No matter how I convince Chris and Jen that I can use it for business, storing presentations, videos and more, it is nothing more than an expensive ‘want.’ Now I can say that I had a little extra hard-earned cash laying around for the purchase, which made it less stressful.

Stress is a major player in living organic and fit. Making unnecessary ‘want’ purchases can add extra-unneeded stress. But can NOT having these extreme wants put extra stress on our bodies and minds?

I think the answer is a big fat yes. I know that when I have my mind set on a ‘want’ purchase, I am filled with as much stress about how to obtain it then after I load up the credit card when I shouldn’t have. How do we cure this?

I think the answer lies somewhere within our own cravings and thoughts. A little self-discipline can go a long way. Instead of stressing on the things we ‘want,’ we should focus on our needs and indulge in impulse purchases for wants. This will relax the brain when knowing that your needs are covered, and please and satisfy the brain when you have surprises in your life.

I “need,” no, ‘want’ your thoughts. Living Organic and Fit has a lot to do with your mentality and how you view both yourself and the world around you. Finding your needs and assessing your wants will clear up your perceptions and allow for relief and destressification (I think I just made that up) of your life.

So here’s to a little self-indulgence for when your needs are met and there is no stress on ‘want’ expenditures.


Hence, digest yourself, and be enlightened.