You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 rule – that 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. There are all sorts of places where this rule is at work. For example, at many companies 80 percent of their sales come from 20 percent of their customers. Recently, popular personal finance blogger J.D. Roth found out that the rule applies to his closet as well; for 80 percent of his time, he wears just 20 percent of the clothing he owns. He ended up wondering what else this applies to. Gardening tools? Books? DVDs?
There are a couple of important lessons here. First, we should rethink a lot of our purchases. Chances are, we won’t use what we’re thinking of buying very often. Second, there are probably a lot of things we could easily borrow instead of buying. I can see the truth of that lining the shelves of three full bookcases.
What about you? What percentage of your clothing, books, DVDs, CDs, gardening tools, or other stuff do you use on a regular basis? How might this information alter your future purchase decisions?
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