1. Pain of paying is real: cash feels more expensive than cards because you physically lose something.
  2. People buy status, not just products. A $200 watch tells time; a $10,000 watch tells a story.
  3. We spend 2x more when tired – willpower is a finite resource.
  4. Mental accounting: we treat $50 found differently from $50 earned, even though it’s the same money.
  5. Poor people don’t stay poor because they’re dumb. Chronic scarcity reduces cognitive bandwidth by up to 13 IQ points.