Buying something with my first salary!

I remember getting my first salary after graduation. It was more money than I’d ever seen, and I wanted to spend it on something meaningful—something that would stick with me for a long time, something I could carry with me every day, as a reminder of where I started. After some random searches and YouTube rabbit holes, I realized something…

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Since childhood, I’ve had a quiet fascination with watches. On my skinny wrist, those bulky watches gave me a bit of ‘mass,’ a little presence. The cool lights, the built-in alarm—those were the things that drew me in. It was fun.

Over the years, I ended up buying quite a few of them, most of which weren’t exactly high quality. They’d break after a year or two, but I wasn’t a watch nerd anyway, so it didn’t bother me much.

But this time was different. I wanted something that would last, something special. With my first salary in hand and endless options both online and offline, I began my search for the perfect watch.

What surprised me, though, was that it became more than just buying a watch. It turned into a whole experience, a bit of a mind-opener. And that’s what this blog is about—the lessons I learned along the way.

A reason to buy!

The first question I asked myself was, “Why do you even need a watch?” For me, it was more than just telling time—it was a memory, something to hold onto, capturing both the good and bad moments, always with me.

I wasn’t planning on getting one of those high-end luxury watches; I had a limited salary, after all. But I also didn’t want something that would break after a couple of years. That much was clear from the start.

As I dove into my research, I stumbled upon these incredible watches—luxury price tags, sure, but beautifully crafted. The level of engineering, the craftsmanship, the design thinking—it blew my mind. I couldn’t afford them, obviously, but they gave me something more valuable: inspiration.

These watches are made with an jaw dropping level of detail, engineering, and perfection, all for something that just tells time. And sure, you can check the time on your phone too, so it seems pointless if you think of it purely as a timepiece. But when I look at this ‘machine,’ I want to see the craftsmanship, the engineering, the perfection behind it. It should remind me that some things in life don’t need to serve a practical purpose—they’re just there to add meaning, a bit of beauty. It’s a reminder that I can create things that break free from practicality, simply to bring a little more value to life.

Once I got my reason, I was wondering the second question…

What to buy?

There were literally millions of options for a watch. I started looking for that one in this ocean (cheesy). That was, however, was an easy task. Once I knew the reason behind buying it, it was easy to eliminate things that I don’t like. To my surprise, there were a ton of these cheap watches. By cheap, I mean, the ones which don’t really serve the purpose of a watch.

There were many of these Chinese watches, most of them were just straight-up copies of these iconic expensive watches for fraction of the price with really bad quality. I crossed out these watches from the list, now, I had a few of these watches to select from.

Then I went for those watches which will fit on my wrist. what the purpose of buying something if it doesn’t fit on my wrist?

So far so good, things were going smooth, but now I had to choose with this parameter which was essentially the most important aspect for a middle class freshly graduated salary person like me.

What’s the worth?

I can admire many things about these expensive watches, but if I don’t have money to buy them, it’s no use. I was receiving my first pay-check, I had ‘limited’ money to spend, could not afford to pay all my salary on a watch.

So, here I am, asking that question which controls almost all of us, how much should I spend?

The real question should be, how much does it worth for me? Sure it’s great to have a watch with all the non-materialistic, philosophical reasons, for these non-materialistic things, but at what cost? should I be spending all of my money on that watch and live on the streets for that month? Obviously not! So I had to set a figure, that limit to spend on this watch. So I set the limit, I wanted to spend 1 week of my salary on this watch. That’s almost 25% of my monthly salary, but it was one-time spending, so it was okay with me. That kinda money gave me the freedom to buy something worth buying and could check all of my boxes.

All set! now it’s time to apply the search. all the filters were added, and I found the one!

Real catch

As buying something for the first time with my own salary, it was a really important process for me. To buy something I had to give myself a reason to buy. It was not any tool, it was a memory. I wanted to apply philosophy to it. By backing up with some emotional connection, I had to think about the practical side as well. As a first-time ‘spender’, it was really a great experience.

We live in this consumer-centric world where everyone is trying to sell their things. It’s really easy to get lost in this ocean of things. Buy this, you will look cool, buy this you will change your life, buy this, you will be super happy…all of this marketing can be overwhelming at times. We should have a reason to buy something before buying it. That reason should be our own, it should not be a shadow of someone else’s thinking. It should be personal.

We don’t have to be philosophical about everything we buy but we should have some kinda connection with things. It should be a personal connection. While thinking about all of that, we should think about practical things as well. Spending money is an art to master but we should treat money as a tool. In my opinion, I would not be chasing money to buy that expensive watch that I wanted to buy now, but couldn’t. There are many other important things in life. I just want to have that connection with these things that I buy now. Even if I become rich, I want to keep that connection intact. I don’t want to buy without reason, without connection, without inspiration.

Obviously, it was my first time, and I need to learn a lot. But I think it’s a solid good start for me as a spender.

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Next time, when I will buy something, I would have some experience. I will try my best to make this process clearer so that I can buy something which will be worth buying!

What are your thoughts? let me know at [email protected] !