Status bought on credit is a costume. It goes back when the bill comes.

Borrowed appearance is rented, not owned, and the lease is short. Whatever impression it creates lasts exactly as long as the payments do, and when they stop the whole display goes back, along with any confidence built on it. Nothing underneath has actually changed.

Ask what you would still have if the payments stopped tomorrow, and use that as the real inventory. Buy the things you can keep. The signal you are trying to send with a purchase is usually better sent by being good at something.