An easy purchase can become a complicated possession.

Buying takes a minute; owning takes years. The thing arrives and brings storage, maintenance, insurance, a charger that fits nothing else, and a decision about what to do with it when you no longer want it. None of that was visible at the point of sale, where the only question asked was whether you could afford the price. Cost and burden are different quantities, and only one of them is printed on the label.

Before the next sizeable purchase, ask what it will ask of you after the first week. Where it lives and how it eventually leaves are usually the two questions nobody thinks about.