Need vs. want

A need is not the same as “I want it now”

A need is what the day breaks without: food, warmth, a way to school, medicine, a notebook for a test. A want is what the body shouts for in a shop or in a game: a new colour, a new pack, a new feeling.

Both are human. The course does not put a want down. It teaches you to name it, so you do not pay for it with money that should have gone to a need — or to a promise you made. When you mix them up, guilt comes. Guilt is a bad teacher. 姓名s are better.

Eliška has a hole in her shoe. It is raining. Next to the shoes she sees neon laces. Filip whispers: “You need the laces, or nobody will invite you.” That is not a need. That is a want dressed as fear.

At home Eliška has a snack. In the queue at the machine she wants a bar, because a friend has a bar. The snack is a need already covered. The bar is a want. She may buy it from pocket money, if some is left. She must not tell herself she “had no choice”. She had. She saw two piles and reached for a mood.

Two piles, one purse

The family pays needs a child cannot carry alone: rent, food, warmth, often a club too. You learn to decide about pocket money. Pocket money is not for rent. Pocket money is training. Training ends when a want eats the snack too and you then go to “borrow” from a friend.

A want has hurry. A need has repeating. Winter shoes are sorted with a parent in peace. A skin is sorted with a button now. That is why shops and games wrap a want in the words “last chance”. That is pressure. It comes in Shopper. Today a sticker is enough: is it rushing? More likely a want.

Sometimes a need and a want mix. You need a coat. You want a brand. Then the coat splits: function (warmth) and mood (a logo). The family sorts the function. The logo, if pocket money is left and a parent agrees. Do not mix it into one sentence “I need this” — that is a fake need.

Respect: when a parent says no to a want, it is not a punishment for existing. It is protection of the purse the rent comes from. There will be a whole lesson on rent. Today just do not use the word need as a weapon.

Filip has 80 Kč. A parent pays the bus to school (a family need). Filip wants lemonade 35 Kč and a sticker 40 Kč. After the purchase 5 Kč is left and in the afternoon he has nothing for a 10 Kč notebook copy the teacher is waiting for. He should have put the copy as a need of the school day. The lemonade was a want. The numbers are for practice. The order was wrong.

Eliška writes two columns. Need: snack, pen, pay for a copy. Want: laces, a skin, a bar. She deletes none of the want. She just does not let it sign itself as a need.

Why this right now

You are in the course Money with Martin, level 准备课. You can write numbers in a notebook or a table, but the topic is money and decisions, not Excel formulas. The account, the card and the PIN belong to a parent. A child’s email does not belong here. Do not put pocket-money numbers on the network.

This is not the Sheets with Martin course. A table may help, but the mark of success is a decision, not SUM.

You will know this lesson by one sentence: A need holds the day. A want is a desire. It must not sign a name that is not its own. When you can say it to a parent or a teacher, you have the core. The rest is practice, not magic.

When the envelope “must / want / later” comes, you will need these two words. Without them every advert is a need. With them you can say no without shame.

Four things you will build from the course

The course has four small projects. You do not have to do them all at once. Today you add only what this lesson can do.

Workshop: two columns

No purchase. 姓名s only. Do not share any of it as a wish list on the network.

1. 备注book: a Need column, a Want column. Into each, three things from this week — even ones that already happened.

2. By one thing from want add: what would happen if I did not buy it? If the answer is “a bit of grumpiness”, it is a want. 姓名d well.

3. By one need, check with a parent whether the family really pays it (lunch, medicine, a shoe). Do not carry it on pocket money out of pride.

4. Cross out the word “I need” by a thing that is a want. Replace it: “I want”. That is honesty, not weakness.

When you have at least three and three names and one crossed-out fake “I need”, the workshop counts. If want is empty because you are embarrassed, add one mood. A want may exist. It just has to wear its own name.

Practice: which name does it wear?

Match them. If it is a mix, split it into function and mood.

1. A hole in a shoe before the rain. Need, want, or a mix? Who sorts it?

2. A bar at the machine, a snack in the bag. Why is that not a need?

3. A new notebook because the old one ran out. And a new notebook because it has a hologram. The difference?

4. A friend: “You have to have that skin, or we won’t play with you.” Is that a need of a relationship, or pressure from a want? What do you say?

Now you 💪

Go through three checks. By each one, tick in your head: do I see it, or not?

1. I can replace a fake “I need” with the word “I want”.
2. I know medicine, warmth and rent do not belong on a child’s pocket money.
3. I can write a want down without shame — I just do not let it lie.

If something is missing, go back to the steps above. It is not a test for marks. It is a safety net, so you go on with certainty, not with a mess.

What to take from this lesson

• A need holds the body and school. A want is a desire with hurry.
• Both may exist. A fake name may not.
• Do not sort family needs with heroics from pocket money.
• “You have to have it, or else…” is pressure, not a need.
• 姓名s in the examples (Eliška, Filip) are made up. Do not put your number, email or photo here.
• Next lesson: When you can do this, go to the next lesson in the same level.

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