If you want a thing, and have the time or money to obtain it; you will obtain it.
Unless, you have the time or money but do not want to spend it on the thing.
Sometimes the price for the thing is lowered. You may decide that the lower price required brings the thing within the range that you are comfortable spending you time or money.
If you spent the time or money before the price of the thing was lowered, you may wonder “if this is the new value of the thing, shouldn’t I receive some of my money back, or some kind of compensation for my time?”.
I would say “no”, you spent the time or money to get the thing when it cost an amount of time or money you were able to spend. You are owed nothing further.
If you were owed, then every time cost went UP, sellers would then have a reason to demand you give them more to compensate them for the value that they lost by selling something to you at a rate that was less than they could have.
Look at precious metals. The value changes constantly. You may buy gold at a low point, only to have it go lower. You may sell at a high point, only to have it go higher. You buy and sell at the spot price (plus or minus based on several factors). No refunds, and if you lose money, you lose money.
I’m mixing metaphors here, and probably using a lot of words to say not much.
yes but you can hold onto it and have the price rebound, a system in which things only decline in value erodes the value of the work it took to earn it punishing people who invested their time and money earlier
I mean, money is always declining in value. Whether inflation is inevitable, and whether deflation can happen(or if it can be allowed to happen), it takes an average of %5 (I think) more US dollars to buy the same things every year.
This means that while the goods may fluctuate in value, money is always decreasing in value, which is why holding on to money is not a winning strategy. Buying things that are going to hold their value or even appreciate in value are better options than money.
Now, time, there’s an interesting curveball. As technology advances, things take less time but more money, whether this increases or decreases the value of time relative to money, I don’t know.
All of this is just me trying to make sense of things. It’s hard to say if it’s working.
TLDR: hoarding money is not a great idea because inflation, time and money have a complex relationship.