One of my favorite posts on this blog is the one that is titled “It’s Ok to Spend Money on Stuff You Love”, simply
because it vindicates my position in the standoff that I currently have
going on with my spouse. I feel that it’s ok to spend on the things
that we both enjoy while he insists that they’re frivolous expenses and
that we need to save our money for the future. While I see the wisdom in
his point of view, I also feel that the money we earn after much
hardship and struggle is best used in a timely manner.
For example, going away on a much-needed vacation will definitely
drain our bank balance by quite a number of dollars. But I feel that
it’s money spent on a worthwhile cause, especially because we’re both
still young enough to feel and experience the romance of travel and
appreciate the beauty of the places we visit. Now if I were to go along
with my spouse and save the money instead, we would have enough and more
in our bank when we retire. But the problem is that we would have lost
out on our youth and may no longer feel the desire to travel and enjoy
new experiences.
There’s a time to spend money, and when you lose this opportunity,
you lose out on life. Sure, you do need to be careful, cautious and
thrifty, but what’s the use of hoarding away money that you’re not going
to spend in your lifetime, or rather, when you have enough life left in
you? In my opinion, it’s ok to spend money on what you love, even if
the expense may seem frivolous, if:
- You don’t have pressing debts that must be settled as soon as possible.
- You don’t have to save up for your kids’ college or other foreseeable future expenses.
- You have a pretty decent nest egg saved up for emergencies.
- You have a reasonably secure and well-paying job.
In general, your overall expenditure must not exceed your overall
income for a certain period of time if you want to lead a stress-free
and debt-free life. It’s basic mathematics, but unfortunately, not many
of us are good at it. We spend more than we earn, we don’t follow basic
finance rules (such as the one that says that any money borrowed using a
credit card or otherwise earns interest that must be paid back as well,
so it’s wise to pay off debts at the earliest), and we don’t keep track
of our expenditure. This is why we’re always in a bind when it comes to
money.
But if you’re financially savvy and have enough to get by
comfortably, I see no reason to scrimp and save at every point of your
life. You earn to live well, so spend money when it’s most needed and
best enjoyed – that is money well spent!
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