Thinking about that advice-for-folks-in-their-30's list and the ubiquitous advice to save more money. This is something I've been pondering for a while. I often feel conflicting urges both to save more money and to spend more money. The urge to save is pretty straightforward -- we need to save for a house! And in case one or both of us make a career change! And for unexpected circumstances! And so forth. But these days, I'm also trying to loosen my natural savings bent when it comes to certain things, especially experiences. I tell myself that you can earn back the money, but you can't necessarily get back the opportunity. To have the means and the freedom and the health to go do fun things... well, maybe taking advantage of that fleeting confluence of factors is more important than the money. For now. But... house! Maybe the trick is to spend more on experiences and less on everything else.
I kind of miss the days back in grad school when I had no money and thus didn't have to worry about what to do with it.
I think house-buying is overrated. This is about 90% based on our terrible selling experience with our old house, but it's at least 10% fact-based.
ReplyDeleteHave experiences! I finally loaded up Quicken, and analyzed our last credit card bill, and I realize I've been on a bit of a buying spree starting from Christmas... this is not the right time for that. I need to put myself on a budget immediately. Experiences good, stuff bad.
I need to cut my spending on stuff too. Besides the waste of money, there's also the accumulation of unnecessary items and CLUTTER. "Experiences good, stuff bad" seems like a useful mantra.
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