If you’re an avid reader of personal finance content, you’ve likely read over and over again how important it is to save and invest your money. As a personal finance blogger, myself, I also highly encourage you do this. However, I’m here to tell you that you should spend your money, too and explain why spending your money can actually be a good thing.
Let me state the obvious: the more money you spend, the less money you have to save. So, before you think about spending your money frivolously, make sure you first pay all your bills and meet your savings goal THEN feel free to spend on whatever you’d like, as long as you’re not putting yourself in debt.
Here’s the thing. If you want to accumulate wealth, you have to save money. But accumulating wealth takes time and it’s hard to feel the impact that seemingly small contributions will make when you’re saving for the long-term. This is why you need to spend your money, too.
Spending money on things that you enjoy leads you to be happy. When you save all of your money and have nothing left to spend, you may feel unhappy. Life is meant to be enjoyed and while it’s great to enjoy life in your retirement, not everyone is trying to achieve FIRE, so retirement may be pretty far away for some people.
Saving money is great, but if you’re not spending any money on things that will bring you happiness now, you may not keep up good saving habits for very long. Life is all about balance and saving money shouldn’t feel like a punishment. When your friends ask you to go out for dinner or drinks, do it if it will bring you joy. If you’ve been eyeing a pair of shoes and they finally go on sale, buy the shoes! If you love to travel, be sure to book vacations each year. After cooking most meals at home to help minimize spending and leave more money for saving, treat yourself to a nice dinner out from time to time!
Look at spending money as your reward for saving money. You deserve to treat yourself after meeting your goals! Maybe this will motivate you to earn more money by picking up a side hustle or encouraging you to ask for a raise. Plus, pumping some money into the economy doesn’t hurt 😉
Interested in what some personal finance bloggers are splurging on? Check these articles out below!
For me, I will always spend money on dining out.
Calm ‘n Cents: Dining out/takeout and the odd book
Contrarian Saver: Unexpected Bargain: The Porsche 911
Tap Dancing to Financial Independence: iPhone SE 2020, 2014 Honda Civic in 2018, 3 used bikes for $54, computer game for $20
Ross Moore of Moore Financial Management: Sonos
Jared of 30 Sum: An $800 bike that was on sale a year and a half ago
Bo of The Dollar Blogger: 1998 Chevy Corvette in 2018, 56k miles for $10k
Cut The Crap Investing: The kids, especially sports for the kids
On Plan Rox: American made sunglasses
Jordan Moore: Udactity courses for self education, Garmin smart watch, Desklab monitor and a new car
What do you spend money on to add joy to your life once your savings goals are met?
