A new goal is as follows:
Any money that is left over in my checking account becomes guilt-free spending money.
I got really excited when I thought about it.
What I would usually do is dump whatever I had left in my checking account after a few months back into my staging account and let it 'collect dust' there until it got funnelled into another one of my savings or investment accounts.
What I thought of now is much, much more exciting:
I really like nice things. I really like buying nice things.
But I don't like buying just any nice things. I like buying things that are really, really, really nice.
So nice that people would look at it and say, "Whoa, that's a really nice thing you got there."
Weirdly, that's something that motivates me.
I already know that I will aim for a target number to get something that I really like. Or, I'll spend it all buying several rounds of drinks for my friends. Doesn't matter! It's guilt-free spending money.
For some weird reason, I've been telling myself that spending money on things is largely unnecessary and wasteful, and that I should save as much of it as possible.
I still agree, but I am already artificially limiting myself such that I'll save a certain amount no matter how much of my spending money I spend because a set amount gets funneled into my checking account every month. The rest goes automatically into investment and savings accounts.
Here's what I'll do: Whatever amount I have leftover in my checking account will be designated as guilt-free spending.
I forsee this encouraging me to do two things:
- Spend less on everyday things to grow the amount I can spend on things that I want to spend on.
- Not feel bad about spending the money I have leftover because I've already automated the task of saving a large portion of my paycheck.
- Learn more about what I like to spend money on. If I'm unsure about something, I'll give it a try so I know whether I would do it again. To me, that's worth it.
The point of life isn't to save money. The point of life isn't to spend money.
The point of life is to have a good time
In order to do that, you need to know how you like to spend money. To do that, you need to learn about yourself. What do you like to spend on? What don't you like to spend on?
There are many loose ends in my mind. So many things that I've been temporarily holding there thinking that it'll get done or happen some day.
At the same time, I know that playing the waiting game for good things to happen to you is a fool's errand. It's extremely unlikely that good things will happen to you if you idle.
Creating my own timekeeping system solidified something for me: the amount of time I have left is limited. Just like the guy who gave himself one year left to live, except it's a different amount of time. I'm young, so it doesn't seem like it, but it is finite.
Each day, I check off the box of the day gone by. And I think that's the key.
If I forget one day, no problem. I just check off two boxes the next day.
Time waits for no one.
It doesn't matter if you know that fact or not.
If you like buying nice things, you should do it. But you should do it with money that you have. Don't be a stupid masshead and buy shit you can't afford with money you don't have.
What nice stuff have you bought lately?