The post is a follow up on James’ post the other day reminding of about the importance of determining what is necessity and what is luxury.
As we all know, finance is largely a balancing act. Hopefully we learn to balance things in the favor of living within our means.
This means that basically all of our financial purchases are a trade off. We can chose to spend more on this, and less on that. Also, if we choose to spend more than we have, we choose to live with stress and hassle of life in the red. This trade off doesn’t have to be torture!
People have differing opinions as to whether it is better to enjoy the little things in life, or spend more consciously and save for bigger dreams and goals. I think this is a personal choice as to which works better for you.
For me, I would most often prefer to skip chewing gum and daily lattes in favor of putting away for our retirement or a vacation. For you this may be very different.
My advice: Do what works for you – but enjoy it, savor it! Whether you choose the latte, the ski holiday, or saving for retirement, make the most of it.
- If you are saving for a big goal, enjoy the process of doing so by tracking your progress.
- If you can’t kick the latte habit – then make it the best part of your day.
- Make saving for retirement fun by dreaming about what you’ll enjoy during that time.
- Applaud yourself for making small sacrifices for big dreams.
What ever you do, I recommend avoiding the following:
- Let the guilt of purchases outweigh the enjoyment.
- Forget what’s important to you.
- Forget to have fun along the way.
- Go on autopilot spending.
- Be so frugal that you forget to enjoy life.
Remember, you control your own financial life. Your choices do affect each other. If you aren’t happy with where you are at, then access how to rebalance and fine tune until your finances work for you.
Enjoy,
Miel
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