Good morning Dinks. Yesterday I wanted to buy myself a new summer dress and I thought…hhhmmm better not. I am close to already spending my personal allowance for the week and we still have two days to go. Even though I really wanted a new dress I didn’t need it. I have several gorgeous dresses but it’s hot out and you can never have too many breezy clothes for the hot summer weather.
Is financial freedom just an emotional comfort?
I apologize to all our male Dinks readers out there but unfortunately this is an issue women have to deal with during the summer months – long hair and hot sticky clothes. Unfortunately we can’t take our shirts off where ever we are whenever we get hot. AAAHHH it must be nice to be a man.
As I walked away from my potential purchase I started thinking, what would people do for their personal happiness? Or yet a better question may be, what should people do for their personal happiness? As a financial planner I constantly find myself trying to find a balance between emotional happiness and being financially responsible. So my question to you is, how do you do it?
Does money and happiness go hand in hand?
Would you overpay for something you want? I pride myself on finding the best deal possible on clothes and my boyfriend Nick loves buying bargain DVDs. However he will pay extra for something he really wants. Enter into evidence our brand new Samsung Smart TV – total cost $2800. I think this is a lot of money to spend on a TV, but he thinks it’s a good deal because the cost is worth the benefit of the new TV features. I have yet to determine this is true.
Do you always save as much as you can? I like to put as much money as I can aside. With that being said I am not one of those people who are willing to stop living their life so I can save as much money as I can. I love travelling and I’m not a big fan of the city where I live right now so I try to get away as often as possible. This means that I have to spend money on travel expenses, hotel accommodations and exploring new cities. Yes of course I would have a lot more money if I didn’t travel three to four times a year – but I don’t want to make that sacrifice.
Do you feel guilty when you spend money? Some people can’t save. They just spend all the money they have and wait for their next paycheck. Add in thousands of dollars of credit card debt and I used to be one of those people, but now I am capable of saving money. After being broke for several years I was very reluctant to spend money, any money that wasn’t necessary for daily living because I felt bad. I feared I would fall back into my old bad habits. Now I am loosening up the money belt and every now and then I allow myself to spend money on myself guilt free.
Photo from Flickr
Kristina Tahnyak
Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.
I have no problems spending money that I have budgeted to spend. For example, in your scenario, I would have done exactly what you did – not buy the dress. But then I would have tried as hard as possible to not spend my personal allowance money, and gone back and purchased it two days later if I really wanted it.
There’s something very empowering about having the money to buy something, and deciding NOT to even if for a little while.
BTW, there are plenty of places where men are not allowed to take their shirts off. There’s a theme park within a few hours of my home that is very popular. It gets hot walking around there all day with the sun beating down on you….I’d LOVE to take off my shirt to cool down – but we aren’t allowed to – even though women ARE allowed to walk around in a bikini top and shorts shorter than most men’s underwear…..
I definitely feel guilty spending money and love to see that savings/investment balance just keep on going up and up. I’ve been in frugal mode for so many years that even when we have all the money we need, I have a hard time switching gears. My husband is in agreement with investing but his attitude about spending is more relaxed and in the realm of “what are we going to do with all this money if we never spend any of it”. So I’m trying to loosen up a bit while at the same time making him understand why I want substantial amounts of money stay untouched.