But this is my dilemma: I never spend more than $10 on a DVD for myself, and I only buy DVDs or tv-series that I have seen and want to watch again. I (almost) never buy a book I haven’t read and I only buy it if I either a) want to read it again, or b) share it. I’ve “lost” more books that way, but it’s almost always worth it. My husband does like his videogames, but if has one and he knows he’s not going to play it anymore, he takes it to the local game store and trades it in. We were both raised to be frugal, but we were also raised by pack-rats. What we have doesn’t cost much, or we get a good value, but we have a lot of it.

But at the same time, as much as I may want to re-watch or re-read something, I barely have time for the things I want to do, let alone re-doing things I’ve already done. So is it really worth it to buy those books and movies? I just don’t know.

I know I should get rid of that stuff. I know I shouldn’t accumulate more of it. I know that if I instead saved my money I could travel and accrue experiences in that way, but…

Perhaps the solution is to re-evaluate the stuff in my life every six months, and if I haven’t read it, used it, etc., then I should just give it to Goodwill and think twice before I buy something new. But I’ve got lists and lists of things I want to own.

Welcome to the internal debate of a pack-rat. Wish me luck.

And I think you’re a stodgy old curmudgeon.

This rationalization has nothing to do with age and everything to do with attitude. I don’t think my generation is any worse at it than our parents. In fact, nearly all of my friends have more savings than our parents do and very few have credit card debt. My only debt is 20K in student debt and I’m on track to have it paid off in just a few years, despite having a yearly salary of just over that. At the same time, I also have done a fair amount of traveling (and if you’re in your 20s and spending $3000 for 2 weeks in Europe, you’re doing it wrong. I made it 6 weeks on 2/3s of that–all saved on minimum wage.) and paid cash for a decent car (which is necessary for work. How? But following exactly this advice. I don’t buy a lot of stuff. I “spend little” so I can “spend big” where it matters to me. I have friends who do this and I have friends who just don’t get it–of all ages. Stop picking on us 20-somethings!

Your advice is spot-on, Trent. My biggest “wasteful” spending? Hopping around the country to see friend who have scattered across the States. Could this money be useful paying down my student debt? Yes. But those experiences and relationships are far more important to me than making a few extra early payments. Is a TV or new wardrobe important enough to spend that kind of money? No way.

Personally, I think your advice is wonderful! Whether or not it falls on deaf ears will depend on who you say it to. Not so much how old they are as much as what they value in life.

@Dan, I understand a lot of college kids won’t listen to this advice but please don’t generalize teenagers and college kids! We get enough of that from our parents and family members, frankly some of us are tired of the bad rap we get just because adults generalize based on a few random teens they know! Thank you

This is after making sure I had a sufficient emergency fund established, a retirement account set up and contributed to, and a reliable source of income from a day job and from freelancing.

Most of my trip money comes from my freelancing, and as a bonus I can do work on some of my trips abroad. This means I can claim the money as travel expenses on my tax return.

As Trent suggests, the key to achieving this is setting priorities. I’m about to move into a cheaper place to give me a little more money for saving and for travel. Beyond a dinner or two out a month and the occasional electronics purchase, I buy very little discretionary stuff. I work a few evenings a week at another job. That’s how I can do this.

For the moment I’m single and young, so now is the time to take advantage of travel opportunities like this — before being tied down (happily) with husband, house and possible children.

Good advice, Trent. I enjoy your blog.

Will I hit 40 and feel like I missed out on my wild 20s? Maybe. I won’t know until I get there, but in the meantime I am going to position myself for financial freedom. Worry about regrets later.

By “cool” and “slick”, I would show them the savings that can be found on Ebay, Amazon and the like. Once again, praying for their sake that something that I said would sink in…

Now only we had the money to afford these experience …

You can have experiences at any time in life. I’m well past my 20s but still feel strongly that my best years are ahead of me. I get that people think you should have your free spirited fun when you’re in your 20s because it’s generally assumed that you have less baggage. While that may be true, I think it oversimplifies youth. A lot of young people do have worries, first and foremost, what am I going to do now that I’m grown up?

As we get older I think we tend to forget about how tough the 20s can be in reality.

So keep doing what you’re doing–you’re on the right path–and just budget time and money for fun. All your life!

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Kevin, I agree that I did not have much money for experiences. I clearly remember having $100 per month (probably $250 in today’s dollars) for everything that wasn’t room, board, tuition, and books. So I had to have all my experiences and my savings from that.

Of course he wouldn’t say to load up on experiences at the cost of going into debt. He’s saying load up on experiences instead of stockpiles of stuff. He did mention some expensive experiences, but there’s also watching rented videos with your friends, having potlucks where people bring new dishes (and the recipes), visiting the families of friends who live far away (cheap travel!), and getting involved with low-cost clubs and hobbies.

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Fenton, you can travel cheaply by driving to your destination and staying in state and national parks. I especially like choosing one park as a home base and, after checking out the actual park, make day trips to other local places of interest.

Before you get a family, you can also stay in youth hostels (many of which don’t even require you to be young, but they do require you to split up by gender to sleep).

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I think at 21 most of us have pent-up desires to do something that we haven’t been able to do as kids. So I’d say the advice should be to do some of those things, but don’t overdo them.

I never had any problems being “allowed” to do things I wanted to do—I never happened to want to do anything my parents were opposed to. But I did basically never have my own money. So my first goals were things like:
* my own nail clippers; since they were mine, I always knew where to find them
* same with scissors
* my own stereo
* my own games, books, movies
* a three-man tent (room for two people and their stuff)
* a guitar

So basically, I started by re-creating the parts of my lifestyle that I wanted to keep even though I moved away from my parents and all their stuff. And I got a few other things my parents could never afford for me.

But after a while, you do have everything you need and most of what you want. But still, I had this habit of accumulation. It’s a fine habit when you’re starting out and need everything, but after a while it’s no good anymore.

So, like you’ve said before, it’s good to keep evaluating how much value you’re getting out of various kinds of purchases. And it’s also good to stop periodically and look around at your other options. I really don’t need to keep stocking up on games, movies, and books. I don’t need any more furniture or wall hangings. This can free up money for other things I’d never dreamed of as a kid. Fortunately my friends got me to travel quite a bit and try quite a few new hobbies like rock climbing, ballroom dancing, and ultimate frisbee. And my employer got me to realize I could retire early.

I got nanny jobs in a few places to have a launch pad and get my bearings. Some people do WWOOF work or just find jobs through word of mouth to cover their travel. Taking cheap transit, walking, staying in hostels or with people you meet along the way – it’s not hard to travel on the cheap and have a LOT of fun.

Traveling with kids is just a whole different world – among other things you have more luggage. Even with a breastfed baby, hauling extra clothes and diapers changed me from a carryon-only traveler to a person with luggage. Now my son is out of diapers but not quite reliably potty trained, we still have to carry extra underpants and diapers. Plus he actually *needs* food every few hours, where I can skip lunch if logistics get weird, and he *needs* exercise and can’t sit in a train seat for 8 hours like I can.

It’s fun but it takes more planning and more money. Luckily I have more money now :)

One way to look at what we did, is that the experience that we valued most was the experience of a family and a nice home. In buying the furnishings before we actually had the home, we were really putting a down payment on the experience that we wanted to have.

And despite loving my trips to Europe and South America, my favorite experience is coming home and playing with my kids in the back yard.

I would however say that if you know what you want , selective gathering of stuff is a great thing to do when you’re young.

My wife and I married when we were 20 and 23 respectively (in 2003). During college we both knew we wanted a nice house eventually. Over time we have been collecting “stuff” that would make our future house look nice. Bit by bit we’ve collected a nice kitchen stuff, dressers, decorations, tools and other things. Now that we bought a house, we are really glad we have all these things! Buying them over time let us get good deals and not need to buy everything all at once when we moved in.

I will say, it has to be something you want to do. I was excited to hear a friend of mine was taking his first trip to Europe. He never really got to enjoy it because his wife got homesick, changed the plane tickets and dragged him home after 3 days…. It’s not for everyone, but if you intend to expand your horizons outside your house, you’ll find your personal growth happens faster visiting so many varied places (& all so close to each other)!