Comments on: “I Just Want to Have Fun, Live My Life, and Worry About All That Stupid Personal Finance Stuff When I’m Older”

By: KittyBoarder

KittyBoarder — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:23:51 +0000

This is a great post. There is no one size fits all. Sometime that is important to me might be something very insignificant for others.

You know I’ve never really thought about it this way. Knowing what is important to me and my family, spend some resources on those things matter and let go the others. it’s almost a bit of like soul searching… But it’s such a great exercise.

For me, I get great joy when I
- spend time with my husband, mom and dad and close friends
- Grow my money and assets. It’s almost like a hobby now.
- Outdoor activties such as rock climbing, snowboarding, hiking, camping, etc.
- Food, food, food , food
- Video gaming

I feel my life is very fulfilled if I get to do all these things.. the rest don’t matter that much… So maybe I need to start cutting my expenses on ….say nail salons..lol

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:45:42 +0000

I am so on board with what you’re talking about. I have been working on this for years and am still working on it. Have you looked at You Need A Budget? I picked it up recently and I seriously seriously love it. There are 4 rules that govern how you budget, and they echo what you’re talking about here – putting every dollar to work thoughtfully and for the things in your life that you truly want. Then your spending reflects your values. I’m not affiliated with the company in any way, this is a personal endorsement from someone who looked for this sort of help budgeting money for years before I found it. I’d recommend anyone take a look at the basic descriptions of the four rules and consider going through the YNAB university if they’re interested (just a series of free online articles). They have a trial demo too. Thanks for the great article and congratulations on successfully reducing your debt. :)

By: Dizz

Dizz — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:29:23 +0000

I realize men don’t care about TP since they don’t use it 10 times per day but I’ll give up eating for a few days to afford my Cottonelle :)

By: Wojciech Kulicki

Wojciech Kulicki — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:16:31 +0000

I think two words sum this up perfectly–opportunity cost. What are we spending money on today that could be spent on things we love more?

If you understand that concept, everything clicks together.

By: Cade

Cade — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:43:01 +0000

Excellent post, Trent. Becoming more mature in our outlook certainly levels the playing field, doesn’t it? I sure wish I didn’t have to go through all of those “learning by fire” experiences to get some decent insight, though.

By: jgonzales

jgonzales — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:16:14 +0000

@ Shaun

It’s not settling for less, it’s deciding what’s important to you. If it’s not a big deal to you if you retire at 50 vs. 65, then you may not push saving for retirement so much. If it is a big deal to own a bigger house vs. a smaller house, then start finding ways to save for the down payment on a bigger house.

One thing I’ve learned from financial places like this is that even as you increase your income, it only helps marginally compared to using what you do have wisely. I would happily give us premium toilet paper if it meant I could save that money to move into a bigger place or we could start a business. If my husband suddenly got a raise, I’d still use the cheaper toilet paper and save the new money to help meet my goals.

Making more is great, but only if you use what you make wisely.

By: Shaun

Shaun — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:00:02 +0000

I’m all for saving money. Who needs premium toliet paper after all?

But I still have big dreams and want to have big toys. So, while saving is great, I like the idea of increasing my income as well, not just settling for less.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:21:00 +0000

I think a lot of those feelings can come from fear – or just plain ignorance. When I finally learned about personal finance and all the things I could do for myself, I felt so EMPOWERED. It’s not always fun, and it’s certainly not easy, but when I am able to exert control over myself for an end financial goal and then I’m able to achieve that goal, that feeling of accomplishment is completely exhilarating! Far more valuable than stuff/junk that sits around collecting dust.

By: Chaos

Chaos — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:01:13 +0000

I have a question: if you don’t have a house of your own, and you love to travel, what will you do, saving money for buying a house, or travelling abroad?

By: Forest

Forest — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:23:44 +0000

Awesome, awesome post and very true.

I enjoy living frugally and I enjoy cooking for myself from cheap ingredients… infact almost everything about living cheap makes me happy and makes me feel free from the pressures of living the dream and all that crap.

Thanks again.

By: Carey

Carey — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 02:18:01 +0000

Hehe, I agree that you have to take a step back and only spend money on the things that truly bring you happiness, but for me, I gotta have Charmin :)

But that’s the point, everyone is going to have a different set of preferences. Just gotta do what’s right for you.

By: bobsmith

bobsmith — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:32:02 +0000

That’s the right attitude, don’t bother with personal finance since our government is pretty much ruining our currency anyways. Our government spends trillions more than it makes. Why not emulate them?

By: stella

stella — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:47:24 +0000

Personally, I wish people like Trent and the kind of information that is available today were around when I was in my twenties and thirties. I needed it and would have welcomed it.

Our family provided no education (or rather a negative one) or modeling in terms of finances, etc. Unsurprisingly, my brother and I have both struggled with financial issues (which really, at heart, are NOT about the money at all or even the stuff you buy with it)over the years. (Yes, I do believe a lot of this stuff should be taught in schools, starting in grade school with more advanced stuff in high school.)

You can’t “do better” till you know better and today’s twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings have huge opportunities that did not exist when we were their ages in terms of annual income, etc. (despite the current economic scene).

It just amazes me that people in their 20s making tons of money (and I mean a lot) don’t care about conserving it or even spending mindfully. They don’t even want to be bothered?

Good luck on that.

Cause you will end up paying dearly at some point, sooner or later.

It will catch up with you because jobs don’t last, industries close, jobs are outsourced and you can find yourself with nothing. It’s happened to people who DO pay attention, so it will certainly happen to others.

Most of us were woefully uneducated about how to make financial choices and the reprecussions.

To have so much “help” and resources available today and to not take advantage of them? Makes NO SENSE. IMHO.

By: Eve

Eve — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:54:13 +0000

My husband is thinking of retiring next year. I had always told him that we need to save more, but nooo he did not listen. Finally, he wrote down what money was coming in and what money was going out, and when he finally realized how much he had left he was very depressed. Luckily, I plan to continue working since I am younger than him and I carry the medical benefits. My husband has had a great life, but now he is FINALLY realizing that his way of living IS GOING to change one he retires, and he is not very happy about this. Key word is like what the boy scouts preach, BE PREPARED***

By: Evan

Evan — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:28:20 +0000

I think that the deferment of responsibility and growing up is a real problem for my age group. I am 28, 28 a generation ago meant 3 kids…now there is an entire population still putting off “real life” for partying

By: LMoot

LMoot — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:20:26 +0000

Wanted to add that I quit the part-time job as soon as I bought the house. Work less…check! See it’s already paying off! :)

By: aylaxus

aylaxus — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:20:19 +0000

great post :)

By: LMoot

LMoot — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:16:06 +0000

Another thought. I’m learning that the earlier you become financially secure how much easier and faster it is to accumulate wealth. It’s almost effortless (if you have reasonable expectations). People see me as a motivated, hardworking person because I worked very hard, (60+ hours/week) and lived at home for two years after school, to save up money enough for 20% down on a house that would have total monthly costs less than the current rent. What they didn’t know was that I was doing all this now, not to build momentum, but so that I could slow the heck down in the future. I don’t want to wait until retirement to live the easy life (notice I didn’t say the “good” life, but the easy life; which, to me, is a GREAT life). I wanted to buy a house when I could afford it at my lowest payscale (which for most people is that 1st post-grad or full-time job, so that when I make more money that frees up more money. Since I bought my house 6 months ago my pay has already gone up by 2-3 hundred dollars/ per month, and my taxes dropped by $60/month (though I’m not celebrating the taxes because I know that number can, and will go up in the future). Also what some people didn’t understand is how much easier and more fulfilling it is to work for something you want because you want to, versus working for something you have because you have to. When you are working towards something that thing becomes a goal, a trophy, the metaphorical star in the sky. When you are working to keep something you have it becomes a burden. I think it is a personality thing though. For some people being able to spread large amounts of trinkets and constant experiences over their entire life, and working equally hard their entire life is a good balance for them. I like to do things big and sporadically, and like the slow, but steady-moving bull (Taurus) that I am, I like to work minimally towards that grand achievement, saving my bait for the big Kahunas; minnows aren’t that appetizing to me anyway.

By: Kerry D

Kerry D — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:49:05 +0000

For sure, earlier is better, to make careful choices about spending. My husband and I just wish that we’d figured out earlier that we “can’t spend more than we earn.” Regardless of what a good idea it seemed like. A lot (ok, all) of the financial problems we are dealing with now are because we overspent. Not at all on a lavish lifestyle. The most effective thing we’ve done is simply track spending and creating “accounts” for everything, so we can make informed choices. If we’d done this 10 years ago, we’d be WAY better off.

By: LMoot

LMoot — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:48:57 +0000

Whew, I consider myself lucky. I never really wanted the same things many of my peers and friends did, at least not on the save level of “needing” it. Cell phones, purses, renewing cars, expensive clothes, latest electronics, dvds and mounds of music–don’t have a desire to spend excessive money in these areas..doesn’t mean I don’t like those things. If I won them, or had the surplus to justify spending much more on them than I do now, I might. But I certainly don’t feel like I’m missing out, and unfortunately many of my friends feel like they are missing out if they don’t have this stuff, and that only causes them in most cases to miss out the REALLY cool stuff, like grown-up traveling (to Africa, Jamaica, Thailand, Europe), not monthly trips to Vegas and Miami. BUT it’s about preference. Many people would rather live life spread out thin. I’m just beginning to get to a spot of being able to enjoy the assets/wealth I’ve worked hard to accumulate in my early early years. I’m only 25 so I wouldn’t trade my yearly international vacays, my house, my ride or die car (which will hopefully last for 10 more years before dying)for all the iphones in the world.