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Spend money on experiences, not possessions (2009)

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Re: Spend money on experiences, not possessions (2009)

#31

Post by kiddo »

sliverstorm wrote: post #27
vinhboy wrote: post #17

Judging from these comments, I must be the only person who does not like traveling. I like hearing stories and learning about other cultures, but the idea of flying around the world seeking adventure is a hassle to me. Does that make me a bad person? Besides, there is so much to do as is, like learn assembly. =)

Not the only one. I teeter somewhere inbetween. Most places in the USA are unremarkable; as my mother would say when my father talks about visiting a new state park, "seen one tree, seen 'em all". Cities nationwide are relatively the same beyond superficial differences. I spent a week in Rhode Island a year ago, and today I couldn't tell you any way it was meaningfully different from the Silicon Valley besides 'it ha…

There are so many amazing places in the USA. I'm astounded that you're saying most places are unremarkable. I'm not sure where to begin with suggestions. Slot canyons of Utah? Rain forests of the Pac NW? Appalachians? Small old coal towns in the NE PA? Snowy peaks of CO? Thousand Islands? Lancaster County, PA? There are big and awe inspiring places that I love and there are small and curious places that I enjoy too. There is so much here. Such a big country! I live in NYC now, and almost every neighborhood is remarkable in some way. You just have to open your eyes.

I'm curious why you thought Japan was cool. Could you explain?

Where in Rhode Island were you? What did you do there? Who were you with? Did you meet anyone?

Re: Spend money on experiences, not possessions (2009)

#32

Post by fragmede »

sliverstorm wrote: post #27
vinhboy wrote: post #17

Judging from these comments, I must be the only person who does not like traveling. I like hearing stories and learning about other cultures, but the idea of flying around the world seeking adventure is a hassle to me. Does that make me a bad person? Besides, there is so much to do as is, like learn assembly. =)

Not the only one. I teeter somewhere inbetween. Most places in the USA are unremarkable; as my mother would say when my father talks about visiting a new state park, "seen one tree, seen 'em all". Cities nationwide are relatively the same beyond superficial differences. I spent a week in Rhode Island a year ago, and today I couldn't tell you any way it was meaningfully different from the Silicon Valley besides 'it ha…

Most places in Asia are unremarkable; as my mother would say when my father talks about visiting another Asian country, "seen one temple, seen 'em all". Cities continent-wide are relatively the same beyond superficial differences. I spent a week in Tokyo a year ago, and today I couldn't tell you any way it was meaningfully different from Hong Kong besides 'the eyes on everything were bigger.'

On the other hand, visiting San Francisco as a teenager was really cool.

Re: Spend money on experiences, not possessions (2009)

#34

Post by mgkimsal »

mrkurt wrote: post #26

This is why I'm awfully proud of our senior class gift in high school. Random, I know. Most high school classes give something like a couch, or a sign, or a statue, or something else that they can engrave their class name on. We, however, gave the long time crossing guard an all expense paid vacation to Hawaii. I will always remember the look on her face when it was presented, and I can imagine it being a fantastic b…

Awesome story - thanks for sharing!

Re: Spend money on experiences, not possessions (2009)

#35

Post by sliverstorm »

kiddo wrote: post #31
sliverstorm wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the only one. I teeter somewhere inbetween. Most places in the USA are unremarkable; as my mother would say when my father talks about visiting a new state park, "seen one tree, seen 'em all". Cities nationwide are relatively the same beyond superficial differences. I spent a week in Rhode Island a year ago, and today I couldn't tell you any way it was meaningfully different from the Silicon Valley besides 'it ha…

There are so many amazing places in the USA. I'm astounded that you're saying most places are unremarkable. I'm not sure where to begin with suggestions. Slot canyons of Utah? Rain forests of the Pac NW? Appalachians? Small old coal towns in the NE PA? Snowy peaks of CO? Thousand Islands? Lancaster County, PA? There are big and awe inspiring places that I love and there are small and curious places that I enjoy too.…

If we are talking about nature, I agree. I love nature, and I love visiting cool environmental features. I was speaking mostly of cities, which is what most people I know want to visit when they talk about traveling.

Visiting Japan (suburbs, not city) was like visiting a sort of parallel universe. Everything was fundamentally similar, but totally different. Additionally, I was learning Japanese at the time, so it was rather exciting just trying to converse with native speakers. It was quite a while ago so I can't think of much in the way of specific examples of the 'bests', but they have a number of cultural aspects and traditions I preferred over their western equivalents, such as sleeping accommodations and choice in breakfast foods. (always found most western breakfasts beyond cereal/oatmeal and toast despicable)

Providence. Spent the week with a girl, roaming around the city a bit.

Re: Spend money on experiences, not possessions (2009)

#36

Post by rmb »

starting about 3 years ago we tried to institute a "spend money on experiences or assets philosophy". By assets meaning things that hold or go up in value over time. So for household items -- spend a little more on an antique or quality versions, rather than a consumable that will only last a few years and end up in a landfill -- and try to tend towards not spending much money at all on things that are inherently depreciating, making that as small a portion of our spending as possible.

The experiences part we've been successful with, the assets part not always so much.

Re: Spend money on experiences, not possessions (2009)

#37

Post by erikstarck »

gwern wrote: post #18
erikstarck wrote: post #12

I see this discussion popping up here and there. People are clearly tired of consuming for the sake of consuming. We seek other kicks. Nothing strange with that, this follows the development ladder of spiral dynamics or Maslow. But it's worth pondering what this does to the economy at large. What happens when we start to perceive value more in fluffy stuff like experiences than physical goods? It would certainly affe…

> But it's worth pondering what this does to the economy at large. What happens when we start to perceive value more in fluffy stuff like experiences than physical goods? It would certainly affect the job market and the opportunity cloud for startups. A narrow consideration, but not surprising for a Hacker News comment. I think the bigger picture is that this is a major transition in economies, and it is very good fo…

> I think the bigger picture is that this is a major transition in economies, and it is very good for people.

Oh, I agree. We're leaving the industrial age and that's a good (and big!) thing.

Re: Spend money on experiences, not possessions (2009)

#38

Post by raintrees »

gaustin wrote: post #16

How do you escape the trap? I'm not that far in. I'm 28 years old. Just got married. $42k in student loan debt. No kids. But it still feels impossible to escape the momentum of keeping up. My job pays well but not well enough to quickly escape the loan debt. That feels like the biggest barrier between me and the things I'd rather be doing (startups, travel/vagabonding, ...).

For me, it was first to identify all of my/our expenses. Amazing what amount of money can flow through one's hands.

Compare income to that expense, and you know if you are positive or negative.

To go from negative to positive, or to set aside "fun" money, I decide if any of those items could be dropped or paid off sooner, rather than later.

This is also a basis for allocating an amount to stash for savings - I like to have between 6 months and 1 year's living expenses set aside - You never know what's going to happen, and I feel so much more secure.

Once the safety net goal is reached, that same amount, when not directed to fun experiences, can also be directed at retirement/investment income.

If you've ever played the game of Cashflow (Robert Kiyosaki) you come away with the notion of having passive assets generating enough cashflow to cover your expenses - Very powerful idea.

Re: Spend money on experiences, not possessions (2009)

#39

Post by kiddo »

sliverstorm wrote: post #35
kiddo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are so many amazing places in the USA. I'm astounded that you're saying most places are unremarkable. I'm not sure where to begin with suggestions. Slot canyons of Utah? Rain forests of the Pac NW? Appalachians? Small old coal towns in the NE PA? Snowy peaks of CO? Thousand Islands? Lancaster County, PA? There are big and awe inspiring places that I love and there are small and curious places that I enjoy too.…

If we are talking about nature, I agree. I love nature, and I love visiting cool environmental features. I was speaking mostly of cities, which is what most people I know want to visit when they talk about traveling. Visiting Japan (suburbs, not city) was like visiting a sort of parallel universe. Everything was fundamentally similar, but totally different. Additionally, I was learning Japanese at the time, so it was…

How are sleeping accom different in Japan from the US? What do Japanese people usually eat for breakfast?

I imagined Prov to be somewhat different from SV. Isn't SV composed of some smallish towns (PA, etc) and then vast modern suburbs? Isn't Prov an oldish city by US stds? Multi-story buildings with shopfronts, apts above, more pedestrians, less cars, narrower streets, different building materials, a harbor, more mom & pop shops, than SV? Granted, it's not Japan, but what did you expect?

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