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The art and science of spending money

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Re: The art and science of spending money

#41

Post by imtringued »

ant6n wrote: post #35
monero-xmr wrote: post #2

Growing up poor and then becoming self-made wealthy - nothing like it. My life is so sweet because I am one of those fabled bootstraps people who walked 15 miles to school both ways uphill (paraphrasing). And what is my favorite thing? I can buy any meal at any restaurant I want and I never care about the price. It’s a glorious feeling. I eat whatever I want. Unfathomable

> I can buy any meal at any restaurant I want and I never care about the price. It’s a glorious feeling. I eat whatever I want. Unfathomable My budget for food used to be limited by money, now it’s limited by calories.

Apparently you didn't pay attention in economics class. Human wants are infinite.

Re: The art and science of spending money

#42

Post by darkerside »

tehCorner wrote: post #24

> Frugality inertia: a lifetime of good savings habits can’t be transitioned to a spending phase. Coming from a poor family and knowing the hard way the issues of not having money I've been obsessed with saving money since I got my first paycheck 8 years ago and I always thought "at the point I would earn current salary + x I will start enjoying life more and stop worrying about money" but that never happened. 8 year…

It was a great experience for me traveling to a foreign land as an adult. One of my most valuable lessons came as the trip began to wind down, and I was left with a medium amount of money in that country's currency. I suddenly realized that this money was essentially going to become useless the moment we left. It wouldn't be enough to justify a trip to the bank to convert it, especially with the fees. I started buying anything I wanted, and some things I didn't. Anything I could spend this useless money on would be better than taking it back home with me.

As you might realize, there's quite a parallel to our lives here. At some point in your life, and it might be now, and it might not be until moments before the end, you will realize that all this money is useless to you. You'd trade literally all of it for another moment that matters. Do you want to have that realization when it's too late, or do you want to get started on that now?

Re: The art and science of spending money

#43

Post by NotYourLawyer »

> If you dig into it, I think you’ll see that a disproportionate share of those with the biggest homes, the fastest cars, and the shiniest jewelry, grew up “snubbed” in some way. Part of their current spending isn’t about getting value out of flashy material goods; it’s about healing a social wound inflicted when they were younger.

I thought this was just called nouveau riche.

Re: The art and science of spending money

#44

Post by mejutoco »

majidazimi wrote: post #33

The goal of saving is to have a lifestyle that you can MAINTAIN during retirement. - if you save 60% of your income, your lifestyle will be severely damaged and you won't become a spender all of a sudden the day after retirement. - If you save 5% of your income, then you won't be able to lower your lifestyle once you retire. Saving 15/20% of income isn't a magic number. But it's something that doesn't damage your lif…

There can be many goals for saving.

It is easy to imagine parents that want to save as much as possible for their kids, for example.

Re: The art and science of spending money

#45

Post by sc077y »

Very interesting article. Following the articles logic, you should be able to deduce a country's Social mobility based on the number of exotic items (such as supercars) you see in public. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that Europe has lower Social mobility than the United States. You will seldom see exotic sports car in the streets in Western Europe because most of the wealth are from well established institutions and families.

Re: The art and science of spending money

#46

Post by wrldos »

imtringued wrote: post #41
ant6n wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can buy any meal at any restaurant I want and I never care about the price. It’s a glorious feeling. I eat whatever I want. Unfathomable My budget for food used to be limited by money, now it’s limited by calories.

Apparently you didn't pay attention in economics class. Human wants are infinite.

Nope. I've got everything I want. It's not a lot. I'm collecting a ton of money now that I don't know what to do with.

Promoting wants is the foundation of economics however.

Re: The art and science of spending money

#47

Post by svilen_dobrev »

tehCorner wrote: post #24

> Frugality inertia: a lifetime of good savings habits can’t be transitioned to a spending phase. Coming from a poor family and knowing the hard way the issues of not having money I've been obsessed with saving money since I got my first paycheck 8 years ago and I always thought "at the point I would earn current salary + x I will start enjoying life more and stop worrying about money" but that never happened. 8 year…

someone said : all-life-rich person can learn being poor ; all-life-poor person cannot learn being rich..

my granddad would pick the best wooden board and cut some small piece he needed from the best part of it - even if in the middle.

My dad would pick the most-matching-possible board at-hand and cut some corner of it. Saving the rest for something..

i am torn between the two..

Re: The art and science of spending money

#48

Post by sokoloff »

darkerside wrote: post #42
tehCorner wrote: post #24

> Frugality inertia: a lifetime of good savings habits can’t be transitioned to a spending phase. Coming from a poor family and knowing the hard way the issues of not having money I've been obsessed with saving money since I got my first paycheck 8 years ago and I always thought "at the point I would earn current salary + x I will start enjoying life more and stop worrying about money" but that never happened. 8 year…

It was a great experience for me traveling to a foreign land as an adult. One of my most valuable lessons came as the trip began to wind down, and I was left with a medium amount of money in that country's currency. I suddenly realized that this money was essentially going to become useless the moment we left. It wouldn't be enough to justify a trip to the bank to convert it, especially with the fees. I started buyin…

To extend your analogy: All of us will return from that foreign land at some point.

Almost all of us will leave behind other traveling companions we care about who can use that money.

Re: The art and science of spending money

#49

Post by [deleted] »

sc077y wrote: post #45

Very interesting article. Following the articles logic, you should be able to deduce a country's Social mobility based on the number of exotic items (such as supercars) you see in public. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that Europe has lower Social mobility than the United States. You will seldom see exotic sports car in the streets in Western Europe because most of the wealth are from well established institutions…

[deleted]

Re: The art and science of spending money

#50

Post by SeattleAltruist »

Brilliant article, thank you. This should be a classic. Ranks up there with wisdom such as 'don't spend your youth pursuing wealth and wealth pursuing youth.' PS one of the best ways to develop a healthy relationship to money that I've found is to absorb Buddhist teachings on how to avoid the suffering caused by grasping after things. Fixes most all forms of money-inspired unhappiness.
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