How do you do it? Spend Money that is...

Haggis

Haggis

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Senior Staff
Founding Member
I suck at spending money. I have an innate aversion to letting go of hard earned funds. It’s not like we’re destitute, Michelle and I have good incomes coming in especially Michelle. House is paid off as well as all our vehicles. Only one kid left in college with a year to go and Cam has a huge scholarship that covers the majority of it. There’s a lump of money set aside to cover all our expenses for a year if something untoward happened. We have good retirement investments and building up more of that every year. Travel funds and discretionary money is looking good and available. We are actually sitting pretty when it’s all tallied up.

I hate spending money.

I can do it but it takes a lot of himming and hawing to get me to hit that checkout button. I guess growing up a poor woods rat and knowing how much work, blood and effort it took to build those funds hasn’t left my psyche despite being in a completely different financial place these days. Right now I have a set of sliders for the Tacoma in an internet cart that have been there for 4 days and I just can’t hit that button. Ugh.

“I might need those funds for something more important...I don’t know what but it could happen” my mind tells me. Tricky bastard that brain of mine. Anybody else suffer from this malady?
 
I'm eat up with it.. My old truck caught on fire driving home from the dump couple months ago.. called the wife told her to meet me outside with the hose on... still using it, looking at newer trucks.. but damn if I can bring myself to buy one...

I know they say you can't take it with you, but when I look at all the time spent on acquiring it.. seems a shame to let it go..
 
Watched my Dad work his butt off from his 30's and into his 60's, tons of hours away from the family, would only take off a week a year for hunting... Sold his business at 62 health has declined since, he's not the type to look back with regret but recently he's thought a lot about the trade off's.

I have a lot of respect for him, but I've tried to find the right balance of save a little spend a little. Enjoy the ride... I will say that I'm at a point in my career that it pays the bills but I am growing very tired of it.

I admire thrifty savers, but I also find it intriguing to watch a few of my friends that never give a crap, easy come easy go they say!!! I fall more towards the saver, but I have my moments. Happy is the key!!!
 
Haggis, you sound like a variation on my father. Survived the great depression, NEVER threw anything away because we might need it someday.

I used to drive home from my (nearby) apartment to work on my car in the garage. Damn flourescent trouble light never worked when we needed it until he took it into his basement workshop to tinker with it and get it working again. Finally, for Father's day one year, I bought him a new one.

Six months later, I discovered the new light was sitting in it's box on the shelf and he was STILLtinkering with the old one to keep it running.!
 
Mark, i feel you. We finally got Kayley off the payroll and have no debt. Nicole's always yammering, "we should go here for xmas, we should go there..." Who knows maybe I should listen! A new vehicle might make me fee better but the damn Toyotas' you got me started on never die....
 
Haggas, sounds like you have your financial items in order and you worked hard to get there. It sounds like you feel you need to save for that "rainy day" but it sounds like you already have that covered. You are likely in better shape then a majority of people.

It's time you start to reward yourself for all of that hard work. Click buy on those sliders, take that trip you and your wife maybe have wanted to take. Get that new whateveritis you have been putting off. I have seen too many people around me pass away without ever getting to do or buy the things they wanted to. That's not to say go out and blow money like no tomorrow but still remember, tomorrow is never guaranteed. Enjoy some of that hard work now, while you can. You might find one day you will not be able to.
 
I sold my business this year to 2 after market gun companies & retired. My farm is paid for & all but 1 vehicle is paid off. I take care of everything I own maybe that's why my stuff is old & has lasted me for so long. My friends always comment when will I upgrade & get a new truck, tractor. I tell them I have no use for a new truck or tractor since the one's I own is nice looking & they run like a new one do. I usually own a vehicle or farm equipment & drive it until it's beyond repairing, scrapping it & buying another 2 yr old vehicle. I drive a 2000 GMC Z71 1\2 ton extended cab & a 1994 Ford Ranger 4x4 extended cab 4cyl 5 speed. Both run very well & take me to point A & back home every time. Matter of fact the Ford Ranger is in the shop having a new timing belt installed which required @ every 70.000 miles.
I find that myself on huge purchases I weight things out: pro's & con's if the purchase will benefit me & the wife in the long run or not. I look at things that are very important: like as of my wife will be taken care of after I am gone & she will not have financial issues. I've made some great investments which aided in this area & feel that she will be OK, but that is up to the economy down the road I feel too. I found that one of the best investments I done was taking out a cancer insurance policy on the wife & I years before both of us were diagnosis Sally 14 yrs ago myself 18 months ago. This policy cut a considerable about of money to her & I & helped on the bills even though we have insurance were my wife works at. I have friends that sit underwater with truck payments because they buy then trade in 2 yrs later. This I can not fathom or even understand. When they b*tch about vehicle payments & money doesn't last as long. I guess I am much like Haggis in ways.
 
As a 30+ year financial planner, I have seen people approach money every way possible. “You can’t take it with you” and “no one, on their death beds, ever wished they’d worked more” are both certainly accurate. That said, managing money is always a balancing act - buying stuff today versus saving for the future and/or an emergency. At the end of the day, buy stuff that makes you happy and will last. If driving old vehicles is your thing, then do it. No need to feel guilty about being frugal.

One thing I think we can learn from millennials is to spend less on stuff and more on experiences. Drive that old truck but go explore, see the world - take the trip while you can. Your health will probably not always be such that you can get out and experience the world around you - do it while you can.
 
Frequent flier miles cashed in for Amazon gift cards, that's how I do it. :D

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Now if I could just put those miles into my 401k....

Sounds like you're in a great position to enjoy the benefits of your hard work. I watched my grandparents and mother work until the day each of them passed away because they didn't plan ahead. I've refused to put myself in that position. Like others have said, you can't take it with you so enjoy it in moderation.
 
Interesting thread. My wife and I are both 66 and recently retired. We both made good money and raised two successful kids. We’re pretty comfortable financially. Our parents were teenagers during the depression and came from lower working class families, farmers and textile workers. They only knew “work and save” because they were familiar with hunger and going without. I’m sure they worried about my wife and me as we started a family at an early age and for many years spent money on what I’m sure seemed like frivolous items. Many were!

I had those same worries with our kids. For that matter, I have those worries about most of our younger generations. Debt is your enemy and America’s enemy. We became debt free in our mid-fifties and I’m here to tell you, life changes once that happens.
 
Don’t worry too much about me fellows, I can drop some fundage when I want too. It’s just takes a lot to do it.

I really over analyze if something is truly adding value or if it’s just a random want. Being a gearhead for years I’ve blown a lot of dough on vehicles and sometimes it just wasn’t worth the costs. So before I buy something cool it’s gotta go through the value added algorithm in my brain, which is easily distracted which leads to paralysis by analysis syndrome.
 
I think debt is a tool, a dangerous one if used improperly, but not the enemy. Time is the enemy.
Gather ye rosebuds - even if you have to borrow some money to get em.

... and then give the rosebuds to a girl. They go crazy for that stuff. ;)
 
I hate owing money.. house paid for, all vehicles paid for.. only thing I have is power and phone/internet (which I could stand to lose). I need/want a truck... only been looking about 5 years though so whats a few more....
 
Looking at it from a different point of view...

How much damage to your truck will the sliders save? One minor dent to the rocker will pay for the sliders.

It is less expensive in the long term to buy sliders now than pay to repair your truck later. My sliders saved $$ of truck repair when a Harley slid into me (which kept him from going over the side of the mountain.)
 
Yep I have been taking a log time to order the bumper for my truck. WIfe has asked several times have you ordered it? Finally did but damn it took about 6 months and still not sure it was the right thing to do. Now to get it and then order the winch for it, starts all over again.
 
kmacafee said:
One thing I think we can learn from millennials is to spend less on stuff and more on experiences. Drive that old truck but go explore, see the world - take the trip while you can. Your health will probably not always be such that you can get out and experience the world around you - do it while you can.
Click to expand...
Sounds like the financial advisor in the group is telling you to road trip to CA
 
Scott B. said:
Looking at it from a different point of view...

How much damage to your truck will the sliders save? One minor dent to the rocker will pay for the sliders.

It is less expensive in the long term to buy sliders now than pay to repair your truck later. My sliders saved $$ of truck repair when a Harley slid into me (which kept him from going over the side of the mountain.)
Click to expand...

There...
4C332186-EB5F-44D8-865A-07C1DF1BCFAC.png

...see I did it. I can spend money, it just takes working up the gumption to do so. Actually I gotta thank @Greg in a way as his recent interstate incident got me out of the analysis paralysis to get this rolling.

Now I can fret over when and how much to spend on a front bumper...it never ends. :p
 
Nice! Here's the bumper you need for them jihad deer up in PA @Haggis, you'll need the red headlights too... all them other Ridgerunner kids have them :stir

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