I Love Spending Money, And You Can Too

I Love Spending Money, And You Can Too

I’m going to let you in on a little secret, I love buying things. I love the endorphin rush, I love getting the new gadget or item, and I love that new experience. At the end of the day I guess I’m a spender by nature.

Now you can’t blame me, as I remember walking in one day and seeing my dad (RIP) on his Macintosh computer buying my mom bras, go figure. He enjoyed finding that new item before anyone else and being a trailblazer. He didn’t always nail it. If I could tell you the number of obscure items laying around our house growing up, it would be mind-bending.

On Saving and Spending

Now, juxtapose this against the fact that I also saw my father get sick young at the height of his career, and the fact that he had done good planning was the single saving grace. This is a longwinded way of me saying that I’m also a huge saver. I have seen someone at the pinnacle of success have it all stripped away in an instant. This has been an enormous driving factor for me my entire life (apologies in advance as you are seemingly my therapist here). Heck, it has even been the driving factor to my career of choice, helping others achieve and protect their financial dreams.

Here is the next little secret I’ll share with you. The reason I feel great buying things large and small is that I save like crazy. I take advantage of every tax advantaged vehicle out there, I’m aggressive on my kids’ college savings accounts, and I sock away a boatload of money every year in my brokerage accounts. In a way, I have earned the right to spend guilt free. I know that I am way ahead of my savings goals and on a glide path to set myself, and my family, up really well for the future.

Michael Phelps

The analogy I would give is Michael Phelps, not that I am comparing myself in any way, shape, or form to the GOAT. The dude worked out relentlessly to become the greatest Olympian of all time. The other fun fact about him was that he would consume calories like nobody’s business. Here is what he ate at the height of his training:

Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches with cheese, lettuce, tomato, fried onions, and mayo; a five-egg omelet; a bowl of grits or oatmeal; three slices of French toast; three chocolate-chip pancakes; and two cups of coffee.

Lunch: One pound of pasta, two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo, and energy drinks.

Dinner: One pound of pasta, an entire pizza, and energy drinks.

If you are counting at home, that is 10,000 calories a day. If you or I ate that we would be grossly overweight and own lots of spandex. Michael Phelps, however, had a chiseled body and 0% body fat. The difference? He earned the right to eat that way, and more importantly he didn’t have one iota of regret scarfing down that entire pizza!

I use this simple principle to help me feel great about spending, and you can too. Save aggressively and often. Get with your financial advisor and have them model out what you need to save to achieve all your life goals, then do more than that. Set it and forget it, and adjust as your income increases over time. Once you do that, heck, spend whatever is left over and go nuts. Buy stupid things, fun things, silly things. I don’t really care. You will feel so incredibly good about spending, because you will feel so incredibly good about your savings.

Save to Spend

I even gamify it personally. If I can get to my next savings or investment threshold, I’ll reward myself with a fun purchase. It works. I’m telling you, it freaking works. If nothing else, remember: save to spend, and you will earn the right to spend guilt free. But be careful, because it doesn’t work in reverse. Those who spend and save whatever is left over are doomed not only to feel guilt about their spending, but to risk never achieving their life goals.

As always, stay wealthy, healthy, and happy.