Buy Stuff or Do Stuff?

Filed in archive Happiness on June 8, 2006

I love this post from Stacy at Birds & Bills.

I'm going to expand on these thoughts a little bit more in a future post, but one of the key decisions we make with our money is how we're going to spend it. We can do any number of things--save for a house, save for retirement, travel, buy a boat, go to concerts, go to the theater, go to casinos, blow it all on whatever happens to come our way.

But everyone has their own desires, and no one should take any personal finance expert's advice as 100% right for them. And no one should worry about what other people think of their spending habits. I'm not advocating willy-nilly spending, but no one knows what is good for you as well as you do.

Like Stacy, I'm not hugely into material things. I don't necessarily want stuff, especially expensive stuff. I want money for freedom--the freedom from day-to-day money stress and eventually the ability to retire and pursue whatever I feel like doing, without thinking of the cost or the tax implications.

And for the money I do spend, it often goes to fleeting pleasures but ones that mean something to me--whether that is traveling, seeing live music, or just having dinner & drinks with friends. I can't bring any of those things home with me to plunk down in the living room, but they're worth the cost in memories or in the feeling of being happy with my life.

A lot of the frugal personal financial advice I see in PF blogs is built around cutting back, how you can live for a month on beans & rice for 75 cents. That's fine if it motivates you and it gets you to a distinct goal in your future. But what if you don't want much in your future? What if you're fine living cheaply, spending on the small pleasures, and don't see a need to have $2 million socked away by the time you retire?

It's your life. Be smart with your money, but try to be happy with it, too.