Practice spending the money

Photo by Joey Nicotra on Unsplash

One of the challenges of being a diligent saver and long-term investor is that those responsible habits that help you accumulate wealth can often prevent you from enjoying it.

Or put another way, it’s hard to suddenly decide one day that you have “enough” and then reverse course from saving to spending. Like anything, it takes time and practice, so the sooner you get started, the better.

Being responsible about money should enable you to spend freely on what really matters to you.

Maybe it’s a new range for your kitchen, maybe it’s a speciality machine that measures the swingweight of your tennis rackets (probably not!), or maybe it’s something so specific to one of your hobbies that you’re reluctant to even say it out loud because no one will understand.

The point is not “what” it is. The point is that it’s something you specifically value. And if you’ve taken the time to do the research, to hem and haw endlessly over all the pluses and minuses, and you still find yourself returning to it, it’s probably a good sign that it’s worth the investment.

So by all means, continue to be a diligent saver and long-term investor, but just don’t forget to practice spending on the things you really care about. Because if you don’t start doing it now, chances are you’ll never get around to doing it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some tennis rackets to measure…