Everyone knows the classics. Only use cash (eh). Wait 30 days before making a purchase to see if the impulse wears off. Track your expenses. Save X% of your paycheque. But what are some more interesting ones?
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Super untraditional ones:
- Know that impulse buying is always an emotional transaction and has little to do with the target object itself. Get acquainted with your desires, meditate on them and go down the rabbit hole and trace them back to their roots.
- Learn to love boredom and wean off chasing the next shiny object. Boredom is actually good for you.
- Don’t buy into the grand idea of chasing. "You got to know what you want in life, they say. “Chase after your dreams,” they say. “Climb that ladder and get to the top,” they say. But it’s perfectly fine feeling contented with what you have and not wanting anything in particular. It’s OK to enjoy this moment and appreciate what you already have. The more you practice contentment and gratitude, the smaller the void you need to fill with external objects.
Boredom is one that I’m trying hard to embrace, because I became so aware of it after I did my “buy no new clothes” year. I’m all too aware that I have this cycle where I buy something thinking it’ll “stick”, tire of it, and then spend way too much time selling it since it’s often in near-new condition. At this point the difficulty is trying to differentiate between what’s an impulse buy and what I’ll keep for a long time. I have some things that I’ve had for close to 10 years, but at time of purchase I don’t know how I would have figured out whether I would get bored or whether it was a “keeper”. It’s a double edged sword because “only buy something when you need it” doesn’t work for clothes, because you’ll buy something you don’t truly like just because you need it asap and then you’ll hate it a few months later.
Interesting video, but I’d also be interested to know more about how people actually implement that. “Be content with what you have” is a good principle, but hard to practice if you don’t build that skill.
One thing that’s been working well for me is to have a separate “fun money” account that you can spend to absolute 0 if you want
Here is a good one. Consider affiliated costs. Say you buy a printer. The printer needs ink and paper. Research maintenance and operating costs.
Consider unconventional alternatives. You don’t need an air compressor for a car tire. Bike tires operate at higher pressures than car tires. A nice $25 bike pump with a built-in pressure gauge will surprise you at well it works on car tires.
You don’t need to buy a pickup for a boat trailer if you only use it a few times a year. Compare rental to purchase costs of big ticket items. Even if you use them more than most, renting is likely cheaper.
That’s actually really interesting, I like it. I’m trying to brainstorm areas where I’ve neglected to consider associated costs. Probably cooking for me? I have a strong tendency to get culinary inspiration and drop way more cash than I intended on all the things I didn’t realize I would need.
Divide your savings up. Having a single lump savings doesn’t account for all the things you need to save for. If you have $1000 in general savings and you have to fix a car, it leaves you no money for that birthday coming up that you need to get a gift for, and suddenly you’re in the red. Have a separate bucket for car savings and birthday/holiday savings, and you could have a separate bucket for vacation and investments and home repairs. Even a little bit each month builds over time
Use a application to track your budgeting. Last year we started using YNAB and it changed how we look at money. When you install the app on your phone you’ll see every transaction you make and all the categories that are “overspent”. It’s also a great tool of you and your partner have two separate bank accounts, because it can track both.
This would be number one for me.
Don’t worry too much about categorising everything neatly or tips and techniques or even method. Pick one and just do it.
Track your expenses. Consistently. You can’t make decisions if you can’t see what’s happening.
I’ll add my own, which I can’t take credit for but do use:
Make a guilt list. Every time you get rid of something that you regretted buying, put it on a list along with the amount that you spent on it. Before you buy something, look at that list. It will fill you with enough dread that you’ll think twice.
Use the 4% rule for safe withdrawal (which is WAY oversimplified) before buying something in 2 ways. One is taking the price and multiplying it by 4 times how many times a year you are going to make the purchase to see how much you would have to save for investments to fund said thing for life. E.g. an annual subscription for 100 dollars requires 2500 to maintain that if you wanted to find it for life with investments. The other is how much income it is costing you for life. E.g. 100 dollars is 4 dollars per year for life. The 4% rule accounts for inflation.
Another is consider the opportunity cost. What is your higher interest rate debt and how long are you holding that debt? Do you have any tax shelters you aren’t using that you could use instead of buying the thing. If it costs $1000, and you have a tax shelter (e.g. an HSA, 401, etc) that saves you way 25%, it is costing you 1250 (250 in taxes) + investment return. If you have something like a US 401k with matching that you aren’t using, you are leaving even more money on the table. You are paying taxes on it, foregoing investment income AND not getting the match. So 1000 dollars in a matched 401k would allow you to invest 1000+tax savings+matching, which would be over 2000.
EDIT: Investment income is exponential growth, so play around with the SEC calculator over the span of different times and rates of return. That thing you want is WAY more expensive than the price tag.
The best thing I’ve ever done is make a chart in excel comparing a few different strategies of retiring early. The end date of all of the plans is much longer than I wanted it to be at my then savings rate.
I stopped buying stuff I didn’t need. Slowed down my research phase of things I did need. Learned some higher standards for things I need/want.
I also was bad about hopping hobbies every few months. That was tough to break.
After some time it broke the cycle of wanting the new thing because it was new. And once you don’t buy things you don’t need, saving is easy. Not sexy but easy.
