The question to get your morning rolling today is, What tricks help you from spending money?
I was talking with a friend who is super frugal except when it comes to traveling. It seems that he spends virtually all his extra money on traveling either to new countries or to visit friends. I asked him how he could justify spending so much money on travel when he hardly spends any money on anything else. His answer:
Before I make any big purchase, I ask myself “Is this something that I will remember on my death bed?” If it is, then I purchase it and if it isn’t, then I don’t
While a little too extreme for me to follow, I do think it’s a brilliant way to get down to the core of what you want to spend money on and what you don’t. I have always managed to do this by delaying purchases I want to make – if I want something, I wait a week and if I still want it at that point, I know that it’s worthwhile purchasing it. I’m sure that there are dozens of tricks that people use to keep them from spending more than they should. What are some of yours?
Please share your own experiences on this topic as a wide variety of views and thoughts are helpful to everyone. If there is one thing that I have learned about personal finances from all of you is that there are always exceptions to the rule and differing circumstances can mean completely different solutions. If you have a blog and you have written about this topic in the past, feel free to link to your writing (although a short summary would be helpful). If you have recently read a good article on this topic, please links and share in the comments.
Jeffrey strain is a freelance author, his work has appeared at The Street.com and seekingalpha.com. In addition to having authored thousands of articles, Jeffrey is a former resident of Japan, former owner of Savingadvice.com and a professional digital nomad.
Comments