It's strange; the other day I went shopping with a friend and though I saw some nice cashmere sweaters on sale, I talked myself out of buying them. And yet, a few days ago I contributed $1000 to my Roth IRA and also put $5000 into my brokerage account to purchase some mutual funds. That's $6000! It's not exactly pocket change (well, for me it's a huge sum).
Why is it I would hesitate so much on $100 worth of clothing but not think twice about putting $100 into an IRA? Either way, the money is out of my hands and spent, but I think with investments, I am pretty confident that money (and hopefully with added interest)will still be there for me to use at a later time. It's just money put on hold while a sweater is money gone bye-bye into the hands of Macys or whatever store. That money is gone. Poof.
While it's very noble of me to have a good sense of investing for the future, what I am slowly becoming more aware of is the negative impact it has on my spending for the Present. In one instance, I recall hesitating to buy toilet paper, of all things!, even though I needed it, because it wasn't on sale. Yes, call me a Stingy Scrooge because in that situation, I was being a Miser to the extreme.
Investing is great but sometimes you have to spend money for the present. There's basic living needs that simply must be met! Otherwise, it's like I'm thinking too much for the future and not living in the Present.
My mind is on investing
January 25th, 2007 at 02:25 pm
January 25th, 2007 at 03:23 pm 1169738600
January 25th, 2007 at 03:30 pm 1169739056
I would think of it more as "give me what i want now" versus "getting more, later."
There's always a balancing act between living reasonably well now and not saving so much for the future that it feels like actual deprivation. Everyone has their own personal tolerance levels.
I like to scrimp and be a scrooge on all sorts of everyday expenses, becus most of that stuff is meaningless and used up, so to speak, so i don't mind buying generic. I'd rather save my money, if not for longer term goals like retirement, then for special, well-thought out purchases that will last me for years, like a good quality piece of furniture that is truly needed.