Everybody's finances are different, and that makes it difficult to come up with a universal answer to "Can I afford this?"
A while back (during my high school years), I was visiting a friend who's dad was quite well off, and I was talking to him about my dilemma of using my savings to buy tickets to an EDM festival. That's when he dropped a huge knowledge bomb I've been using to this day.
Don't every use your existing money to buy something you want. If you decide that you want to purchase an item (especially if its a nice-to-have, not a necessity), go out there and make the money you need to get it. That way, you have the item you have without decreasing your wealth.
Now, I am nowhere in the realm of financially wealthy, but psychologically, this concept did two things for me: 1) the effort required to save up for the things I wanted made them that more special when I bought them, and 2) the time it took to make the money to buy certain things I wanted made me realize that a LOT of the things I wanted were just compulsive purchases. I'm a guy who's prone to overspending, and this allowed me to be more mindful of my purchasing habits.
This post came about because I was thinking of buying a gaming PC, and now I'm going to make the money I need to get it :)
Hope this helps!
Submitted August 10, 2017 at 07:05PM by mysticpiggy http://ift.tt/2wN4tLt
