I felt like this was important to share, I spend a lot of time reading this sub and see either people in far worse situations than myself or far better. I feel like every time I leave here though I feel like I'm not doing right by my money or my family and that every penny I have should be going towards something other than what I have.
My wife and I have a healthy savings and live in the country, so a very low COL situation. We contribute to our 401ks, we have zero debt, we try to do everything right and most of the time feel like we are. Every now and then we feel like we want to do something big with the money we have saved, an addition, a special trip, a new vehicle, etc, but we always talk ourselves out of it because we don't NEED it, we only WANT it.
The biggest one for me has always been wanting a pickup truck. I am pretty avid outdoorsman, I hunt, I hike, we spend almost every weekend up north, but until recently my job has always been in the cities and it just seemed stupid to throw money away on the gas mileage driving a pickup.
Within the last year I got to move to working from home, but even then getting a truck just was still a want, never a need. My FIL has a pickup, so if I need to have one I could ask to borrow his. My wife has a jeep so we can haul the recycling/medium sized things easily enough. I even got away with hauling my deer in it last year, much to her dismay.
With my 30th birthday around the corner I finally said enough and started shopping for a used truck. There was no point to drop $25-30k on a newer truck since I'd be keeping my car, but I was able to find a really nice one for under $10k and even tried to talk myself out of it about 15 times, but finally pulled the trigger.
It feels a bit reckless, a big luxurious, a bit unnecessary but it didn't break the bank and I love the heck out of it.
Long story short, don't feel hamstrung to only save, save, save. It's alright to let go a little bit and enjoy the fruits of your labor before you reach retirement!
Submitted October 26, 2018 at 03:11PM by NewEnglandAlways https://ift.tt/2qekl8f
