We are on a solid, disciplined path. Wife and I mid 30's, one child. Both working. Both 401k. Both Roth IRA maxed out. Accelerated pay down on 4.25% mortgage. No CC debt. One car owned outright, one leased. Pre-paying childs 4 year university. Have about 12-14 months liquid savings (emergency fund).
So I feel like I'm in a good position and frugal choices and sticking to a plan is starting to pay off and while we are by no means wealthy, or rich, we at least sleep comfortably and not living paycheck to paycheck.
But the problem is, well, we aren't having any fun. We rarely go out to eat. We go on 2 or 3 small trips a year and enjoy them, but sometimes I do avoid extra cost experiences and find our 3 trips cost what most other families single trip costs. I used to be pretty in to cars and always had a hobby car (sub $10K; always cash). Now, just my little paid off commuter (10 year old Toyota Corolla).
I'm not looking to get rid of frugal habits and go out and splurge on expensive dinners and $20K vacations, but I would like to loosen up a little and get a hobby car or treat my family to a restaurant more often.
At what point did you reach a comfort level where you were enjoying life and not letting being overly frugal dominate so many decisions? I keep thinking that even if I bought an inexpensive $5K hobby car, took my kid to car shows on weekends, etc., I'd be robbing that much that I could have paid down the mortgage even faster, or maybe I should have increased my 401k another 1 or 2%; or if I took my family to a $100 dinner, well, you know, $100 a month extra on the mortgage takes off 6 years and saves us $XX,XXX on interest.
Submitted January 16, 2017 at 10:20AM by theotherredmeat http://ift.tt/2jBIIs6
