I come across many posts here discussing how to improve finances in order to be able to get out of financial problems or generally save or invest better for the future (broad generalization, but you get my point).
My issue is very much the opposite. I'm really good with money. Including all the basics, from rent to bills to food to outings (SO or friends) and basic transportation needs, I spend around ~45% of my income. Generally, this is a result of my great /r/frugal skills, only spending money on necessities and finding joy at doing cheap activities.
But let's say, hypothetically, that I start working more often from home and think to myself "oh let me buy myself a new laptop." Initially, I'd think: "Oh I can buy that awesome Surface Pro I've been drooling over!" But then that excitement becomes extensive research as I stop being able to justify the price and turns into "Wait, this laptop costing 20% of the surface, while doesn't do as much, should be (barely) good enough for the work.. and really, how slow can the computer run doing x, y and z?" (answer: quite slow)
Typing this post, I kind of started to figure out that the problem seems to result due to the lack of budgeting. I do not have a budget and all my budgeting attempts have failed. So, my measure of financial well-being has become "Oh, noice! I got extra $$ in my savings account!" and spending always attached with "Wait, what if I'm going over budget? I definitely should stop buying more things this month."
My question to you is, how should this be approached? How can one move from a "save a lot" mentality to well-balanced budgeting?
p.s. I'm not in the US, so while I've learned so much about maxing 401K and other things, those don't apply to me. Think of me as a "young adult" with basic expenses: rent, bills and food. I look into learning about investing eventually, but now I'm looking at how to conduct a life-style change first before investment.
Submitted October 07, 2017 at 10:06AM by RiseOfBooty http://ift.tt/2xp4t99
