Today, the golf trophy that I won for placing 2nd on my flight was shipped to me. I was so excited because I have never won anything other than getting certificates and ribbons before so it made me really happy to say the least. My credit card balance, my next paycheck, the stock market tumbling today all did not matter. Being a person that always thinking about money – how to save more, how to earn more, how to accumulate more, this prompted the question “does always thinking about money really make me happy?”
The answer to this question is probably pretty complicated. On the one hand, it stresses me out unnecessarily. I’m certainly not worried about survival since I have a good paying job and have very little expenses so far, creating a sizable positive cash flow every month. If I project my savings rate and investment performance, I will be way ahead of my goal. However, because it seems like I’m very far from my retirement goal (as I’m still young and I just started accumulating wealth), I try to save as much as I can, as early as I can just in case. I’m probably a little too frugal because I’m stressing myself out when I don’t need to be.
On the other hand, my expenses in the future will only go up as I buy a house and start a family. Hopefully, my income will also grow but I shouldn’t count on it growing faster than the rate that my expense will increase. This means that I cannot just project the same savings that I do now; I should plan for the future and start to save as much as I can. There’s no such thing as saving too much right?
Some might think that this is a good problem to have but sometimes having too many choices is not the best for a person’s mind! This will probably be a question that I will ponder again and again through the years. In the meantime, I will be content with my first trophy ever.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Thinking about greenbacks doesn’t always make someone happy at the moment, but… later the benefits of having planned will bring about happiness.
Have a good weekend, David.
Modern Worker: Thanks for the encouragement.
I guess it’s a battle between long and short term
If thinking about your money is a good hobby for you then fine. There have been many studies that people that but index funds and forget about the market do better in the long run than most people that try to play the market.
But everyone thinks they are smarter than Wall Street though!
Haha, I just wrote a blog about this.
Carl: I’m starting to buy more and more index funds so at least I’m slowly offloading the maintenance required on my investments!
wamylove:
I guess great minds think alike???
“Thinking” can be a strange thing. If you’ve made a solid financial plan and stick to it, the constant “thinking” is inefficient, the plan will take care of itself. Of course your financial plan will change over time, but worry about that when that time comes.
ThirtyAndBroke: Interesting comment. Not thinking about it after having a plan requires you to have complete confidence in that the plan and all the assumptions will be exactly as assumed though.
I’m worried right now because I don’t think my assumptions will necessary be good enough (like average of 8-10% investment return for example).
why did your stock tumble today?
the whole market was up?
Living Off Dividends: I’m not sure what you are talking about since my stocks/funds are doing quite well recently
“There’s no such thing as saving too much right?”
Absolutely right, but if you’re earning a good income you can afford to chill out and relax a bit more.
After all no-one sits on their death bed and says to themself “I wish I’d saved up more money”.
“More money you have, more complicated problem you have”. That was my analysis for my country (Indonesia). Because I see, that they just like that. The rich people more rich, and the poor people more poor, and the markets more expensive. Sometimes, the rich people play game at poor people, and treat them as a slave.
Why rich people always become rich while poor people always become poor ? The answer is because rich people don’t care about poor people.
I have a dream, if I become rich, I will help the poor and make them not become poor again. Actually, I’m already have some plan to do that, but…. don’t have money to start.
Or, if rich peoples in the world care about poor peoples in the world, the rich should help the poor, at least give them a proper job, then your life will be meaningful, and you can make the poor become happy.