I read a lot about people who get so used to saving money they find it very difficult to spend it during retirement. This ends up with them not having money work for them in the best way possible and them dying with a lot of unspent money.
I guess this can be more difficult in retirement as you have the fear of running out of money whereas while you are working, there’s a constant stream of new money coming in.
Anyway, my new years resolution is to practice spending more money so that I get into the habit of spending. I’ve made progress so far:
Book bought online for 5 Fr. (I decided to try to default spend small items. Sure, I could also go to the library, but this is spending practice.
Digital product. 5Fr. same as above, but sometimes I have difficulty spending on digital stuff as it doesn’t seem real
Subscription. 220Fr. This was a late night spontaneous purchase, so made it easier. I normally never buy subscriptions, but made an exception.
GPU for AI exploration. 6500Fr. I find it hard to justify a large purchase when I can make do with GPUs I already have or rent them online. Let’s see if I manage to buy it this year.
Cinnamon roll. 8 Fr. Seriously, who pays 8 Fr for an unhealthy cinnamon roll?! This will be the ultimate litmus test!
I used to be in the same boat but have gotten better over the last few years. Listening to / reading the concepts laid out by likes of Morgan Housel, Ramit Sethi etc. contributed to my ‘loosening up’.
Seems like you are making good progress! You may also like the book ‘Art of Spending Money’ by Housel - it is a refreshing take on money - not about frugality or hustle, but about spending intentionally on what truly matters to you. Made me pause and rethink a few of my own choices. I bought a robo cleaner/mop as a present to ourselves this Christmas - something I had been deliberating on for far too long, but realised that a daily clean floor makes me happy
As why I’m planning to die with zero. Or at least not run out of money before 75-80
I changed my perspective last year. Started eating out more, meet more friends, playing more tennis, getting a motorcycle. This year I’m going to take 2 weeks of unpaid vacation to travel 7 weeks. Still saving a lot, but spending like 20k on things like that.
Yeah. 20k in the scheme of things is not a lot (when you are saving multiples of that), but can make a huge difference in how you enjoy life.
Maybe another trick is to look at how much you spend on other stuff. e.g. if you spend 2.5k on childcare each month, then maybe your holiday is 2 months of childcare. Not sure if that makes it easier or harder to spend the money
It really comes down to how much added value you get in the way of enjoyment. In many cases, a shift from frugality to non-frugality tends towards spending more without a major value-add.
But the marginal utility of a dollar saved also decreases.
There’s one concept that helped me: at some point in time, you will have earned the last dollar you will ever spend. Once you’ve reached that point, any additional savings or non-spending is just ‘unused money’.
I’ve probably already earned the last dollar I’ll every spend. At least if I continue along my current frugal spending habits. So now I need to practice spending to avoid the risk of failing to use all that I have worked for.
I think the point is that the risk isn’t failing to use all that you have worked for but not optimising the level of fulfillment you get from the work you’ve done (or you’re doing).
Dying with money on the side can be the lesser evil if the alternative is spending without gaining actual fulfillment/hapiness/whatever you are after or, worse, spending actually detrimental to that.
I do find useful to learn to give myself more leeway with spending, especially for the things I’d enjoy even if for a fleeting moment (make it that 8.- cinnamon roll if that’s something that strikes my fancy at that particular time) but I would not make it an actual goal to spend more without some quality metric added to it. I’d instead give myself a discretionary budget, see where it is at the end of each month/year and adjust my “don’t fret the little/big pleasures” dial accordingly.
What motorcycle? Getting a motorcycle is, hands down, one of the best things I did in the last 5 years! Enjoy it, stay safe! It’s almost always the case that when I leave the garage on my bike I breathe out a sigh of relief, something about it just lifts my spirits every.single.time!
Amen! Edit: there’s a meme in Greece, after “finfluencers” overdid it pushing that “skipping that EUR2.5 takeaway coffee and investing all in VWCE will make you a millionaire by 60”, now all people’s problems can be solved by skipping a coffee, apparently. Have the bloody Danish, have that coffee and cinnamon roll, but skip on throwing money away by better planning is my strategy.
Plummets, in fact, if you model compounding at 7%/year past 20 years.
Other than that, I’m somewhat weird, I guess. I can’t stand rampant consumerism - people who go from shop to shop like butterflies and feeling compelled to buy buy buy little crap 5 times a day (recently met one!) and at the same time I hate saving, only doing it out of fear. Spending freely on quality stuff gives me great pleasure, maybe my dad was right after all!
Yes. It’s important to buy stuff that’s actually useful, not just to have something for the sake of having a new shiny thing. Every physical object comes with downsides: space taken, maintenance, insurance, clutter, etc. so it better be useful to outweigh these downsides.
I have that “problem”. Actually I spend less every year, don’t know why. Maybe since I sold my 2 motorbikes.
But then my income depends on the stock market since 12 years. But last year I think I spent less than the dividends.
That is OK, because my target stocks value is still like 60% away. That is when I will pay back my mortgage.
I already did some changes, fly only business or first and order groceries online (I hate supermarkets). In Spain I eat at least twice a day in Restaurants.
But then I did fly only once this year and in Switzerland I don’t go out that often.
I see two possibilities: I die with millions or I get to spend it on caretaking when I am older.
My house is a problem too. It is in Kanton Zurich and they voted here a few years ago that I cannot replace my oil heater which is 20 years of age. But then my provider told me he has “replacement parts” for another 30 years…
I hardly drive my car (which is 22 years old), one tank of gas every 2 or 3 monts (what is around 1’000 km). So I’m not into electrification of my heating or my cars. Also after the zoning changes my house will be thrown down when I sell it, so I just want to live in peace without investments or construction some more years or even decades.
I hit CHF 1.5 mio net worth in 2025, yet I can’t seem to spend those francs (which is probably also one of the reasons I got there )
I’m content with books, music, some sports and video games, and have to provide for my family. Genuinely don’t care about anything too costly. Car is from 2018, house is cosy but standard, and I don’t see the point of aiming at anything more.
So it seems I will amass wealth to pass on to my kids, and that’s it.
I don’t have difficulty spending money. I buy anything I want for myself but I don’t want many things I guess.
I wish I had more free time though. I suppose I could reduce my work to e.g. 80% and in a way “spend” the money I would have earned if worked 100% BUT this seems too expensive
I sometimes look at my Excel and take pleasure in how much I have saved this year.
Isn’t that a form of consumption?
It makes the times I do spend much nicer, e.g., last year spent a lot on my hobby and flew 100% business class first time on vacation and opted for nicer hotels.
It anyway is the little things that get you, each time going out isn’t too much, but just saw this dude’s Sankey and he was like at 5-6k a year on going out. It just adds up.
Spending more does not automatically lead to more happiness.
Financial freedom just means that you don’t have to worry about money, not that you have to spend it. I wouldn’t worry too much about that, but maybe I’m still too young to understand that
What a great topic As already mentioned, Morgan Housel and “The Art of spending Money” are a great read, personally i also “struggle” a bit with spending, however, for me it is not only from the perspective “Should I? Is it useful?” but also “Do I feel like missing out on something?” If thats a no and as long as you are self-aware about spending habits, everything is fine, but if it gets to a level where you feel really uncomfortable about spending, it might be going too far.
I remember reading about you paying people to drive you. This is a very valuable way of spending: supporting someone while spending a bit of time with them (during the ride) while consuming a service.
Philanthropy (gifting without expecting anything in return) might be the next step. Helps for happiness but might be considered wasteful by members of this community.
Some friends of my parents did this years ago, realised/calculated that taking a tax everywhere was ending up to be cheaper than owning a car, and much less hassle.
For low mileage a taxi is always cheaper. But it may get cheaper for anything once driverless cars enter big scale. I never bought a car >20k, but checking now it is more like 100k. They are crazy, it is just a vehicle to transport you from A to B. And if once they start to charge the external costs it will become even more expensive.
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Book bought online for 5 Fr. (I decided to try to default spend small items. Sure, I could also go to the library, but this is spending practice.
GPU for AI exploration. 6500Fr. I find it hard to justify a large purchase when I can make do with GPUs I already have or rent them online. Let’s see if I manage to buy it this year.
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