let’s say you get a free 1k (or 2k?) a month for the rest of your life. what would you mostly spend it on? and no, you’re not allowed to save/invest it. you have to actually spend it, without expecting any financial return on it.
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Can you donate it? (20 char)
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I would have said the highest subscription to Alaia Bay 
( roughly 900.- a month) but they replaced it with a one-shot 100 sessions package.
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I think there aren’t that many hobbies where I would spend 1/2k a month without it being super wasteful.
If I could spend it in small batches then travelling for sure. Doing it every month would be harder/less convenient.
If not maybe I would start racing karts or start my own woodworking shop or whatever. Would be easy to spend the money there 
Edit: I’d also donate quite a bit of it. Maybe all once/if I got bored.
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Restaurants with my wife
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I would spend it on things I am usually spending money on and save/invest money that I didn’t spend on things I am usually spending money on.
However if I would get one day per week free without any strings attached, I might start thinking what would I do with it.
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- Reducing my work hours (i.e. “buy more time”)
- Travel
- Motorcycling
In that approximate priority.
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I would buy time too by reducing my workload to a 60%. That time would be spent hiking and caring for my vineyard, which I can do for very low costs.
Then I would probably rent a space I could turn into a workshop and spend time there.
I’d probably gift some of it too, both to political parties and charities.
Then, if there’s anything left, I’d probably schedule some spa resort time to just relax while watching the mountains.
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1-2k per month would be a sizeable budget for a hobby. i’d probably do something like woodwork or electronics where there is no end to the tools you can buy.
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I’ll do more evening out with my wife while having someone to look at our son.
I’ll organise one long weekend a month away (like few italian cities that she loves).
I’ll also spend more on ealthy lunch break to save time and not prepare them.
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Mix of concerts, cinema tickets and massages, plus babysitters.
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Inflation adjusted I hope 
Are you kidding?
You can retire early on 2k.
Sure, hardly in Switzerland, but in other EU countries. 2k is more than the average wage in many EU countries.
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This is something you should think about doing long before you get the free 1k (or 2k?) a month.
I’d also add household help / cleaners into the mix.
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I would buy an old car and spend time learning how to work on it. It’s been a dream since I was a kid but can’t justify it right now!
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This is a useful exercise 
Reduce work to up to 60%, (working 3 days a week, don’t think I would like to go lower at the moment).
If this weren’t possible, I’d use it on
- groceries (all organic and anything that takes my fancy), could probably go from 300 to 5 or 600 per month that way…
- vacation/weekends
- bike
- donate what’s left over (probably quite a bit - one can only eat so much and a bike will last decades…, obviously vacations are a wild card but I’d probably think the money is better spent on donations than on a vacation upgrade)
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So now: What is your all’s take away from this thought exercise about values/categories you decide to spend less in than you might desire to? (Thank you @oslasho !)
For me:
- Reducing work hours: have done it and would be happy to do it again. To a more normal rythm compared to the 50-60 hours that are usual in my line of work. I’m quite happy working about 40-45 hours a week - such a difference!
- Groceries: you really got me thinking there. I might challenge myself to aim for higher spending on fruit and vegetables which is where price shock is getting me. Even a kilo a day at 10 CHF would “only” be 300 CHF a month which isn’t outrageous even if the stuff itself is obviously overpriced. I love great veggies and fruit plus they are healthy.
- Bike: I’ll stay with a basic bike, as biking is about transportation, sport and fresh air for me. Fancy pantsy is not worth the extra spend for me though I do have a weak spot for nice bikes
- Vacation: happy with my relatively low spend vacations at the moment, not opposed to spend more in the future.
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I would use it get a membership in a golf club. They are very expensive and only worth it if you play at least 4-5 times a week. What only (early) retirees are able to do. But with this kind of free money, why not
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Check if there’s a Migros Golfpark (https://www.golfparks.ch/) near you, annual membership fee is around 2’500 CHF
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My first challenge was thinking about where I could spend a dedicated stream of income as opposed to a one time big amount. Giving was my first idea, so as to use that income stream to make/keep the world as a place where I enjoy to live/want future human beings to enjoy too.
Aside from that, FIRE, for me, is all about buying time to enjoy the low cost activities I appreciate so jumping on the @dbu bandwagon and using the income stream to start reducing working hours before reaching full FIRE seems like a good idea. The alternative of hiring help/using more services to perform things I’m doing with my own time seems less appealing to me since I don’t have too much of a need for those aside from house cleaning.
Renting space instead of buying also allows for the use of an income stream rather than a lump sum, @ThriftySquirrel’s mention of woodworking did resonate with me and I’ve visited homes to buy recently with the idea of using one of the rooms as a workshop so this canshflow could be used for it.
And if I really, really had to throw money away instead of just buying more time, an enjoyable world to live in and more personal involvment in the activities I enjoy, I guess I’d want to do something to anchor myself and bubble myself out of the world’s sollicitations. Not being able to be reached in a spa resort, dedicating time for myself only without pressure would grant me that, so that’s what came to mind.
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