Treat Yourself and Night Guy

 

Treat Yourself

There is a classic scene from Parks and Rec where the characters Danna and Tom once a year spend a day treating themselves. They buy clothes, fragrances, massages, mimosas and fine leather goods. It's the best day of the year for them. We all love to treat ourselves from time to time, which is actually good and healthy, but sometimes we like to treat ourselves all year long with food delivery, clothes, and expensive drinks. We want a life of luxury, all the time, which costs a lot of money. Money is to be enjoyed and we never know how much time we have, but there is a trade off each time we spurge. We could be costing ourselves more money than we realize.

Night Guy Vs Morning Guy

There is a classic scene from Seinfeld where Jerry does some stand up about how he has some much less discipline at night time which ends up always affecting or kicking himself in the morning. This is a great analogy to us in our youth vs older age. We want to have fun, live in the moment, and not think about tomorrow. But eventually we become our future selves and our "Night Guy" has made it that much hard for old "Morning Guy".

Earning and Spending

Every time you earn money through a paycheck, side gig or selling something on Facebook Marketplace, you are increasing your net worth and your wealth. Anytime you spend any money you are taking away an opportunity to save money and thus decreasing your net worth. Not only that, but by spending you lose the opportunity to invest which could see your money grow exponentially. For example, say you spend $1000 today you would be denying yourself $2000 in ten years. $1000 gained might not seem like much, but doubling your money works for any value, $10,000 to $20,000, $100,000 to $200,000, 1,000,000 to 2,000,000. So when you spend money you deny your net worth but also a wealth building opportunity as your money can be a powerful wealth building too.     

Rule of 72

You might ask why does money double every ten years and it's not a hard and fast rule but very much a generalization. There is a Rule of 72 in finance that says if you take 72 and divide it by the interest you are earning it will give you the years it will take to double your money. For example, your account earns 4 percent, divide 72 by 4 to get the number of years it will take for your money to double. In this case, 18 years. 

Balanced Spending

Obsessing over saving and spending can turn unhealthy so it is good to keep a balanced lifestyle and Treat Yourself from time to time. Cutting loose will help you appreciate the fruits of your labor and enjoy life. We are not meant to live in a box doing nothing, saving every penny, although it would be technically the fastest way to retirement. Balance is important in all things but we should be aware when we treat our current self too much we fail to treat our future self and like it or not, we will become our "Night Guy" future self. 

If you found this helpful and would like help budgeting or investing please email me at TaylorMckeeCoaching@gmail.com