I was talking to a person today who was expressing how he spent so much time working and all that he kind of regrets not doing more things like travelling when he was younger. With that he was expressing how with money in general you could always just earn more whereas your time and ability to experience specific things can simply disappear if you wait too long. Therefore he was suggesting to me that if I ever have the chance to do things that I had the money for now that I should just do it.
This is always an interesting topic when it comes to financial management as that sounds so anti long-term thinking when it comes to things like your retirement or say anticipating for the future such a when you have a family. So where is the balance between actually trying to save money for your future versus experience things before it is too late?
The only real thing I can think of for myself is I often want to experience things with the best value if I am pretty certain that an opportunity to do it will come multiple times. For example, if I only wanted to visit another country in a general way hen I would wait for a very good deal. If it is some kind of one-time event that is taking place that I really wanted to do then I would consider just splurging.
I think the real danger financially is when people do these kinds of things for the wrong reason such a trying to impress others. For example, people saying you should go to a certain place even if you don’t want to where you then go into debt for it. I do agree with the general notion though that even for people good with money if all you do is just save it then it kind of defeats the purpose in many ways. I always view savings as more as a safety nest as opposed to something you must do just for the sake of it. In that sense I can see how at times you should do the things you want now if you have the money.