At what point do you stop being a tighta$$ ?

[exstatic]

I was reading Rob's thread earlier ( http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51135 ) and it made me think.. at what point to you stop being frugal and start to enjoy your wealth?

We are obviously all eagerly buying up IPs and other investments to make a better life for ourselves in the future, but when does the future come?

What is your tipping point, when do you start to stop delaying the self gratification!?

 

[Rixter]

How do you know when?...well when you reach your destination you set out to reach.
Im guessing by you asking that question you may have not set out with or still dont have a precise destination in mind - rather a wishy washy one. Am I correct?

Theres a saying I picked up from a $millionaire years ago that goes like this: If you dont know where you are heading how will you ever know when you have arrived??

Its all about goal setting.

Food for thought.

 

[LynnH]

As per my signature, Rick!

Cheers
LynnH

 

[Rob Williams]

I bought an egg and bacon roll for breakfast this morning (it's usually cereal at home for brekky) AND a coffee. The local cafe near work does a $6 combo deal.
So, I think I've officially broken the tightar$e drought!

 

[Rixter]

As per my signature, Rick!

Cheers
LynnH

As all fine signatures are Lynn.

 

[exstatic]

Im guessing by you asking that question you may have not set out with or still dont have a precise destination in mind - rather a wishy washy one. Am I correct?

I guess the questions wasn't really related to my own personal views - more a general questions as to whether or not everyone had an end goal, i.e; the mention of the tipping point and where people saw thier tipping points.

I have a destination, as well as a number of stages along the way that I have set out, I beleive in rewarding yourself along the journey to keep you motivated and allow you to taste that end goal.

I guess its a bit like someone dangling a carrot in front of you and letting you take out bites of it every now and then.

 

[wylie]

Brendan, I also believe life is about the journey, like many here. We have quite a fuzzy goal, to have enough that we will not rely on the pension EVER.

We have been frugal in the early years of our marriage because we had no choice. We always had an investment house to keep us short term poor, but long term wealthy.

For quite a number of years now, we have found a good balance between "licking the marshmallow" as we travel along our journey. I cannot imagine we will ever splash the cash about, because it is not our style, but I cannot imagine living without ever having a taste of what you fancy along the way.

It would be like trying to get through the week without chocolate .

As long as the dollars are ticking along nicely, I reckon we can spend the cents.

 

[Rixter]

I bought an egg and bacon roll for breakfast this morning (it's usually cereal at home for brekky) AND a coffee. The local cafe near work does a $6 combo deal.
So, I think I've officially broken the tightar$e drought!

Must be that local Scottish cafe - The Golden Arches!

 

[rugrat]

I think there is something to be said for being 'always' frugal in some area's, and allowing yourself a lifestyle that you are comfortable with in others.

I don't think I could ever bring myself to 'waste' money just for the sake of spending it - but I still allow myself and my family certain luxuries. Such as holidays, new funiture (just spent $3500 on a new lounge, and I must admit to being near apoletic while spending that much - but I had saved up my cash specifically for that purpose), movie nights, social events, etc.

We are still able to afford a good lifestyle and save money because I am very careful about where the money goes. If DH bought lunch at work everyday (like many of his collegues) that is about $50 a week that could be spent elsewhere. Instead he takes a tin of baked beans and a sandwich, or leftovers from dinner the night before - much healthier for him and much healthier for our budget.

When we have more then enough money to ever worry about running out, I am sure I will still be a bit of a tightwad about certain things. But then I guess growing up as an elder child of six children, living in housing commission and remembering eating pancakes, and scones for days on end because the only food in house was flour and eggs, has an impact upon a person. I remember my dad working 18hr days and my mum crying when because she had no money and no food to feed us. So I don't like waste.

 

[want2bewealthy]

Hey that's my quote Rix! ..
Unless somebody already came up with it earlier..

How do you know when?...well when you reach your destination you set out to reach.
Im guessing by you asking that question you may have not set out with or still dont have a precise destination in mind - rather a wishy washy one. Am I correct?

Theres a saying I picked up from a $millionaire years ago that goes like this: If you dont know where you are heading how will you ever know when you have arrived??

Its all about goal setting.

Food for thought.

 

[steveadl]

Never been a tight ar$e, if anything I'm often too eager to spend - don't shop around etc, if there's something we want, I buy it. Simple as that.

Don't want to come off too harsh, but to me there's nothing more pathetic than wealthy people who penny pinch and whine about every $1 here and there. See so much of this day to day. Be damned if I'll ever become one of them.

 

[quoll]

at what point to you stop being frugal and start to enjoy your wealth?

As always it depends ....

When we where younger and buying our first PPOR we didn't buy Beer or Wine or Eat out, very frugal living. Currently our budget includes $1000 of wine each year, business lunches (me and wife), carton of beer per week, seafood in the freezer, quality food. The wife enjoys bargain shopping so she will most often buy clothes and household items when on sale.

Lashed out and upgraded the cars last year, went from 98 Fairmont to 2008 Mazda 3, but one of our companies leases it so fits in with that budget. The Mazda 2 is leased by my IT contracting company. So everything fits within a budget it's just that there is money available to have a bit more now than there was 10 years ago.

I think you need to work out your budgets and see what fits in with how much you have to spend and what gets left out or missed.

Regards
Graeme

 

[Xenia]

You stop being a tight **** when you honestly believe that money is abundant and in your own ability to create it.

 

[HealthyWealthy]

You stop being a tight **** when you honestly believe that money is abundant and in your own ability to create it.

Xenia, so I guess the 80% of the world's population that lives on less than $10 per day just doesn't believe hard enough.

http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

Otherwise, its just a silly platitude...

 

[Xenia]

I suspected that Brendan was refering to people who have chosen a path to wealth creation through property investment and not trying to address world poverty issues.

 

[gooram]

at what point to you stop being frugal and start to enjoy your wealth?

My advice would be, if you have wealth to enjoy, start TODAY. Life is way too short to wait to start living it.

Given the choice of curbing my investment habits or curbing my spending habits, I would choose my investing habits every time.

I think people that wait will continue to wait no matter how much wealth they accululate. Many wealthy people are wealthy BECAUSE they are frugal, at what point would you change if that was your mentality?

 

[HandyAndy888]

For me, PI has got me out of being a tight ****...it's the reason why I do it...so in essence, although I haven't cashed in my assets, it has created some financial freedom....

 

[Rob Williams]

You stop being a tight **** when you honestly believe that money is abundant and in your own ability to create it.

I think my problem (at least one of them) is that I don't really know what to spend my money on. Over time, as I've gained greater "wealth" and improved my "wealth mindset", my priorities have changed.
My goal list once included exotic sports cars and other "stuff".
Now I have great confidence in my ability to create wealth and the "stuff" no longer seems important. Exotic sports car is no longer on the goal list, even though I could afford one.
Maybe I'm just going through a transition phase.
I still enjoy all the things I've always enjoyed. Good company, a nice coffee and chat at Cibo and shopping in Melbourne. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything, yet people still perceive me as a tight ***.
I'm happy and that's enough, for now.

 

[sparky23]

So who is perceiving you as a tight **** and how do you know they are?

 

[Rob Williams]

So who is perceiving you as a tight **** and how do you know they are?

By and large, it's people whose opinion has little value to me.
The one's that are difficult are my kids (one in particular) who seems to think I should be buying her a car, for example. She doesn't understand the concept that saving and doing it herself is a valuable life experience. I'd rob her of that if I just bought her a car.