If I had a million dollars . . .

[Andre1969]

Originally Posted by bongo2

I have enough money and enough sense now that I realize that if I had a million dollars I wouldn't do or buy anything that I wouldn't right now. Despite this, I still find myself thinking / saying, "if I had a million dollars I'd. . ." The most recent one was "If I had a million dollars I'd buy one of those high-def TiVos." Does everyone else do this too? Has anyone come up with a better phrase than "if I had a million dollars" to express this sort of thinking?

I have a habit of doing the same thing sometimes. Maybe not a million dollars, but I'll tend to set financial goals and think that I might do such-and-such once I achieve them. But then, once I cross that financial threshold, nothing really changes. I'm still just the same person I always was.

I moved back in late 2003, but didn't get my condo on the market until late 2004. Before I started renovations on it, I remember calculating that I might actually clear $35-40,000 on it. That was about the time the Chrysler 300/300C came out, and I was thinking that I might "reward" myself by buying one once the condo sold. Well, once it was said and done, I walked away with about $76,000 from selling that condo (by the time the mortage, 2nd mortgage, rennovation costs, etc were factored in). So I could've easily blown my money on that 300C and had about $40K left over. But I didn't....just went ahead and invested all of the profits.

Basically, if I want something bad enough, I'll probably buy it when I really want to, rather than waiting for some financial goal to "reward" myself.

[semtex]

DW and I will ER sooner definitely. Maybe save us 8 to 9 years.

[CyclingInvestor]

Originally Posted by Eyerishgold

I just tell myself I'll wait until I'm FI to buy whatever item I'm looking at. I imagine myself 17 yrs from now buying anything I want because I was smart and made some sacrifices when I was young.

Good for you. I retired last year at 48 after a lifetime of hard-wired LBYM, and
now can buy pretty much anything I want. My wants tend to be small - a new mp3
player, camera, $300 bicycle, printer, dvd drive, Starbucks whenever I want, etc -
but I never have to think about the cost anymore. It was definitely worth it.