Overcoming my resistance to spend

[Alex in Virginia]

Overcoming Alex in Virginia's Resistance to Spend - Post #1

I am starting this thread to monitor my progress on a plan to overcome my resistance to spend, and to benefit from the support that you all may give me as I go along. I am setting up the thread, as you can see above, with a personal subthread headline. I am hoping that, by using such subthread headlines, other forum members wishing to do so can use this thread to set up and track their own plans to overcome spending resistance.

To get the background on this issue, you can browse through the thread "Why do I resist spending?".

In a nutshell, I have an annual surplus of $25,000 that I have a very hard time spending, even though I have many experiences I want to have and places I want to go. Using all the great ideas put forth by forum members in the thread "Why do I resist spending?", I will be detailing out what I am going to do to get myself to spend a major part of that annual surplus to go where I want to go and do what I want to do.

Next post: my framework for surplus spending. (Go to post #3 in the queue.)

 

[frank]

I don't undestand why resistance to spending is a bad thing, unless taken to the extreme. I have a resistance to spending money in that I want to live below my income.

 

[Alex in Virginia]

Overcoming Alex in Virginia's Resistance to Spend - Post #2

In a nutshell, I have an annual surplus of $25,000 that I have a very hard time spending, even though I have many experiences I want to have and places I want to go. Using all the great ideas put forth by forum members in the thread "Why do I resist spending?", I will be detailing out what I am going to do to get myself to spend a major part of that annual surplus to go where I want to go and do what I want to do.

So, here's my framework for surplus spending:

1. Overall, I will think of this as a 65-to-75-years old plan starting in 2013 for the "go-go" retirement years (leaving future decisions about spending open)

2. Commit one-at-a-time to spending "projects", and plan nothing more than 1-year out (so I won't feel that I've gotten in too deep).

3. Plan to annually spend $15K of the $25K (I've made a deal with myself so as to give myself permission to spend the $15K). Then see.

4. Make it happen using lists. (I am a big-time mbo and lists guy.)


And here are the "specifics" of what I want to do with 2013's $15,000:

-- "tithe" 10% to nonprofits of my choice

-- do 3 week-long national park trips

-- do 6 2-day civil war battlefield tour-and-hike trips

-- relocate to a Central Fla snowbird rental for the winter

-- start and maintain a blog about my travel experiences


Next post: January committals and plans

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Answer to Frank: For a full discussion, you might want to go through the thread "Why do I resist spending?" and repost your comments there

 

[Bestwifeever]

....you might want to go through the thread "Why do I resist spending?" and repost your comments there

You must not be familiar with this board's charming capacity for thread drift and threadjacking--a comment related to your OP is not out of line.

But that was a good question.

 

[pb4uski]

I retired a little over a year ago and I understand your reluctance to spend. The newness and uncertainty makes it uncomfortable - but I'll admit that the good investment returns during 2012 made it easier.

I think your approach to plan/budget certain spending will help.

One thing I do is I have savings and checking accounts at our local credit union that I use to pay our bills and a separate online savings account that has my liquidity funds (~ a year of living expenses that I replenish annually when I rebalance). I have a my taxable investment dividends/capital gain distributions and a monthly automatic draw from the online savings account deposited to the local credit union account and in my mind, any excess funds after the bills are paid in the local credit union accounts can be spent at will. So if the local credit union account starts building up beyond what I need to pay bills, I start to think about the next splurge (be it new furniture, a vacation, or whatever). DW usually has a long list in her head so splurging is not a "problem".

 

[Sarah in SC]

You must not be familiar with this board's charming capacity for thread drift and threadjacking--a comment related to your OP is not out of line.

But that was a good question.

Look...an eagle!

 

[Midpack]

I guess I could post this in your earlier thread, though I don't know if you posted there after your OP.

I've got an annual retirement income surplus of $25,000 AFTER taking into account every expense and every contingency I can think of.

You may well have indeed accounted for every expense and contingency, but does that include unexpected or unusual expenses? Substantial expenses that aren't annual like replacing cars, boats, RVs, furniture, appliances, PCs, TVs & other consumer electronics, home renovation/updates (like a roof, HVAC, etc.), vacation (above and beyond).

There are various ways to budget, we show these expenses as they occur but track them apart from most of the typical budget expense categories because they are so infrequent. Without being extravagant at all, on average we expect to spend right at $10K/yr for unusual expenses.

Another is LTC, which can be considerable.

Again, maybe you've got it covered, but when I read other folks detailed budgets, some don't seem to include the inevitable major expenses that may only occur every 5, 10, 15 or 20 years. For us at least, they're significant...and so worth planning for.

 

[Alan]

....you might want to go through the thread "Why do I resist spending?" and repost your comments there

I'm sorry but I'm too busy working out ways to spend my money to do this

 

[redduck]

A few years ago a friend of mine picked up an eagle feather from the ground while he was hiking. A couple of days later he had federal agents at his door asking why he was in possession of an eagle feather. They were seriously talking about prosecuting him.

Look...an eagle!

Sarah, watch out. If that eagle drops a feather and you put that feather in your hair and someone turns you in...well maybe you've got problems.

Is this an example of hijacking a thread?

 

[Midpack]

look...an eagle!

...Squirrel!!!

 

[NW-Bound]

And here are the "specifics" of what I want to do with 2013's $15,000:

-- "tithe" 10% to nonprofits of my choice

-- do 3 week-long national park trips

-- do 6 2-day civil war battlefield tour-and-hike trips

-- relocate to a Central Fla snowbird rental for the winter

-- start and maintain a blog about my travel experiences

So, after the donation, you still have $13,500 to spend. I do not know about the specifics, but that amount should be plenty to cover your travel. About the snowbird rental, you'd better hurry up, or the winter is over. Or are you talking about next winter?

 

[veremchuka]

Now THIS is thread hijack!

and this is too!

 

[Alex in Virginia]

Overcoming Alex in Virginia's Resistance to Spend - Post #3

And here are the "specifics" of what I want to do with 2013's $15,000:

-- "tithe" 10% to nonprofits of my choice

-- do 3 week-long national park trips

-- do 6 2-day civil war battlefield tour-and-hike trips

-- relocate to a Central Fla snowbird rental for the winter

-- start and maintain a blog about my travel experiences

I'm off to a good start for January. I'm booked to do a 2-day tour of the Wilderness battlefield west of Fredericksburg later this week. And I've selected the first nonprofit to send a donation to. (There will be 5 total.)

Both items are kind of low-hanging fruit, but it's getting me started.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Answer to Midpack: Thanks for bringing up what I call "accrual expenses." Yes, I've got them covered. The LTC insurance, too.

Answer to NW-Bound: Next winter. I'm just going to have to shovel snow and wear my icewalkers this time around.

 

[Lazarus]

Resistance to spend! A problem only this board could have.

 

[Dreamer]

Overcoming Alex in Virginia's Resistance to Spend - Post #3




I'm off to a good start for January. I'm booked to do a 2-day tour of the Wilderness battlefield west of Fredericksburg later this week. And I've selected the first nonprofit to send a donation to. (There will be 5 total.)

Both items are kind of low-hanging fruit, but it's getting me started.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Answer to Midpack: Thanks for bringing up what I call "accrual expenses." Yes, I've got them covered. The LTC insurance, too.

Answer to NW-Bound: Next winter. I'm just going to have to shovel snow and wear my icewalkers this time around.

Good start. I would be interested in reading your travel blog. I hope that you post a link to it here.

 

[Midpack]

Answer to Midpack: Thanks for bringing up what I call "accrual expenses." Yes, I've got them covered. The LTC insurance, too.

Excellent. And they're called "accrual" expenses in our budget too, small world - GMTA.

 

[Alex in Virginia]

Overcoming Alex in Virginia's Resistance to Spend - Post #4


I have resistance to spend in small ways, too. Like staying away from the costlier offerings in a restaurant menu. And I want to work on that as well.

A good case in point is my Scotch brand selection. My favorite is Chivas Regal, but I haven't bought a bottle in decades due to my perception of its too-high price. I didn't go "rot gut" on this, but have settled for years on a single-malt 10-year old Speyburn that I enjoy at half the Chivas price.

But why, pray tell, do I deprive myself of the Chivas when it takes me at least a full month to go through a fifth of Scotch

Well, I'm changing that as a little test of my efforts to spend my money on myself "because I'm worth it." So the Chivas is on the shopping list for my next errands day.

I'll let you know when (if?) I really buy it.

 

[NW-Bound]

I am not really a whisky drinker (despite having 2 or 3 bottles of Scotch in my cabinet), but of course know of Chivas Regal.

But which bottle of Chivas do you refer to, this inquiring mind likes to know? The 12-yr old at $30, the 18-yr at $60, the 21-yr at $200, or the 25-yr at $326?

The above prices were taken off the 1st Web site that showed up on my Google search. I wonder what happens between the age of 18 and 21 that causes the price to shoot up. And then, look at the price of the fully matured full-bodied 25 year old!

 

[dmdunca44]

While I think I'm pretty frugal, I can spend at times. DH, however, has been a saver all his life. He has it in his head that it is a "bad" thing to spend friviously or to even take a withdrawal from the retirement accounts.

I tell him, "That was the whole point of saving all those years. You want to scrimp and leave it all to my kids?" (He doesn't have any children).

Right now, we are planning to take an international trip in the fall. The flight will be a total of 33 hours between two long flights and a long layover. I am seriously considering spending the money to fly business class. We can afford it. But he would have a cow if he knew how much it cost. And I'm having a hard time justifying the expense. Even though we can easily afford it.

 

[Gill]

With your investment approach, it might be a good idea to accumulate some of that in a reserve for when those high yielding securities go down the tubes.
Bruce

 

[Alex in Virginia]

Overcoming Alex in Virginia's Resistance to Spend - Post #5

So, here's my framework for surplus spending:

...3. I plan to annually spend $15K of my annual $25K surplus income (I've made a deal with myself so as to give myself permission to spend the $15K). Then see.

And here are the "specifics" of what I want to do with 2013's $15,000:

-- "tithe" 10% to nonprofits of my choice ($1500)
........ donation #1 done: $250 to Institute for Justice

-- do 3 week-long national park trips

-- do 6 2-day civil war battlefield tour-and-hike trips
........ CW trip #1 done: Battle of the Wilderness (VA) Jan. 10 - 11

-- relocate to a Central Fla snowbird rental for the winter

-- start and maintain a blog about my travel experiences

I've actually gotten myself started spending some money! I took advantage of a break in the weather and did a 2-day tour-and-hike trip to the Battle of the Wilderness battlefield, near Fredericksburg, VA. And I did buy that bottle of Chivas Regal I was talking about (NW-Bound: the $30 one).

Currently, I'm starting to plan for a late April one-week auto tour of the Blue Ridge Parkway and various national & state parks along the way.

I'll update as I progress.

Cheers!

Alex in Virginia

 

[haha]

You are not easily deterred.

 

[imoldernu]

Am reminded of a reminder of one who remembered MMND after reading one of my posts...


Will follow your adventures, Alex.

 

[Alex in Virginia]

Overcoming Alex in Virginia's Resistance to Spend - Post #6

Hello, All!

I'm starting to get some momentum on my spend-for-fun plan.

I just completed my second Civil War battlefield trip, which I've logged below. In my original planning, I had not expected to even do the first trip until Spring. But by taking advantage of breaks in the winter weather, I've already done 2 of those trips. So I am going to be probably adding more trips to my spend-for-fun plan.

I'm also adding -- now, see below-- a "biggie" (for me): I am going to have the already-capped cargo bed of my Dodge Dakota pickup truck converted for camping trips. It'll be like having a hard-shell tent on a truck (bunk, storage, work counter, camp cooking arrangement, etc). I'm pretty excited about getting this done because my plan is to use the final product to do lots of park camping trips in Florida from the snowbird rental base I expect to have come next winter (as well as summer camping trips in Virginia).

I'm budgeting $3000 to do the conversion, and taking the money from the $50,000 "spend for fun" stash I've managed to build up over time by not doing the spending.


Originally Posted by Alex in Virginia

(From post #3 in this thread)

So, here's my framework for surplus spending:

...3. I plan to annually spend $15K of my annual $25K surplus income (I've made a deal with myself so as to give myself permission to spend the $15K). Then see.

And here are the "specifics" of what I want to do with 2013's $15,000 (updated Feb. 6):

-- "tithe" 10% to nonprofits of my choice ($1500)
........ donation #1 done: $250 to Institute for Justice

-- do 3 week-long national park trips

-- do 6 2-day civil war battlefield tour-and-hike trips
........ CW trip #1 done: Battle of the Wilderness (VA) Jan. 10 - 11
........ CW trip #2 done: Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse (VA) Feb. 04-05

-- relocate to a Central Fla snowbird rental for the winter

-- convert my pickup truck's cargo bed into a "hard-shell" camping tent

-- start and maintain a blog about my travel experiences

I'll keep things updated as they happen.

Cheers!

Alex in Virginia

 

[frank]

i'll be interested to see how the dakota pickup bed camper works out for you. Don't forget to update on that. do you use it? do you enjoy it or is it more trouble than its worth?