Developing a taste for luxury in retirement

[WestLake]

After living so many years frugally (with some splurges) I find that I now (having paid everything off but still w*rking) can afford some luxuries. I have to admit I enjoy them. I'm still maxing out the 401K and Roth.

I'm worried I'll want these even more when I have more time to enjoy them in retirement.

What has been your experience?

 

[Meadbh]

I think the biggest luxury you will enjoy in retirement is time and it's free because you've earned it.

 

[Loving Life]

"I'm worried I'll want these even more when I have more time to enjoy them in retirement. "

Once you taste the finer things of life, you can never, I mean never go back - so you better learn how to pay for them -

 

[Meadbh]

Once you taste the finer things of life, you can never, I mean never go back - so you better learn how to pay for them -

I'm not sure I agree entirely. When I was a high earner I spent more on material luxuries than I do now, e.g the club floor at hotels, eating out, clothes, entertainment, and "stuff". These things are now less important to me and I am more selective about how I spend my money.

 

[LARS]

Certainly "stuff" has gotten less important to me over the years especially has I've aged. The " luxuries" that are important now relate to making life easier: paying for services for things I no longer want to be bothered with or money spent for increased "comfort" or decreasing the "hassle" factor.

 

[MRG]

Depends what you mean, I still love sushi, but I don't eat it every week now.

We still love to shoot our 1911s, but I'll never spend 5k on one again.

There's a very high end restaurant on a lake close to home. The owner no longer greets us by name.

I'd rather not be at Megacorp living in insanity. That's luxury.

There's no right or wrong only choices.

MRG

 

[LOL!]

Once you have the gold cutlery and silverware, the leather furniture, the Rolexes, the antique Maserati, then you don't need to buy them every year. That is, your luxury items should last essentially forever, so you won't need to spend money on them in retirement.

And if you meant vacations and eating out in nice restaurants, then you should have no problems funding those in retirement as that's not really expensive.

 

[W2R]

After living so many years frugally (with some splurges) I find that I now (having paid everything off but still w*rking) can afford some luxuries. I have to admit I enjoy them. I'm still maxing out the 401K and Roth.

I'm worried I'll want these even more when I have more time to enjoy them in retirement.

What has been your experience?

I wondered about this too, though during almost 4 years of retirement it hasn't been too problematic (yet). I have been enjoying lots of little luxuries and feel suitably pampered. The majority of luxuries that appeal to me now seem to be smaller and less expensive than I feared. Something cheap like a soap dish that I was reluctant to buy before, is likely to make me feel like the Queen of Sheba. I look at more expensive things like Rolexes, BMW's, and expensive handbags, and find that when the possibility of buying something like that becomes real, they are not what I actually happen to want. It's all an illusion.

I think probably the scariest possibility in this regard would be for those who have "the travel bug" and suddenly have all the time in the world for travel. I haven't had this desire but if that is the case for you, then heaven help you! Maybe there are some less expensive trips that you might enjoy.

What has been more of a surprise to me in retirement than the budgetary effect of indulging in luxuries, has been the amount I have had to spend on medical, dental, and eyeglasses. I guess the older we get, the more this costs.

 

[Animorph]

As long as you can afford it, go for it. That's why you're w*rking.

 

[LoneAspen]

I can definitely relate. My parents were very frugal, but it didn't rub off on me. In fact, I think it drove me in the opposite direction. I've always had expensive tastes, just never the ability to acquire those kinds of things.

For example, watches. I like a nice watch, but I've never owned one, or been able to afford one. Once I (hopefully) get to cash out of the company I'm at, and leave, one of the first things I'll probably do is reward myself with something I've had my eye on for years...a nice IWC Portuguese. I don't need several nice watches, but I do want just one, and I'm going to buy one with no regrets.

I think rewarding yourself with small (small being relative to your overall financial picture, of course) luxury items is fine. As long as they don't compromise your ability to stay FI.

As much as I want some nice touches in life, be it watches, cars, houses, etc, I will NOT allow such things to interfere with my FI, or having to go back to work to pay for such things. I'd rather do without because the FI and freedom is more important to me.

So if you have the ability, and it won't compromise your FI, I say go for it. Reward yourself and enjoy it! You only live once.

 

[MooreBonds]

I think probably the scariest possibility in this regard would be for those who have "the travel bug" and suddenly have all the time in the world for travel. I haven't had this desire but if that is the case for you, then heaven help you! Maybe there are some less expensive trips that you might enjoy.

Travel is my biggest "concern" - I'm a fantastic deal shopper, and know how to squeeze those pennies into nickels, but when retired, I'll definitely want to do a ton of traveling...and whomever my wife is at that time, probably won't want to cut as many corners as I would (like staying in nice hostels/farm stays, etc.). So for now, just padding the stash a bit more so I'd rather have the problem of figuring out how to spend that extra income on trips rather than not having enough for our wanderlust and adventure.

 

[inky]

Travel is my biggest "concern" - I'm a fantastic deal shopper, and know how to squeeze those pennies into nickels, but when retired, I'll definitely want to do a ton of traveling...and whomever my wife is at that time, probably won't want to cut as many corners as I would (like staying in nice hostels/farm stays, etc.). So for now, just padding the stash a bit more so I'd rather have the problem of figuring out how to spend that extra income on trips rather than not having enough for our wanderlust and adventure.

Travel is my biggest concern too. I've never been too interested in accumulating things, but I have the travel bug bigtime. It will be the largest item by far in my discretionary budget after retirement.

I've always been a frugal LBYM traveler, but my desire for comfort has definitely increased as I've gotten older. In my 20s I was happy to stay in dorms in hostels, but now I always stay in a private room in a hostel or guesthouse, preferably with private bath.

Private rooms are still a bargain in many parts of the world like southeast Asia, but if I want to spend more time in Europe I think I'll have to look into housesitting or other less expensive alternatives. I'm also considering stints teaching English to cover my room and board. Another option is building up a career as a travel writer or blogger to defray costs.

 

[braumeister]

We've always been fairly frugal, and there isn't much change now. The only difference since retiring has been that we tend to stay in somewhat nicer hotels (still far from the luxury category). We don't fly much, but business class makes such a difference on long trips that it seems worth it now.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We aren't retired but have more time since DH left megacorp. Our expenses have gone down a huge amount because we have gotten interested in simple and sustainable living. We have also had more time to comparison shop and do more things for ourselves.

I get a lot of books from the library on sustainable living. We cut our energy bills by over half just with simple actions like weather stripping, LED bulbs, and going around the house with a Kill A Watt. We swapped out the land line for Ooma. We found out the library has free passes for many of the local tourist attractions. We stopped a collecting hobby that was costing a lot and bringing in clutter. We use Entertainment coupons for half price meals out a few times a week. We see movies at the early bird matinee. When we were both working more we didn't have time to research any of these things.

It has been kind of wild how many expenses we were able to cut and not really miss. We actually get out and do a lot more now for less money. We invited some former coworkers to join us an event at a park and they kept asking how I found out about it because it was so much fun and didn't cost anything. The only reason I knew about it was that I had time to look for free events like that on the Internet.

We are sorry we didn't take the time to do all this years ago, especially the energy bills. That was like throwing money out the window. Our latest energy bill was only about 25% of what it was a few years ago.

 

[Midpack]

We've always been LBYM, but as another here who used to covet and indulge in the "finer things in life" more often when we were younger, we mostly grew out of that many years ago. We truly believe "the best things in life aren't things" and "the richer your friends, the more it will cost you" among other adages. We still indulge ourselves from time to time, but far less often and less conspicuously, and find we actually enjoy those occasions more now that they are less frequent - makes them feel special instead of routine/expected. We enjoy our decluttered life more if anything, and we find we treasure having the means to do what we want, more than anything.

That said, we've been tempted more often in the past few years watching our nest egg steadily increase, but we resist those urges because I am sure they'll (quickly) subside with the next market downturn...inevitable.

 

[Koolau]

My dad had an expression which has stuck with me (and which I used to use on the kids). "You can have ANYTHING you want. You just can't have EVERYTHING you want." I have found this to be very true. The "trick" (which my kids could never understand) was that implied in the saying is that you are willing to sacrifice to get the few things you are passionate about. For us in ER, it was the ocean view in Hawaii (but we have ALL used furniture, used cars, fly coach, drink water when we go out, etc. etc.) The kids could never understand why we didn't buy sodas with our burgers and fries or add desserts at the "nice" places. We tried to explain that we were making choices that gave us the most pleasure. Naturally, YMMV.

 

[Major Tom]

Once you taste the finer things of life, you can never, I mean never go back - so you better learn how to pay for them -

It depends what you mean by "the finer things in life". For me, the finest things are not dining out, travel (though I would like to) or any kind of material good (other than comfortable accommodation and food). No - for me, the finest thing is being able to wake up in the morning knowing that I can do anything I want, each and every day. That is the finest thing. My idea of heaven is a whole month (or even more) with no social commitments, other than with my SO. The feeling of all that free time lying in front of me is wonderfully liberating.

I have never placed a very high value on the things that money can buy, above and beyond the basics. Having shelter, food, an internet connection, 3 cats, and plenty of time are fantastic luxuries which I am very happy to have.

Oh - and being able to come up with $75 to pay a bicycle tech to install a new rear wheel on my bike a couple of weeks ago felt pretty luxurious! I probably spend about $100/yr maintaining my bike, which is my main mode of transport, and it's a bargain.

 

[travelover]

In retrospect, a lot of the money that I spend preretirement on "luxuries" was a salve for my harried, overworked, overstressed, under slept soul.

 

[FrugalMcDougal]

In retrospect, a lot of the money that I spend preretirement on "luxuries" was a salve for my harried, overworked, overstressed, under slept soul.

Amen! Couldn't have said this better myself! The closer I get to retirement actually becoming reality, the less I care about "things". My luxuries these days are memories, and they can be very inexpensively made.

 

[Lucantes]

Even though I can afford them, many of the things that are highlighted as "the finer things in life" (in reference to strictly material consumption goods (wines, flashy watches, flashy cars etc.)) have just never really appealed to me all that much. I basically have a peasant's palate I think and for that I actually am very thankful as otherwise I am sure I would have spent significantly more money than I should have for things that I really didn't need over the years when I was trying to accumulate wealth so that I could hopefully achieve FIRE. Getting to the point where I can finally retire will be the second finest thing in life I will need, after my wife of course!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Our focus these days is getting rid of things. As many things as we won't rally miss. We don't want to take care of a big yard and house filled with stuff that takes up space, and requires cleaning and maintenance. That is all time not spent at the beach, parks or bike riding.

 

[chris2008]

I find that I enjoy extraordinary things more if they are and remain exceptions of my normal life.
Like a meal at a very good restaurant: if it comes frequently the fun wears off.
IMO the main reason for lifestyle inflation.

 

[Walt34]

We've become much more selective about acquiring any more stuff since we have plenty already and are (slowly) working on getting rid of it.

Thankfully neither of us are travel bugs but we do like day trips or occasional short overnight stays.

I do have a weakness for photography and motorcycle gear and have to constantly steel myself to look away from ads for such. Logically, reasonably, rationally, I know that a new lens, flash, light modifier, tripod or camera isn't really going to improve my photos all that much. But they sure look neat.

We did have the luxury of free time for a spur-of-the-moment lunch meetup with some friends in PA yesterday. And that's more important that just about anything else I can think of.

 

[Andre1969]

I think I'm experiencing a little "hedonistic creep", or whatever they call it as I get older. For instance, I finally got an iPhone 4S about five weeks ago. I was happy, for the most part, with the ancient Motorola flip phone I had been using, except that its screen was getting hard to read, it had a little dead-spot on the display, and the silver keypad was hard to read. I could've just gone with another cheap phone, but now that I've made the leap to a smart phone, I don't want to go back.

I've seen it in other stuff too, like television sets, electronics, cars and so on. And one day, I'd like to have a house with more than one bathroom!

I don't know if any of this is really wanting the finer things though, or simply the baseline is creeping upward. Once upon a time, even a basic cell phone, or power windows in a car, or air conditioning in a house...or indoor plumbing for that matter was a luxury! But, now it's all pretty much expected.

I have started liking nicer clothes, I'm finding. But that's often because they're a better, more flattering fit, a more tasteful cut or design, and tend to last longer.

 

[Badger]

It's only been a year for us and although we have the means to splurge more without negatively impacting our savings I still don't have an interest in acquiring more things or spending more money. It's been a little frustrating trying to loosen up. Heck I even look for BOGO coupons before we go out to eat. What I really want is to be able to be as active as I was a couple of years before all the surgeries. That's not going to happen. I would really like to buy one of the new Indian motorcycles (and can easily afford it) but I already have a couple of nice motorcycles and just don't see the point of spending the money just because I can. It's frustrating to now have the money and not need to be so frugal. Other than the inability to be more physically active I'm pretty content with my lifestyle.

Cheers!

Cheers!