Yesterday, a few coworkers and I were talking about Thanksgiving dinner. I’m going to what is being termed “Refugee Thanksgiving” – those of us stuck in town with no family, most of us government employees who have to work on Friday (since I was going to be in town, I volunteered so others could be with their families). It’s a good time – everyone brings a dish and people who were strangers before dinner are friends once the pie is consumed.
One co-worker commented that Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday because she and her husband splurge and get a take-out Thanksgiving dinner prepared by a local restaurant. It sounds incredibly fancy (and delicious), but also fairly expensive. She says that as soon as the holiday decorations start to appear, she starts to think about this meal. They only do it once a year and it’s one of her favorite splurges.
That got me to thinking. What is my favorite financial splurge? For me, it might be the few expensive races that I run every year. Sure, I could run cheaper races, but I enjoy the big expensive ones a whole lot. Why? The experience, the amenities, the shirts, the medals, that sort of thing. It’s unnecessary, but I love it, and I know it’s a splurge, but since it’s only a few times a year, it’s doable.
What about you? What’s your favorite financial splurge? Something unnecessary that you love?
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
