I never really enjoyed the vehicles I owned. They weren’t impressive, including a Volkswagen Beetle, Mercury Capri, Toyota SR5 pickup, Toyota Camry, and Ford Fusion. I’d like to say they got me where I needed to go, but that wasn’t always the case. All cars except the Camry were unreliable which would make my life stressful and difficult at times. Of course, keeping those cars for years didn’t help.
When I think about it, I didn’t really like the houses I lived in either. They include small apartments, without many of the standard conveniences you’d expect when renting or buying a home.
Some of my apartments were nothing short of awful. In 1979 I rented a studio apartment in an alley above a garage. The apartment was badly insulated. It would get so cold in the winter, it felt like the North Pole, and it would get so hot in the summer, it felt like Death Valley. It was so small that a friend who came to visit asked if the place had a bathroom.
It was not the safest place to live. A drug dealer lived in the apartment next door, my car was broken into more than once, and one day someone stole my clothes from the laundry room. I stayed there for six years and endured all the discomfort and problems that surrounded me.
The small 789-square-foot condominium that I purchased in 1985 was an upgrade, but it wasn’t a place you’d want to stay for 35 years, and that’s what I did. A young lady, about my age when I first moved into that studio apartment above the garage, bought my flat earlier this year. Her real estate agent told me this was just a starter home for her and she would probably be moving in five years. When I moved into my current home, I realized all the comforts I had missed in that tiny apartment during those years.
I made a lot of money working for a large aerospace company, so I didn’t have to live like that. But I chose it – because I wanted to save money. Looking at my investment portfolio now, I have more money than I need for a comfortable and secure retirement. In fact, I probably saved too much.
You might ask, ‘Can anyone save too much money? Is there such a phenomenon in personal finance? ” I think so.
When it comes to saving for retirement, you need to strike a balance between forgoing smaller rewards today for larger rewards later. But you don’t want to delay gratification so much that you make life more difficult than it should be. And that’s what I did to collect the big pile of money I’ll probably never need. Some of this money would have been better spent in my earlier years.
After I retired, I hired a low-cost financial advisor to manage my investments. Hiring that financial advisor got me thinking about my relationship with money.
One day we exceeded my annual budget. I could see he was urging me to spend more. He asked me if I wanted to buy a new car.
“I don’t think so,” I said.
He jokingly replied, “How about a boat?”
“No, I don’t fish.” I interrupted him. “I should tell you I’m getting married.”
“Congratulations, you could certainly afford to buy her a nice ring,” said my adviser. “Why don’t we add that to your budget for this year?”
Since then, I’ve added quite a few extra items to my annual budget.
The result: I try to live more in the moment, to enjoy life more. You shouldn’t always think about your future self because it won’t help you save money if you don’t want to spend it.
This column originally appeared on Humble Dollar and has been republished with permission.
Dennis Friedman retired from Boeing Satellite Systems after a 30-year career in manufacturing. He calls himself a ‘modest investor’ and enjoys reading historical novels and personal finance. His previous articles have included Live It Up, Don’t Delay and Try Not to Slip. Follow Dennis on Twitter @DMFrie.