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Connie and I were discussing a purchase. “That’s expensive,” she said. I finally said, “I don’t care what they cost.” A moment of silence. “What happened to you that you don’t care what something cost?” she said. I thought a moment and then said, “I’m old.”
Actually that’s true. Within reason, I no longer care. I don’t look at prices in the supermarket- but I do load digital coupons on my phone. It’s also true I am old.
I don’t care about the cost when a grandchild has a fundraiser and asks for help. I don’t look at restaurant menu prices, I look at the food, I just don’t care anymore. I don’t drive around looking to save $0.06 a gallon on gasoline. The good news is my 4 cylinder car gets over 40 MPG on the highway.
I even rationalize that my spending may be helping someone who needs the money more than I do.
It’s not being frivolous or careless with money, it is being old. Getting old changes your view on many things I am finding. It’s recognizing there is no longer a point to agonizing over a few dollars here or there. If you want to agonize, save it for the major things we face getting old. For example, most of the dates Connie and I have are in a doctors office.
Talk about the time value of money – or is it the money value of time these days?
AND, before a comment reminds me, I do know that being able to not care about even minor spending is a luxury for many people.
Once you meet all your obligations and you are old, just don’t care about spending if there is no need to do so – and appreciate that fact.
About that purchase I mentioned; a can of chocolate covered cherries and a can of chocolate covered pecans ordered from a tiny nut shop in Virginia.
That’s a great attitude. You worked hard, invested, now enjoy yourself. My cousin just died at 55 years old of cancer. I’m 52, still work, but I’m set for the future, and will not be caring. I went to breakfast yesterday with a friend and spent $46. On the way home, I went to Trader Joe’s and bought groceries: $34. The sheer volume of food I bought would last a week. It’s absurd to be sure, but I had a great time with my buddy chatting and catching up. $46/hour was cheap entertainment.
I think frugality is in my DNA; can one even change that? I use the Gas Buddy app to determine the best price. Two years ago we drove from SW Missouri to Breckenridge, CO using Gas Buddy and Costco apps to help plan our trip. Is that a sickness?
I guess that depends on how far out of the way you went to get cheaper gas🤑
I’m getting there – – – asymptotically approaching it, at least. Simultaneously considering a new car and a new bike.
Also, I know I need to plan for a new computer. My current device runs Windows 10 and cannot run Windows 11. By the time Microsoft ceases to support Windows 10, I need to upgrade.
I’m an adherent to the “Die With Zero” philosophy. ”This approach aims to balance financial security with living life to the fullest, advocating for strategic spending rather than excessive saving.”
It is my understanding that one of the things that may drive us is a concern that we will outlive our savings. I can honestly say that was a motivator for me.
Now, with a horizon of perhaps 20 years for my spouse and a much shorter one for myself, I can say that I no longer am concerned about that. “Living life to the fullest” was always a balance of time management, living and spending, while saving for a future. Today I can spend more freely. With that freedom I find certain financial decisions to be much easier.
As one of my favorite podcasters likes to say ” Money unspent is a life unlived”.
I am in a somewhat unique situation but I doubt I could ever follow that approach. Just the stress of timing when you have no control is enough to dissuade me.
But also, I would be concerned about survivor security and my goal is to leave as much as possible to our four children. In fact, that is my most important financial goal.
My children are in stable careers and in fact were much better off at 30 and later at 40 than I was at their ages. So, I see no need to assist them. We do, however see some charitable opportunities and will likely gift from our traditional IRAs rather than pay taxes to a largely inept and somewhat corrupt government.
Congrats on reaching this point. BTW I don’t think you’ll ever truly not care just that your materiality threshold is in the $100s or more probably.
I think people who have always been “good with money” don’t suddenly change. To do so would make them a soft touch for scammers and gougers and, senility permitting, I suspect they still have half an eye on their responsibility to heirs.
I think you are probably right. The true reality of not caring likely has a relatively low limit.
Sounds like you love to nosh, Dick. Maybe those little tasty tidbits are what fuels your rants….just couldn’t resist. Enjoy your treats.
I’m more savory than sweet – perhaps you’ve noticed 😃 I could eat a box of saltines, in favor of a cookie. Dark chocolate does have an occasional appeal though especially when coating a pecan.
“Once you meet all your obligations and you are old, just don’t care about spending if there is no need to do so – and appreciate that fact.”
I agree. When we were saving for retirement any unexpected expense would light my anxiety gene up as I would worry about how it might affect our future retirement nest egg.
Now that we are “young” retirees (66/67) and we have “enough” ie I know where we stand, and I am fine spending larger amounts of money for projects around the house, and travel.
This change in demeanor is due to four factors: 1) We have enough, 2) before we retired we visited a fee only financial advisor to plan out the major expenses, such as adding AC last year; and top coating our driveway before the small, but enlarging cracks create a need to rip the entire driveway out and redo, 3) we have an income plan regarding where our income will come from, including a plan on when to claim Social Security, 4) quarterly I calculate our portfolio value, and net worth to make sure we are in good shape financially.
Now that being said my change in attitude towards spending at this point in my life was quite a shock to my wife and various in laws due to my past frugal behavior, but as I tell them, “I was frugal during my working years so I didn’t have to be in retirement.”
We also have those four factors that allow us to be financially comfortable and content.
That being said, only being three months into retirement growing accustomed to financial outgo instead of financial income takes some getting used to
Hey LH,
Beginning to withdraw from your retirement accounts can be a little daunting, especially if you know about the risk of sequence of returns. For years I had wondered when one can be reasonably certain that they have gotten past that risk.
I posted the following recently and you can use the following information as a guide:
I’m glad to report the results are in!
After reading an article by Jeff Ptak on 1/24/25 on the Morningstar website I posed this same question to him as well.
Well on Wednesday this article appeared:
https://www.morningstar.com/retirement/how-avoid-outliving-your-retirement-savings-its-all-sequence?utm_source=eloqua&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningDigest&utm_content=None_61700&utm_id=31953
Morningstar’s researchers determined the following:
The study started with assuming an all-equity portfolio, with a 3.1% starting spending rate for retirees making fixed real withdrawals each year from an investment portfolio (assuming a 90% probability of having funds remaining at the end of an assumed 30-year retirement period).
There was a far higher risk of exhausting retirement savings when returns were poor in the first five years.
If you made it through the first five years of retirement with investment gains, there was only about a 1 in 25 chance you’d subsequently deplete your savings before reaching the end of retirement, assuming you stuck with the system of fixed real withdrawals. Even after one year of retirement, a gain cut your risk of failure in half.
If losses occurred at any point in those first five years, the risk of failure shrank to about 1% by year 10 of retirement.
Why would anyone want to deal with that, worry about it instead of assuring basic expenses are covered by an annuity of some type?
I’m a bit younger than you, but I have noticed myself gravitating in that direction. I inspect credit card purchases for accuracy and/or fraud, but not to scrutinize spending. It’s a good feeling.
I’m grateful for our current lifestyle, not everyone is so fortunate.
A can of chocolate covered cherries and pecans sound great and I wouldn’t care what they cost either. I hope they were delicious!