Unhealthy Frugality Disease

[Julie Marquez]

Blame it on the holidays, consumerism season, or the purchase of my latest rehab project, but I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with spending money. I have this unhealthy relationship with healthy money management. It probably stems from the fact that my real estate investor parents are very frugal, and I grew up sorting our garbage into burnables and non-burnables, saving everything, and never spending money unless it were heavily discounted or a tremendous value (hello all you can eat buffets). Then I found mint.com about five years ago and started diligently tracking my personal spending habits. This tool is a great resource to budget and save, and it helped me to save up for a new car and then buy an investment property.

But what isn't cool is my determination to save all my money, and this little internal goal of mine to spend as little money as possible. Having the idea that I have to save everything puts me in a lot of despair at times; like when I had to shell out $100 for a (worthless) doctor appointment and $100 for a flat tire.

I'm not even a poor person. I make enough money from my job to save about $2000 a month; but I have created this mentality that if I'm not saving $2000 or more, then I'm losing money. But this terrible disease about NOT spending money ruins me when I HAVE to spend a little money. Some say it's just the cost of life. I say that I need to change my mentality so I don't get all crotchety when the fact of the matter arises.

So there's my broken, little, money heart on the line. I need a new view on my money and to understand it's power and joy, and to not get so hurt about parting with it. Do any other real estate investors suffer from unhealthy frugality and how to I transform my relationship with spending money? Thanks friends!

[Account Closed]

People put way too much emphasis on money. Just because its easy to count doesnt mean its the only way to track your life. What is far far more valuable and non renewable is time. To me money is a way to get better experience with my time. I have a certain number of days on the planet. Money allow me to spend them more in the way I want to and less in the way I dont. Thats it. If I buy a nice house to live in, my time is more enjoyable than if I am homeless. If I drive a BMW, my time in the car is more fun than in a Honda. If I travel, its experiences that enrich my life. If I help people, it gives me satisfaction of doing some good. If I didnt spend the money, I would have none of that and would have wasted my time. Which is far more terrifying to me than losing money.