\n<\/p>\n
E<\/span>very month my sister sends me angry abuse over WhatsApp<\/em> \u2013\u00a0although happily it\u2019s not directed at me:<\/p>\n \u201cLook at these idiots! Their stupid smug faces. What will they do in there every night? Binge watch GoggleBox while<\/em> drinking cans of Stella in the fifth bedroom and then get lost looking for the third bathroom.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Strong stuff, considering the object of her ire is invariably just whatever average-looking couple won this month\u2019s dream property in the Omaze<\/em> house lottery.<\/p>\n But my sister isn\u2019t a misanthrope. Having a mock moan about the lucky winners is part of a ritual for her.<\/p>\n Cathartic I suppose. Maybe it\u2019s partly what she pays Omaze \u00a310 a month for.<\/p>\n After a year of these texts I took the bait and signed up to the same raffle myself.<\/p>\n Not to grump, mind you. I don\u2019t need any excuses for that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Why then?<\/p>\n I suspect it was to give myself permission to daydream as materialistically as any Kardashian, albeit only for 15 minutes rather than for half-a-dozen TV series.<\/p>\n Omaze\u2019s \u00a33-5m properties are not so much out of my league as from another sport: one of those bling-y affairs with \u2018World Series\u2019 in the title.<\/p>\n And truthfully, even if I did have the money to buy an Omaze property for myself \u2013 so a net worth of \u00a310m or more, by my reckoning \u2013\u00a0I don\u2019t think I would.<\/p>\n There\u2019s the running costs, the alienation of my friends. I\u2019d rather have more investing money to play with<\/a>.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s more likely that a cute Kardashian with a crush is going to stalk me for six months than that I\u2019d ever inhabit a \u2018stunning six-bedroom country estate with its own luxury spa, wine cellar, and stables\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n But I do like nice things and I love nice homes.<\/p>\n And for \u00a310 a month I get to be somebody different for a moment.<\/p>\n You might be shocked to hear that your supposedly financially astute friend on the Internet does something as dumb as playing a lottery.<\/p>\n But I mostly think it\u2019s \u00a310 well spent.<\/p>\n Besides the enjoyment factor, I suspect it\u2019s a pressure valve that releases a bit of steam from my always being so returns-orientated with almost all my money for the last 30 years.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy not just look at the photos of each month\u2019s prize home and save yourself \u00a3120 a year?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Because I\u2019m not stupid. Of course there\u2019s statistically almost no chance of me winning. But the odds aren\u2019t zero. And that makes all the difference.<\/p>\n \u201cBuy a national lottery ticket instead. The odds are better and you can live wherever you like if you win!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s very rational of you. And I\u2019d agree if I was trying to maximise the expected value of my \u00a310-a-month payment in financial terms.<\/p>\n But I\u2019m not, because the expected value is nearly zero whether I play the lottery or do the house gamble.<\/p>\n If I was being sensible, I\u2019d probably put the \u00a310 a month into buying more Premium Bonds<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even there though, the expected return on every incremental \u00a310 is still near-zero. Only as the extra cash piled up over the years to tilt the odds on my total Premium Bond pot would I be having my cake (the chance of winning a million) and eating it (prizes won with average luck equating to a decent interest rate).<\/p>\n But that\u2019s already more thought than I want to put into this silly \u00a310 a month I throw away.<\/p>\n I just want to gawp at the \u2018rustic fire-pit where you will gather your friends for long conversations overlooking the sea\u2019<\/em> and dream.<\/p>\n Everyone has a few things like this. They don\u2019t make sense but they are fine to do anyway.<\/p>\n Writers as diverse as Ramit Sethi who will famously Teach You To Be Rich<\/a><\/em> and Ermine<\/em> over at Simple Living in Somerset<\/a><\/em> are both totally okay with you spending some money on things that bring you joy.<\/p>\n For Sethi, penny-pinching is pointless. What matters is to find a way to support and live the life you love, rather than sleepwalking into a default mode of living.<\/p>\n Sethi is mostly against home ownership at today\u2019s prices, for example. But supposing nothing brings you more pleasure than great tailoring? Then he has no problem with you spending thousands on a made-to-measure suit.<\/p>\n Ermine<\/em> calls this living intentionally. He\u2019s vastly more<\/a> frugal than Sethi. Even so, I suspect he has a garage full of electronic gizmos that 95% of us would consider a total waste of time and money. And Mrs Ermine<\/em> grows her own vegetables that would probably cost a fraction of the price in the shops.<\/p>\n More power to them! These are things that bring them joy and the relatively modest \u2013 and, crucially, easily afforded \u2013 cost doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n Save the money elsewhere.<\/p>\n So much of the angrier disputes in the personal finance space come down to clashes that look like arguments about money but are really just squabbles about taste.<\/p>\n Even the almost irreproachable Mr Money Mustache<\/em> is, to my mind, a little too harsh about driving what he calls too-big and too-expensive clown cars<\/a>.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t get me wrong! I have zero desire to spend any money on a clown car myself.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve never owned even a normal car, and when I once worked out how much this had saved me \u2013 living in London, where life is fine without a car \u2013 and what those savings were worth compounded via my active investing, the number was so outlandishly high that I thought I\u2019d see more readers rage-quit Monevator<\/em> over it than Brexit.<\/p>\n However for many people \u2013 the clich\u00e9 being men around my age \u2013\u00a0a dream car is something they\u2019d willingly forego a thousand restaurant meals to own.<\/p>\n Now this is where I\u2019m supposed to cite the sticker price of a truly expensive and obscure luxury vehicle. <\/p>\n But honestly I have no idea.<\/p>\n Is a Skoda Esprit a thing? What about an Aston Martian?<\/p>\n The only time I recall ever wishing I owned a car was when I was 22 and doing badly at romance.<\/p>\n Still to develop the awesome armoury of lady-killing prowess that I can bring to bear today (note: my exes\u2019 recollections may vary) I\u2019d spent weeks trying to attract the interest of a disinterested French girl in a murky watering hole in a yet-to-gentrify Kings Cross.<\/p>\n We often ran into each other, thanks to our shared love of obscure indie bands. She even bought a copy of my fanzine!<\/p>\n And then one night she was actually with me at the bar, laughing \u2013 truly \u2013 at my jokes about Sartre, and furrowing her brow at my oh-so-insightful comments about the fusion of grunge and proto-BritPop.<\/p>\n So funny, she laughed, putting a hand on my shoulder.<\/p>\n Had I heard about the after-party in Hackney?<\/p>\n Obviously I hadn\u2019t. But I mumbled something non-committal.<\/p>\n Cool, so did I have a car?<\/p>\n In those long ago pre-Uber days, getting in and out of still-dodgy Hackney was best done in a helicopter if you were a young French women living her best life in the capital.<\/p>\n But alas, I didn\u2019t have a car.<\/p>\n A flicker of something on her face, and later she smiled at me not unkindly as she left with an up-and-coming journalist we both knew.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got a car!\u201d <\/em>she whispered with a wink over her shoulder.<\/p>\n So yeah, there was that. And considering the episode still lives rent-free in my head after nearly 30 years, maybe I can\u2019t truly say not owning a car has been 100% profitable.<\/p>\n But on the other hand, well, everything you\u2019re thinking about a relationship built on wheels\u2026<\/p>\n Plus of course I\u2019ve got my bigger financial freedom fund at my back thanks to living a car-free life.<\/p>\n So no, I didn\u2019t need to spend a cumulative six-figures over the years on cars.<\/p>\n Besides, if I had chauffeured that French belle to somewhere off the Tube map that evening, then my life might have turned out completely differently.<\/p>\n Which would mean I might not have met my lovely girlfriend of today!<\/p>\n Although\u2026while I\u2019d be immeasurably poorer in uncountable ways if such an unthinkable outcome had occurred \u2013 okay, yes, she recently subscribed<\/a> to Monevator<\/em> \u2013 at least it would have saved us some friction over money.<\/p>\n You see my girlfriend, S<\/em>., likes to buy clothes.<\/p>\n Fair enough, except she doesn\u2019t seem to wear them very much.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t mean she\u2019s a nudist\u00a0\u2013 although she is more curious about those beaches than I am.<\/p>\n Rather that I\u2019m regularly sent photos of new outfits being tried on \u2013\u00a0or I\u2019ll see them on her social media \u2013\u00a0but by her own admission most of these purchases are lucky to get an outing once a year.<\/p>\n To me, buying clothes not to wear them is ridiculous. If the sunshine holds, then this afternoon I\u2019ll be heading out in my favourite multi-pocketed shorts that I\u2019ve been wearing every week in summer for most of the past half-decade.<\/p>\n And let\u2019s not even get into the environmental consequences of wanton clothes purchasing. (Here I fully agree with Mr Money Mustache<\/em> on the ecological costs of clown car proliferation, too.)<\/p>\n But wait! I\u2019m seeing her to-me-wasteful spending through my own lens of what matters.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not looking at some \u00a3100 dress \u2013 unworn so far \u2013\u00a0through all the phases of the joy it\u2019s bringing\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026the hunting, the rejecting, the anticipation, the looking at herself in the mirror and being happy with what she sees. The whimsical thoughts about when she might wear the dress and how it\u2019ll make her feel.<\/p>\n S<\/em>. is a bit younger than me. Long-time readers will know I think young people are already rich<\/a>. A nice white shirt and well-fitted jeans and I think she\u2019s a knockout. The rest would look better to me in her ISA.<\/p>\n But so what? This isn\u2019t about me. There\u2019s more in her ISA already than for many her age. And despite fairly modest earnings (by London standards) she\u2019s also got no debt and even helps out her parents with their mortgage.<\/p>\n Who am I too judge an extra few dresses a year?<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, for her part S.<\/em> believes I put too much weight on my living space.<\/p>\n I book nicer hotel rooms than I need to \u2013\u00a0and I\u2019m far more precious about my flat, which I mildly splurged out on<\/a> to recreate the vibe of an upscale boutique hotel.<\/p>\n A hotel that S. <\/em>would never pay a premium to stay in herself.<\/p>\n So who\u2019s right?<\/p>\n Neither of us, of course. It\u2019s pointless arguing about this stuff<\/a>, so long as the major financial bases are being covered.<\/p>\n Nobody is right or wrong when it comes to how you waste money.<\/p>\n I could conclude with a few academic studies that look at how best to spend your money.<\/p>\n Draw practical conclusions from research papers like To Do Or To Have<\/a><\/em> or Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness<\/a><\/em> \u2013 or books such as The New Science of Smarter Spending<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n But I called this post How To Waste Money<\/em> for a reason. If I wanted to riff on How To Maximise The Impact Of Every Marginal Fifty Pence You Spend<\/em> then I\u2019d have done so. (Or more likely gone for a walk).<\/p>\n My point is I believe it\u2019s totally okay to waste a bit of money now and then, provided you\u2019re solvent and investing wisely<\/a>.<\/p>\n Just be sure to waste money on things that are still \u2013 however silly \u2013 worth it to you.<\/p>\n Then save most of the rest<\/a>.<\/p>\n I guess this whole article might seem irresponsible to some people in the personal finance sphere.<\/p>\n But I write it in the certain knowledge that \u2013 like me \u2013 most Monevator<\/em> readers are far more likely to suffer from Buffett\u2019s Folly<\/a> than from going crazy on the horses.<\/p>\n To my mind I\u2019ve never been one for stinting on every penny, or for over-indexing on the latte factor<\/a>.<\/p>\n But \u2018to my mind\u2019 is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.<\/p>\n The truth is I still rejoice at buying bargains with yellow stickers in my local M&S, despite my FIRE status.<\/p>\n And I\u2019ve never had to budget, because I hugely underspend quite naturally.<\/p>\n Since my 20s I\u2019ve always \u2018paid myself first\u2019 by putting a chunk of all I earn into savings and investments.<\/p>\n Indeed if I have any actionable financial advice to share today then it\u2019s to automate your savings<\/a>. Then you don\u2019t have to sweat the lattes when it comes to spending whatever is left each month.<\/p>\n But you almost certainly do that already. And we\u2019re in the minority.<\/p>\n How many would-be house raffle entrants do you think would write 2,000 words to justify a \u00a310 flutter?<\/p>\n Answers on a postcard \u2013 although a postage stamp would suffice. The number is vanishingly small.<\/p>\n To conclude on a more downbeat note to show I haven\u2019t suffered some kind of brain event in arguing for all this frivolity\u00a0\u2013 a quick tale from my gym<\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve got to know one of the cleaners there quite well over the years.<\/p>\n The other day I came across her in the cafe with a bunch of lottery tickets spread out over the table. There must have been at least a dozen. She was checking them off manually against the results on her phone.<\/p>\n My first instinct was to tell her she should buy her tickets online so the checking is done automatically. No risk of missing out that way.<\/p>\n But after five decades I\u2019ve finally learned to occasionally keep my mouth shut.<\/p>\n This was clearly part of her ritual. Going through the numbers with a pen and imagining with every new entry that it could be her.<\/p>\n So far, so similar to my Omaze-ing \u00a310-a-month stupidity.<\/p>\n The difference, clearly, is what our little bets represented versus our respective financial situation.<\/p>\n If she buys this many tickets every week, then that must eat up a meaningful percentage of her disposable income. <\/p>\n Maybe even of her net worth<\/a>, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n I guess if she was a family member or close friend I would have lectured her. But it wasn\u2019t my place, and instead I learned something.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to try to win to make things different, don\u2019t you?\u201d <\/em>she said in her heavy accent with a smile. \u201cYou have to hope and dream.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019m effectively<\/a> an opt-in-only runner in the rat race. She\u2019s not going to join me by saving and buying a tracker fund with \u2013\u00a0what \u2013 \u00a350 a month<\/a>? Not at her age anyway.<\/p>\n Maybe those lottery tickets are worth a lot more to her than to me after all.<\/p>\nGrand designs<\/h4>\n
I\u2019m not in it to win it<\/h2>\n
Spendy and still thrifty<\/h3>\n
Car-less and carefree<\/h4>\n
Romantic interlude: the French connection<\/h4>\n
Car parked<\/h4>\n
Spending stereotypes at dawn<\/h3>\n
Dressing down<\/h4>\n
At the margin<\/h2>\n
Don\u2019t sweat the small stuff<\/h4>\n
The luxury of losing a little<\/h3>\n