I never liked the vehicles I owned. They were an unimpressive batch, including a Volkswagen Beetle, Mercury Capri, Toyota SR5 pickup, Toyota Camry and Ford Fusion. I’d like to say that they took me where I needed to go, but that wasn’t always the case. All the cars, except Camry, were unsafe, which would sometimes make my life stressful and difficult. Of course, keeping these cars for many years did not help.
When I think about it, I didn’t really like the houses I lived in. They included small apartments without many of the standard amenities you would expect when renting or buying a home.
Some of my apartments were downright terrible. In 1979, I rented a studio located in an alley above a garage. The apartment had poor insulation. Winter would be so cold, it would feel like the North Pole and it would be so hot in summer that it felt like Death Valley. It was such a small friend visiting that he asked if the place had a bathroom.
It was not the safest place to live. In the apartment next to me lived a drug dealer, my car was broken into several times and one day someone stole my clothes from the laundry. I stayed there for six years, enduring all the discomfort and trouble that surrounded me.
The small 789-square-foot condominium I bought in 1985 was an upgrade, but it wasn’t a place you’d want to live for 35 years, which I did. A young lady, about the same age I was when I first moved into that studio, above the garage, bought my apartment earlier this year. Her real estate agent informed me that this is just a starting house for her and she will probably move within five years. When I moved into my current home, I realized all the comforts I had lost in those years of living in that little apartment.
I made a lot of money working for a big aerospace company, so I didn’t have to live like that. But I chose to – because I wanted to save money. When I look at my investment portfolio today, I have more money than I need for a comfortable and secure pension. In fact, I probably saved too much.
You might ask, “Can someone 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 find a balance between giving up lower rewards today for higher rewards later. But you don’t want to delay satisfaction to such an extent that you make life harder than it should be. And that’s what I did to accumulate the big pile of money that I’ll probably never need. Some of this money would have been better spent in my previous years.
After I retired, I hired a low-cost financial advisor to manage my investments. Hiring that financial advisor made me think about my relationship with money.
One day, we were exceeding our budget for this year. I realized that 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’m not fishing.” I interrupted him. “I should tell you I’m getting married.”
“Congratulations, you would definitely afford to buy him a beautiful ring,” my adviser said. “Why don’t we add that to your budget for this year?”
Since then, I’ve added quite a few items to my annual budget.
The result: I try to live longer in this moment, to enjoy life more. You shouldn’t live your life always thinking about your future self – because it’s not good to save money if you’re not willing to spend it.
This column originally appeared on Humble Dollar and was republished with permission.
Dennis Friedman has retired from Boeing Satellite Systems after a 30-year career in the manufacturing industry. A self-described “humble investor”, he likes to read historical novels about personal finances. His previous articles include Live It Up, Don’t Delay and Try Not to Slip. Follow Dennis on Twitter @DMFrie.