How do you spend your money? A question that many would hesitate to ask anybody. Apparently, millennials like to spend a good portion of the money they earn, while people over the age of 54 are the best at saving according to this infographic by Swift Money. Quite an eye opener, which brought the question #HowDoYouSpend. So, here I will share a timeline of how our spending habits have changed and what influenced them.
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Feeling Young and Empowered
When I was in my early twenties, full of energy to tackle the world and not a gray hair in sight, I viewed spending money as a right. “I worked hard for the money, dammit. If I want to spend a decent amount on a handbag or a pair of on-trend shoes, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t.”
Buying my place was obviously not on my list back then. My mind was thinking of the here and now. Of all the things that I always wanted that I was finally able to afford.
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After Becoming A Parent
Well, things changed when I became a Mom. Looking at prices of women’s clothing or accessories turned into how many diapers, baby’s clothes, and bags of groceries I could get for what I had sitting in the bank. My son became my entire world. He was my purpose for getting up every morning (especially when a smelly diaper was telling me it was time for a change).
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Being A Blogger
Blogging was once just a hobby. In fact, my husband suggested this idea of me writing again when I had more time at home with the little one. As I discovered many exciting products for babies as well as health and beauty, my desire to try all of them grew with every page I clicked. I slowly began to invest on some items both for personal and (while I didn’t know it at the time) business use.
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Working From Home
Fast forward, and here we are, working from home full time with my other half. Creating content for a blog and various social media channels do take some investment in equipment. He tends to research an item extensively before we make any purchases. We want to end up with something that performs well, and we can use for a long time (like our Sony A6000 Mirrorless camera).
And when it comes to spending money on ourselves, we often spend our time relaxing at a nice restaurant with good food, often a walk away from the Hudson River.
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A Want Versus A Need
Over time, you do learn a thing or two about spending and saving your money. Do I need this? That’s the question I ask myself often before I make a purchase. The world is filled with more wants than needs these days. With our son growing at a rapid pace, and our focus to increase our brand reach, being smarter with our money is an area that we look to improve on each day.
In fact, this current lifestyle of ours is inspired by the KonMari method. Yes, I am talking about The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up book by Marie Kondo. We’re all about ‘does it spark joy‘ at home now, which let me tell you, helps in a lot of decision-making and decluttering-made easy.
Slowly but surely, we are getting rid of things we don’t use or need anymore and instead donate them.
Now, whether you agree with the statistics or fall in one of the categories, in the end, I believe that it’s all about evaluating your expenses and thorough budget planning. These are essentials regardless if you get your income from working in an office or making a living from home.
How Do You Spend Your Money?
Other useful inforgraphic from Swift Money about calendar events and overspending pressure during these occcassions can be found here.
Disclosure: This post is in collaboration with Swift Money. All opinions and images are of my own.