How To Spend An Entire Year’s Savings And Not Regret It

Here’s how to spend an entire year’s worth of savings and not regret it. Plus, a few thoughts on scarcity, plenty, and the guilt we often feel about finances.

2010: We got married!

Starting net worth: $0

Leslie had to buy a car after her Grand Am literally fell apart on her. While driving on the highway.

Income:

Leslie: $28,000 teaching history

Ben: $3,500 subbing, working part-time as a librarian at the same school as Leslie, and nighttime tutoring.

We had lived together in a two-room room basement apartment before we got married. It had 6.5 ft ceilings. After we got married, we moved out of there and into the top apartment of the same house. Because I was not yet a dad, I will not put a joke here about how we ‘moved up’ in the world.

How we saved money

We drove to a very poor town nearby for our groceries. Prices were lower, and so was quality. The fresh produce section rarely had anything besides potatoes, onions, carrots, and celery. Tomatoes were hit-or-miss. The canned food section was huge though.

We ate a lot of very unhealthy food. Like, I’m using the word ‘food’ here very loosely. Michael Pollan talks in his book In Defense of Food about how everything Americans eat has corn in it. Never have I seen that more clearly demonstrated. I saw so much corn starch/syrup on so many labels that I still think of it even when eating fresh corn off the cob.

This instilled in us an appreciation for good nutrition that I don’t think will ever go away. We did this because we had to–just like most of the people living in that poor town, but it was probably one of the best things we could have ever done. Good food is one of the clearest rewards of our improved financial situation, and we are reminded of it daily.

We cut out soda entirely (which was a big deal for me at least: I used to drink enough soda to make a Surgeon General weep) We switched to mostly water (beer was a treat, from a local brewery, that could be found for $0.75 per bottle). We’ve never gone back to soda. You just can’t. It tastes awful.

We cut cable and signed up for Netflix instead. This was back when Netflix sent you DVDs in special little envelopes. Having to wait a few days between discs of a favorite TV show is something I sort of miss. Our TV time became something special because we couldn’t watch anything on demand. So we planned for it, and made a date of it.

And most importantly, we watched very little TV. We began to see how much of their lives people spend on TV, and how much you can accomplish when you regain that time. Changing our TV habits has given us more contentment and fulfillment than any other change we had to make. We read more books. We made more things. We felt (and still feel) a greater sense of actually being alive.

I learned to cook. Like seriously cook. I quickly learned that for what people paid to go to McDonald’s you could whip up a dinner to rival all but the haughtiest of cuisines. This has remained one of the greatest skills I’ve acquired in my life and I firmly believe everyone should learn to cook. Our health improved. Our bottom line improved. Cooking is an art form anyone can learn and practice each day without any startup cost besides your normal groceries.

How we spent money:

Our Honeymoon. Every dollar we saved in 2010 went toward our honeymoon.

And this is one of the most important financial lessons I want to convey:

So much of the financial advice floating around the internet is about budgeting and saving and making you feel guilty you for spending money that could otherwise be invested.

We believe this is unhealthy. It creates an unhealthy psychology around money, one that tries to make you believe that money is something that should be saved rather than spent. It teaches scarcity over plenty.

We believe the opposite. We believe that money should either be 1) spent or 2) invested so that you will have more to spend in the future. We believe that money is not scarce. That there is plenty to go around. You just have to learn to control it.

Money should be your means of getting what you want out of life. And our honeymoon was a great example.

Many would (and have) tried to shame us for spending an entire’s years worth of savings on a single trip. That money could have been invested, yes. And if we had invested it, we would have a lot more money right now. But you know what we wouldn’t have?

Our honeymoon.

We went all out. We spent an entire month traveling around both Scotland and Ireland. We explored rather than vacationed (meaning we did as few things involving tours or guides as possible). We basically just lived there. A week in Edinburgh. A week in Aberfeldy. A week in Dublin. A week in Kent.

And we saw these places in a way no one in our families, no one in our social circles has managed.

He’s my simple test for if something is worth it: What will I say on my deathbed?

Which will I say: “I wish I had budgeted more” or “I wish I had taken that trip to Scotland”?

This is what money is for. This is why we spend our extra time earning more, rather than clipping coupons.

Assets at the end of the year

Ending net worth: $0 (We spent everything on the honeymoon. Worth it.)

Equities @ Cost: $0

Cash/Equivalents: $0

Back to Income Reports

On to 2011($0 – $6,000)

Closing Thoughts

Our goal here at Three Month Millionaire is to help you achieve freedom, both financially and in your working life. The dream is to build a million-dollar business that can be run in three months or less per year.

The cornerstone of that dream is a rational, systematic investment system coupled with powerful productivity principles and some solid foundational business skills.

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