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I’d like to be contrarian here and suggest that if you happen to be possessed of a sudden impulse to buy something, but you can’t identify any particular thing that you need, consider putting that amount of money into an investment or retirement account instead of searching for a trinket to buy. That way you are scratching the itch and you’ll be better off later on.

In other words, you can have your cake and eat it too.



Or at least sit on the idea for a week or two before pulling the trigger. Lots of stuff I think I want in the moment turns out to be not so important.


I've done this for vacations: Put in 50K into a mutual fund, and every year we use 5% of it for a guilt-free vacation.


Sounds like you are advocating the purchase of peace of mind and future stability. Strongly recommended!




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