Becoming a World-Class Spender

I write a lot about the importance of saving and investing our money, but most of the interactions we have with money are when we spend it.

We spend our money multiple times a day, every day for most of our lives and yet…we’re still really bad at it.

Blindly spending our money and most of the time feeling regret or guilt when we do it.

How did we get here?

Most spending advice is negative:

“Don’t blow your budget.”

“Don’t waste your money on coffee.”

“You have so much you don’t need to think about it.”

No wonder we feel shame or indifference about how we spend our money.

Since we have to do this for the rest of our lives, it would be smart to develop a better relationship with spending.

And we should be great at it, but it takes practice.

The goal is alignment.

Aligning the use of our money with what we truly want.

And finding out what we truly want takes some introspection.

So here’s my exercise for you to try and see if it helps improve your relationship with spending money.

Go out and spend your money. Yup, just spend it.

Once a day, instead of distracting yourself afterward with work or Netflix, I want you to think about how that purchase makes you feel after the endorphins wear off.

No shame no blame, just notice how you feel.

“I just spent $63.14 on clothes and I feel guilty.”

“I just spent $23.45 at a bookstore and I feel good.”

That’s it. That’s the task. You may even feel nothing and that’s interesting in itself.

The point is to become aware of how different purchases make you feel.

That awareness will slowly bring about change.

Over time you’ll find yourself gravitating towards the kinds of purchases that make you feel good.

And avoiding the ones that make you feel worse.

Eventually, you can laugh off the overly generic budget advice from financial gurus because you’ve become comfortable with how you spend your own money.