What should we spend money on?

[WealthyDoc]

I have been thinking a lot about this lately.  I have come up with a list but I'm sure it is different for everyone.  Lately I have focused on anything that saves me time.  There are a lot of ways to pay for services to save us time.  In theory outsourcing low value tasks makes economic sense but in reality it can be difficult to implement.  For example teenagers in my neighborhood don't want to mow our lawn for money.  They don't have the time (with friends and sports, etc taking their time) and they don't need the money (that's what their parents are for apparently).  Handyman services and painters sometimes cause frustration with phone tag and unreliable workers or creepy guys in our house that we don't trust.  Have you had similar issues?  Are there certain things that are definitely worth paying for?  I wrote about one of them that I found if interested: http://wealthydoc.com/blog/get-yourself-a-robot-it-will-save-you-time-and-time-is-money

[Crzyabtmtb]

Read your article....and I made this EXACT same choice about 6 months ago!  I had to wrangle with this idea in my noggin for several weeks before I got comfortable with it.  This seemed to be the predominant argument: "You lazy bum!  Too good to vacuum now...is that it?!  Next thing, you're going to want your own personal valet to dress you in the morning!  It's a slippery slope, I say....  Now get back to work and see another 60 patients!"

When I was in my 30's, this argument would have won the day after some tears.  But now in my 40's and in a more comfortable professional and financial situation, "loosening the purse strings" as WCI calls it seems a little bit easier to do.  On a more serious note, I think the idea of "leveraging" your financial situation to free up some time to explore other activities/pursuits is a great point that you make. An even bigger point, WealthyDoc, is that you've managed your financial situation properly, putting in your years of "vacuuming," to put you in a position that this choice is possible. Because an $800 vacuum is pretty expensive....!

Now, the Porsche 911 that gets me to work faster....I think the same logic should apply, right?!

Time to get back to that 60 patient schedule...

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Buy experiences, not things.

It's true though; I have the week off and I have all these small and large projects that only exist because I have all these things. Everywhere I look, there is something that needs to be addressed in some way. It was much simpler in residency when I had a one-bedroom condo. I would do more fun stuff with my limited free time.

It's true that money can buy time. I wrote about that, too! Money Used to Buy Me Stuff. Now It Buys Time.

Cheers!

-PoF

 

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

Oh, and we used to have dual Roombas. One upstairs, one down. I imagine they've improved, but we found them to be loud, inefficient and the battery would eventually need to be replaced. Now we have dual Dysons. Not to rain on your time parade, but for us, they didn't get the job done.

[Zaphod]

I have been considering one of these for our hardwood floors, they dont need so much of a real deep cleaning as much as frequent dusting (theyre dark and dusty town). Seems like a good match, the justification is the hard part.

[The White Coat Investor]

For us, figuring out how to spend is harder than figuring out what to invest in. Now saving is easy, spending wisely is not! We still seem to do plenty of it, of course, but we're constantly looking at it to make sure we're doing it right.

[WealthyDoc]

PhysicianOnFIRE wrote:

Oh, and we used to have dual Roombas. One upstairs, one down. I imagine they’ve improved, but we found them to be loud, inefficient and the battery would eventually need to be replaced. Now we have dual Dysons. Not to rain on your time parade, but for us, they didn’t get the job done.

Click to expand...

I'm new to them so I'm not sure but I hear they get better every year and they made great advances in the last 1-2 years.  They may have crossed a threshold.  Maybe try them again at some point.

[WealthyDoc]

Zaphod wrote:

I have been considering one of these for our hardwood floors, they dont need so much of a real deep cleaning as much as frequent dusting (theyre dark and dusty town). Seems like a good match, the justification is the hard part.

Click to expand...

They have another version that I have not tried but it is for scrubbing tiles, hardwoods, etc.  It is called the SCOOBA.  I think it is more like a robotic mop.  I have heard it works well too.

[WealthyDoc]

PhysicianOnFIRE wrote:

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Buy experiences, not things.

It’s true though; I have the week off and I have all these small and large projects that only exist because I have all these things. Everywhere I look, there is something that needs to be addressed in some way. It was much simpler in residency when I had a one-bedroom condo. I would do more fun stuff with my limited free time.

It’s true that money can buy time. I wrote about that, too! Money Used to Buy Me Stuff. Now It Buys Time.

Cheers!

-PoF

 

Click to expand...

Yes, thanks for the reminder about your post.  I'm definitely trying to work on expanding these from your list:

• Time with family


• Time to exercise


• Time to travel


• Time to read

[conniebird]

PhysicianOnFIRE wrote:

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Buy experiences, not things.

It’s true though; I have the week off and I have all these small and large projects that only exist because I have all these things. Everywhere I look, there is something that needs to be addressed in some way. It was much simpler in residency when I had a one-bedroom condo. I would do more fun stuff with my limited free time.

It’s true that money can buy time. I wrote about that, too! Money Used to Buy Me Stuff. Now It Buys Time.

Cheers!

-PoF

 

Click to expand...

Yup. My "vice" is travel/food. I consider food as an experience . I choose travel desitnations based on food/culture.