Monday, March 19, 2007

Correction Spending

I am Irish so these past two weeks have been great as they are every year. South Side Parade and of course St. Patrick's Day! I am already looking forward to next year.

It got me thinking about when my wife and I first got out from under debt, which was about this time a few years ago. We had worked so hard to get out and get our monthly investment amount to the current $4,500 and rid ourselves of all non mortgage debt. Then when we cleared it all up we had what I call a correction. Just as the stock market has healthy corrections, we had a correction in which we went and purchased many things we may have felt we went without with for a while. At the time I didn't call it that, but afterwards I realised it was healthy and so called it a correction.

I read once that starving yourself to loose weight, quitting and ending up gaining more weight than you started with is also true of starving yourself financially so as to not spend too great an amount if and when you may quit. Although my wife and I don't make large spending a part of our regular monthly plan, we do allow for it once in a while as a healthy correction. This keeps us from getting used to a higher standard of living all the time. We gradually increase our standard of living as we earn the right too, by increasing out assets first. This way we are never dependant on our earned income. As we get older we will be in the upper echelon of incomes and not have to spend a single hour at an office if we don't want to.

What do you think about "correction spending"? Do you have another way that works for you?

Jake