I have to agree with dragline, splurge on firearms!
The last splurge was at the great Seattle gun bazaar (hmm... buyback) haven't fired any of them, but it still puts a smile on my face thinking about it.
As to advice on a trip, I have nothing to contribute, really. Neither my wife or I enjoy travel much. Although we do plan a trip just after retirement to hit the last 6 states on her list. She's been to 44, and wants the full set. Although I have zero interest in seeing Michigan, I'll go along. Marital harmony is far more important than money. If you wanted to nix this trip, it should have been during the long planning phase.
How do you decide when to splurge?
Re: How do you decide when to splurge?
Best place to go in Michigan is Isle Royale National Park, which is out in the middle of Lake Superior: http://wikitravel.org/en/Isle_Royale_National_Park
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Riggerjack
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Re: How do you decide when to splurge?
Thanks, I'll try talking my wife into it. We live on an island, and commute by ferry. Her response was "a 5 hour ferry?" !
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workathome
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Re: How do you decide when to splurge?
There's a lot of really nice nature tourism in the U.P., and it's pretty big.
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RootofGood
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Re: How do you decide when to splurge?
We have a retirement budget that includes line items for specific discretionary spending. Travel and toys/entertainment/fun are two that come to mind. Travel is about $5k/yr (out of a $32k/yr budget) and toys/entertainment/fun is about $1000/yr.
We don't try to hold strictly to the categories. We can spend $2k on toys/entertainment and $4k on travel and that's totally okay! We worked hard and saved specifically so we would be able to travel and have fun. I hate spending money, but hey, that's what we saved the money for.
We're planning a big trip this summer (5 weeks, mostly in Canada). We will probably spend $5-6k. It's a lot of splurging, but we will try to contain costs to the extent possible.
Another area is in the kitchen. Our rice cooker broke, so I paid full price ($124) for a brand new one. We eat rice all the time (my wife is Asian) and probably use it 100x per year. The last rice cooker lasted almost 10 years, so I figure it's a good investment since it produces awesome wonderfully fluffy rice and keeps us from spending $$$ on restaurants to get similar rice (cooked in the same kind of rice cooker that we bought). A lower quality, less expensive rice cooker would produce cooked rice, but not quite as perfect as the more expensive version. It's a splurge, but totally worth it given the frequency of use and the quality of output compared to alternative devices.
To put the $124 rice cooker in perspective, we could easily spend that much on one meal dining out at a mid-tier restaurant (we have 3 kids). We prefer to cook awesome stuff at home (for $ and health reasons), so we simply spend our money based on our preferences.
We don't try to hold strictly to the categories. We can spend $2k on toys/entertainment and $4k on travel and that's totally okay! We worked hard and saved specifically so we would be able to travel and have fun. I hate spending money, but hey, that's what we saved the money for.
We're planning a big trip this summer (5 weeks, mostly in Canada). We will probably spend $5-6k. It's a lot of splurging, but we will try to contain costs to the extent possible.
Another area is in the kitchen. Our rice cooker broke, so I paid full price ($124) for a brand new one. We eat rice all the time (my wife is Asian) and probably use it 100x per year. The last rice cooker lasted almost 10 years, so I figure it's a good investment since it produces awesome wonderfully fluffy rice and keeps us from spending $$$ on restaurants to get similar rice (cooked in the same kind of rice cooker that we bought). A lower quality, less expensive rice cooker would produce cooked rice, but not quite as perfect as the more expensive version. It's a splurge, but totally worth it given the frequency of use and the quality of output compared to alternative devices.
To put the $124 rice cooker in perspective, we could easily spend that much on one meal dining out at a mid-tier restaurant (we have 3 kids). We prefer to cook awesome stuff at home (for $ and health reasons), so we simply spend our money based on our preferences.
Re: How do you decide when to splurge?
Trip == Go!
With the other couple == Money issues
Funny, the Boomers and their parents in my family went on a Euro cruise somewhat recently. 50-70% of the memories are about the awesome places. The rest complaining about mobility issues among the least fit, holding back the others from what they really wanted to do.
With the other couple == Money issues
Funny, the Boomers and their parents in my family went on a Euro cruise somewhat recently. 50-70% of the memories are about the awesome places. The rest complaining about mobility issues among the least fit, holding back the others from what they really wanted to do.