Monthly Archives: June 2024

FIRE.201 Money Buys Happiness?

Leave a reply

Over and over, I keep hearing and reading that “money doesn’t make you happier.”  Are they doing it wrong?  Let me state that differently, WTF!?

$75,000 is Magic?

I often think about the statistics we all read about…”an income over $75,000/yr doesn’t make you happier.”  “You need 80% of your income in retirement.”  “Experiences make you happier than things?”

$75,000 in the 2008 study is equivalent in purchasing power to about $110,000 today.  Here is the study I believe everyone is referencing.    

FI = Wealthy.

Money allows flexibility, time reallocation, acquisition ease, hobby pursuement, adventure, safety, entertainment, knowledge, assistance to others,

Money allows freedom,  

Happiness?

I believe in no uncertain terms that the money we have saved buys us some happiness—happiness in so many ways.

I love things.  BJ loves things. I have a “Kevin theory” on this and it goes something like this: do introverts feel more thing satisfaction—and possibly extroverts lean towards experiences?  I find that often “experiences” have too many other people around to be fully enjoyable.

Yet, today when I was scootering—in Oceanside, CA—(shout out to FI Freedom Motorcycle Club) I thought about scootering in Bali and I thought about my Bali trip with my Bali FI Family and do believe that Bali was my best trip ever.  It was just amazing being with everyone before, during (50+ friends), and after the retreat at the Grand Hyatt (30 friends) then, after on the island (25 friends) , then after on the next island (6 friends). 

It’s almost indescribable the fun and amazingness of those few weeks.  Oh, and that trip—to say “yes” in 5 seconds—was possible because of MONEY.  Flying halfway around the planet to hang out is not possible for most people.  Money bought that happiness, and yes, with friends, experiencing activities to

F Buckets

Many people in the community are aware of the Fun Bucket (derived from the Fun Number Jim&Chris).  This is a critical piece of experiencing the best of life.

I once heard a story where Emma accidentally shared the Fun Bucket concept with one slight slip-up and called it a “Fuckit Bucket.”  Trying to lessen the abruptness of the mistake, Emma just soldiered on discussing the concept. 

When Mark Trautman and I heard about this mistaken title, we laughed for an hour.  I fully embraced the Emma terminology and whenever the yes/no, spend/don’t spend question comes up in our home, I tell my wife “Fuckit Bucket.”

To be more appealing to the language challenged, I’ve attempted to abbreviate it as “FI Bucket.”  This abbreviation is an insider’s trickerology to make it seem like a Financial Independence” bucket, which is not at all what it means.  It’s a freedom bucket of hard work and savings.  Emma, young Emma, you are a legend!

Of course, all of these thoughts are just me in my own little world.  My own introverted thinking and living world.

Personal Position

I can say that for me, having savings and the ability to spend freely is unlike anything I’ve ever felt in my first 50 years of life.  Those 50-years were great.  But right now, there is amazing freedom—and a drive—to spend on whatever I think is worth the money.  There’s (still) a LOT of thought, but a lot of spending.  I also still research and detail my requirements and try and make a very informed, thoughtful purchase decision.  So far, the purchases have been great.  The purchases have been freeing (not free).  The purchases have been rewarding.  The purchases give me a lot of joy, more creativity, more convenience, more volume, more time (many purchases allow things to move faster), and even a better me.

So, am I happier?  Hell YES.

I do want to add one final thought I just had.  I’ve often thought and said that with all the savings we have “I can buy anything I’d ever want, and that freedom feels great.”  I’ve said that for 20 years.  I’ve now learned that acting on some of that buying step is really freaking great too.  Probably much better than knowing I could buy something.

Final thought 2:  Happy Wife, Happy Life. 

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

FIRE.200 The Opposite-inside the Box

Leave a reply

Perspective is an interesting thing.  It is generally envisioning from my frame of reference. 

I know it’s important to view things from others’ perspectives as well to give another data point for the upcoming processing that I tend to undertake.  But this post is about looking at something from another perspective that I chose to use.  Can I see the issue from other angles and create more data points for myself?

I moved my TV from a stand and mounted it on the wall.   I wasn’t paying attention to height other than the viewing angle.

Problem:

It turns out that my center channel speaker when placed on the old TV stand cut into the bottom of the TV picture.  The TV was too low to have the center channel speaker below it on top of the stand.

Solution:

No problem, I thought, I’d just put the speaker into the center section of the TV/equipment stand.  Uh oh, the speaker is too wide (by 1”) for the center section.

So, I ordered a new stand even though I loved my current custom-built stand.  The new stand arrived, I put it together, and the speaker fit, but the new stand was a piece of junk.  Looked stupid, looked cheap, was cheap…big mistake.

Solution 2- Better

I then thought, why don’t I just buy a new slightly smaller center channel speaker that fits in my old stand?  Details: my main speakers are Boston Acoustics.  My old center channel was a 1990 Yamaha speaker.  It turns out a new Boston Acoustic speaker (used) would fit right into the TV stand center location, AND have the same tonal properties as my mains.  That’s an important thing for most other audio people.

My new speaker arrived, I popped two wire prongs and it was working in my favorite stand and looked totally normal.  I now have a stupid $79 stand/shelf thing and 2 weeks of wasted time, all because I was taking what I focused on—the current speaker (which is nothing special) into the center section “box.” 

A whole other way to look at the problem was, what speaker can fit into the box (on the stand I love) to generate the sound I want.

Existing rectangle A will not fit into square box B.  Change Box B?   Or, get rectangle C to fit into square box b.

Not the most interesting story, but so many things in life we focus on one perspective to solve the problem instead of thinking the opposite.

Problem 2:

New example from this summer.

We were getting a new shed, 20’ long.  The shed builder started in the back corner and found the different concrete sections weren’t flat to the front corner.  The front of the shed would be 5-6 INCHES off the ground.  The high point in the concrete was about 5 feet from the back, exposing 15 feet towards the front.  (20-foot lever, fulcrum with 15’ and 5’ on each side)

The front was 5-6” in the air when the back corner was flush

I said “Make the front corner flat for 15 feet, then the 5’ in the back will be off, leaving a gap of 1 inch or less.

Once the front corner was flush (for 15 feet) then the back corner was very close to the concrete.

By thinking the opposite of filling the front 15’ long gap, I changed the front to flush knowing geometrically(?) then the back 5’ would have a lower gap.  I was right, the back gap was much lower and that small 1” gap was able to be cranked down on the anchors just enough to seal.

My takeaway is sometimes it helps to step back from the problem and look at multiple solutions before either panicking (shed) or putting a plan into place that may suck (TV stand).

Tag: Happy Wife, Happy Life

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.