Personal Finance

Don’t Let Frugality Kill the Family Vacation

It seems to me that a lot of so-called “money gurus” and personal finance experts rest their whole approach on one simple premise - if you’re in distress, you can’t afford pleasure.

I think that’s a short-sighted approach, for many reasons. Primarily, however, we’re creatures that, by nature, seek pleasure and work hard to avoid pain. If we attempt to make a change in our lives - say, become more frugal and get out of debt - that will require a psychological change, a change in the way we think about a problem, then we’re handicapping our efforts by withholding the pleasure.  It’s really simple: we work for pleasure and to avoid pain.

Let’s look at an example: if you want to lose weight, what do you do? You know it - every sentient adult and most kids in this society know it by now. Cut calories, exercise more. The “what” isn’t the problem that trips up nearly everyone who tries to lose weight, is it? It’s the why - the reasons. The reasons behind any personal change must be strong enough and numerous enough to withstand the onslaught of pain that making changes invariably brings. And the best way to beef up those reasons? Find the pleasure in your program. Look for what’s fun about losing weight. What’s pleasurable - say, the growing appreciation you have for your body, or appreciation from the opposite sex, say, or being able to run a mile without collapsing at the end, or the fun of shopping for clothes in a smaller size.

Finance-related projects are no different. If you cut out all the things in life that make life fun, you will quickly lose your appetite to make those changes that are really necessary for your financial health. Sure, you can save $15 a week by brewing coffee at home and never having a latte again from Starbucks. But why not invest in a handsteamer, brew some extra strong coffee at home, and make your own lattes - and maybe have the Starbucks variety once in a while to boot? It’s no different than dieting - and all the experts there agree that the key to longterm success isn’t making drastic changes to achieve the goal faster. It’s to make changes in your lifestyle that you can sustain over the long haul.

I believe working for financial health is no different. And so I recommend articles like, from MSN Money, “Ten Tips for Affordable Family Trips.” Take that vacation! Just look for ways to trim its cost.

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