Obsessed

geeovana wrote: »

. My partner keep saying she would love a new bed, yet I see it as a 'waste of money'.

How do you breakdown what is worth spending money on and what isn't?

Assuming she's going to be 'enjoying' the new bed with you? Take such opportunities when you're young and able. There's nothing chivalrous or gloat-worthy about slumming it so that you're able to afford the most expensive pyjamas in the nursing home.

Besides, a bed is something you spend about a third of your life in and is much cheaper than a car.

Congratulations on your other saving and investing achievements and it's great that you're financially 'on track'.

The way I'd look at it is: over recent years you really *had* to save a lot because there were things you needed rather than wanted. Maslow came up with a "heirarchy of needs" where food and shelter are quite important whereas Truck Nutz, not so much. But basically it sounds like you didn't have a good emergency fund, you didn't have a house with your partner, weren't maxing your wealth-generating investments at work, didn't have a couple of years' worth of stacked investment ISAs, etc. So you maxed the savings to cover those 'basics' - you can think of them as basics on a long road to a happy middle age and retirement.

Whereas now, you already have the basics covered and if you've managed to max all your ISAs out at the same time as sharesaves and so on and building up emergency funds then presumably you have a pretty decent income. [maybe high rate tax? If so, consider more private pension ahead of more ISA]. What you have to consider next is what are you using that decent income *for*. Why work at all?

You can start from the far end and plan backwards from what you want/need to retire on, to what that costs you now to invest for it. And what other life goals you have on a shorter term basis but still pretty long term- kids, home upgrades, travel, settling a chunk of mortgage when interest rates rise and you want a lower LTV, etc - and what it costs to start saving/investing towards those things, and how they could be funded.

Presuming you are putting money away monthly for that sort of stuff on top of the money you need for bills and short-to-medium term home maintenance etc, and you still have money left over - spend it. Why else earn it? If you don't want the money, take an easier or more rewarding job that pays less.

Sounds like you are in the 'habit' of wanting to save which is no bad thing - always nicer to have more put away than you need, than less. But perhaps a shift of mentality is needed from "must save everything as need emergency fund and property and pension and ISA and to maximise work benefits" to, "OK, this over here is what I *need* to spend or save and it doesn't cost all I earn so this is what's nice to have now or at the end of the month, quarter, year, next birthday for her or him, etc.".

To go back to an earlier point:

Beds and mattresses depreciate from being great at the start to being unusable at the end. But if you plotted them on a graph they would flatline for a very long time before expiring. The trick is not to have a crap bed for those last five years and then buy a new one and be saying *'!*# why didn't we do this years ago. Instead, do it years ago.

Are you still in a king or double because you couldn't fit a superkingsize in your last property and didn't have an emergency fund or maxed pensions so couldn't justify it? Now you have forty grand of investment ISAs and soon you will have a respectable plan for what to do with future money you earn. So, if you don't buy a big and comfy bed for top-notch sleeptime and sexytime, you're doing life wrong.

All IMHO etc.