Why I Buy Experiences, Not Stuff
Learn to spend your money on happiness
I was scrolling through Tik Tok the other day, as one does when I came across a video of Jimmy Carr talking in a podcast.
If you don’t know, Jimmy Carr is a hilarious comedian known for his controversial one-liners, but he is also an incredible motivational speaker. He has many great quotes about success and having a good mindset in life.
I actually quote Jimmy in my vows on my wedding day — but that’s a different story.
Anyways, in the video Carr was speaking about his career in comedy, how he would not have one at all if he’d settled for the typical “safe investment” of a house, whilst working his “secure” full-time job at Shell.
His advice was this,
The things you own end up owning you, there’s nothing you can buy in the mall that you’ll give a f*ck about in 5 years time.
- Jimmy Carr
Now of course he’s not saying that you can’t buy anything but the message here — at least the way I hear it — is to instead invest more money into the most important thing in life, yourself!
Invest in your own growth, learn new skills, develop your passions, or leave the shitty job — which of course you need money to do.
How often do you spend money on a lunch out during your break at work? — This might not be a valid example with today’s WFH policies in place, but the idea is still the same.
If you spend $20 per day on lunch with your colleagues, that’s $100 per week that could be invested into yourself in many other ways. Maybe that’s the money you could be used to take an online class in order to master video editing — a skill you want in order to develop your Youtube career.
Now, maybe you get a lot of enjoyment out of lunch with colleagues, and that’s totally fine, we all need some enjoyment week-to-week as well. However, the idea here is that you could reduce the amount of money you’re spending on something in order to spend more money on your future.
As for myself, I enjoy what I do and my job gives me a lot of freedom which makes sense in my situation. That being said, it has taken me many years of investing in myself in order to get to this position at a company I like with the freedoms I have been looking for.
Above all that, over many years, I have learned that I gain more happiness through experiences rather than things.
In fact, I find more joy in spending more money on adventures than I would in spending less on a new toy. For example, I would rather drop $1,500 on an all-inclusive trip to a Caribbean island than $1,000 to upgrade my phone to the latest model (even though that new phone lasts a lot longer than 7-days on an island).
I think it’s really important to learn which spending habits make you happier. Ask yourself, would you rather spend the money on day-to-day things like lunches out, take-out dinners, and treats or save up your money and book a vacation, order a new toy or upgrade a product?
This can be a difficult question to answer — especially if you’re young.
My advice would be to try many different things to help learn what you enjoy. Got an invite to go to karaoke night? — RSVP yes! A friend wants you to join them on a morning hike? — Try it out!
Once you’ve tried many things out you’ll start to learn what you truly value. One of my biggest passions in life is fitness — I love going to the gym. So I have made it a priority for myself to budget the cost of a gym membership, protein powders, equipment, gym clothes, etc.
In the end, it's your money — spend it how you see fit. It’s your happiness, enjoy every moment of it and always strive for more!
