okay, the title is a bit of click bait..... :-)
But seriously, buying a new motorcycle 30 years ago ended up being the best thing for my finances because it made me examine where my money was going early in my working career.
Backstory:
I had been working full time in an entry level IT position for about 8 months, living with my fiancée (now ex-husband - but hey, that's a much longer story). We decided we just had to have that shinny new motorcycle.....and of course, didn't have the saved money for it. Stupid idea, I get it.....but what it did do, was make me sit down and think about where our money was going.....we couldn't account for nearly $1000 a month (30 years ago!). My world was pretty cashed based 30 years ago, so I had no way of tracking where the money went. It was going out in dribs and drabs, $30 here for movie, $20 there at a food court on a whim, probably too much takeout pizza, pull $20 out of the ATM any old time. It was not having the ready cash to buy that bike that made me aware of the need to track and plan spending. We set up a rough budget, and we only took cash out of the ATM once a week, and we each had X dollars to live out the week. I think we set grocery at $75 a week and always had a surplus (that cash lived in an old coffee can and allowed me to take advantage of sales, or splurges).
Anyway, just curious, do any of you have a story that could have been your start to conspicuous consumerism, but instead, put you on the path to fiscal responsibility?
