I have an Anti-Mustachian hobby, Magic: the Gathering

[Ligaco]

There, I said it, I play Magic: The Gathering.

I am not going to quit it for the foreseeable future even when it takes money,
what I want to do is to make sure that it takes less money.

Just so you know, I am a senior high school kid, I got some extra money from my mother,
almost all of it is in bonds, 4k is on my account and every month, 25 bucks is sent to my
more volatile stock fund. If anyone can tell me that and explain to me to throw the 3k
into S&P 500 index fund is a good idea, then proceed, however that is not why we are here.

I got a card deck, that I know I can play maybe even forever since I enjoy it and it won't
disappear due to the change of the card pool (UR Storm on Modern for the initiated).

My monthly budget for the game is 25 bucks. 3 Tournaments online (MTGO Modern dailies) + tea in my local
pub where we do local tournaments (I have store credit so for the next 7 months, I won't have to pay anything).
Moreover, if I get better, I won't have to pay online either and "go inifinite".

Here I am willing to cut down and play only one online tournament and play lobby, free, games until I get better.

However, this is not entirely why I am here.

Since I started playing the game, I had a dream of having a certain type of deck(This deck is not affected by
the change of the card pool). I always tried to reproduce it in cheaper variants but ofcourse, it never works.
FYI, the deck costs 1k

Thus I made myself a goal. If I manage to graduate and get to my "dream" university, I will buy the deck, guilt free.
The motivation worked when I wanted a new computer and it wasn't even that important. I have ten months,
if by then I decide not to buy the cards, fair enough, if I won't get into my "dream" university, then I won't buy anything.
Maybe I get in, buy the deck and realize that it was not what I want it, just like with the computer. Luckily, I will be able to sell
cards and get most of the money back.

Thanks

EDIT: Some clarifications

[Beric01]

Yeah, with these things it's tough. If I have one weakness, it's PC gaming. Thankfully, I'm able to keep my spending on new computer parts/games/etc. under control, but it can be tempting. Setting reasonable goals in your life and using a (relatively unproductive) hobby as a reward can be a way moderate your spending and encourage your to accomplish other things.

[UnleashHell]

personally I do not play magic. Nor do I have any interest in it. However I don't see it as an issue to your long term financial stability. plus theres a hell of a lot of other hobbies that cost a lot more.


Stash away your cash. invest 75% of what you are earning.

and create a budget that allocates a portion of the 25% remaining to your pastimes. The goal here is to be financially independent.
Magic doesn't help nor but if you budget to the cost it doesn't harm either.

You'll learn more financially from budgeting for it and tracking the cost than you ever will from either just ignoring the financial cost or dropping it completely. At your age your overheads should be pretty low anyway.

[Pooperman]

I also play magic (paper). I spend about $25 a month unless prereleases/GPs are happening. I also draft so it's worse. I am building a modern deck so i can play cheaply in some local $5 tournaments (it's affinity). I also trade and speculate with some of my inventory. I sell decks online for $5, and singles if something shoots up. If all I did was speculate and trade, I'd be making money, but Ss I draft 2x a month, it's not as good.

On another note, what do you think of the changes to blocks?

[Thegoblinchief]

Heh, my wife and kids just got into MtG but they're not interested at all in the competitive scene, so it's super cheap. For my daughter's birthday recently we bought a couple large bulk orders of cards. 1000 commons and about 150 rares.

Ultimately, it's just about establishing a budget and sticking to it. Hobbies are part of what makes the journey enjoyable.

[isbjshaffer]

Growing up I always knew people who played MTG. My husband even played. He tried to set a budget but something new would come out, the meta would change, or he decided he wanted to try a different format. He would play online and at stores. We would even travel a few hundred miles to go to some big fancy tournaments. He was pretty good at the game and would often win most of the local tournaments he played. It was fun for a while but eventually you lose track of how much you're really spending. He'd buy a drink at the local store, drive 45 minutes to another one because that one was the only one having a tournament that night, but he wouldn't have time to come home for dinner so he'd have to eat out on the way. All of those things are annoying enough as it is. What the real problem is what a time sink it is. Always formulating new deck ideas in your mind and going to those stores and spending hours in tournaments, etc. All of this time could certainly be better spent improving yourself and your financial situation as a whole or creating a hobby where you can actually make money instead of lose it.

I hate to recommend this to anyone because I think it's all nonsense however, having lived through it myself, I do understand the desire. This is my advice, hubby has actually started playing a game called Hearthstone. It's all online and you can actually own ALL of the cards without forgoing a space to live and breathe, actually you can own all of the cards for free, it's just faster to acquire them if you spend money. You could easily sell what I assume to be your legacy deck and own all of the cards in Hearthstone with some cash left over. I like the game better than MTG just based on it's play style...no getting mana screwed and the cards usually dont do 5 different things depending on how it's played. The fun part of Hearthstone is that people stream it and you can too! So you could actually have the potential to turn your hobby into a money maker if you're any good or just have a good personality for streaming. They also have tournaments and they're currently doing a rank reset every month.

Happy Playing!

[Thegoblinchief]

I hate to recommend this to anyone because I think it's all nonsense however, having lived through it myself, I do understand the desire. This is my advice, hubby has actually started playing a game called Hearthstone. It's all online and you can actually own ALL of the cards without forgoing a space to live and breathe, actually you can own all of the cards for free, it's just faster to acquire them if you spend money. You could easily sell what I assume to be your legacy deck and own all of the cards in Hearthstone with some cash left over. I like the game better than MTG just based on it's play style...no getting mana screwed and the cards usually dont do 5 different things depending on how it's played. The fun part of Hearthstone is that people stream it and you can too! So you could actually have the potential to turn your hobby into a money maker if you're any good or just have a good personality for streaming. They also have tournaments and they're currently doing a rank reset every month.

Or get into any of the large variety of excellent LCGs out there instead of CCGs. Living card games are much, much cheaper than Collectible card games.

Currently I've got Android: NetRunner and am looking at getting the Lord of the Rings LCG, but there are tons out there.

Deckbuilding games like Dominion or Ascension are also quite fun but have a very low up-front cost.

[Goldielocks]

Interesting!  I found MTG itself to be one of the cheapest entertainments to be found in my 20's.

BUT.. We played at peoples homes or free halls, not at the pub.   I may suggest that MTG it self is not the cost, it is tournaments, eating out and travel/driving.  Which is the money sinkhole for most entertainments.

If you keep a budget and track those, $1k is not a lot in comparison.   Could you use a $1k deck without the fringe costs, though?

I want to point out.. Unless your dream college is quite affordable, you are actually  promising yourself an expensive reward for taking on a massive debt.  Wtf?  This is like rewarding yourself with fancy furniture because you bought a house...

 How about a reward for grades or scholarship or for increasing to a certain number of work or volunteer hours?

[Ligaco]

Interesting!I may suggest that MTG it self is not the cost, it is tournaments, eating out and travel/driving.  Which is the money sinkhole for most entertainments.

This is definitely true, I used to take trains to other cities to play, however I feel like this is not doable in my situation or foreseeable future, so I am not worried about that.

I want to point out.. Unless your dream college is quite affordable, you are actually  promising yourself an expensive reward for taking on a massive debt.  Wtf?  This is like rewarding yourself with fancy furniture because you bought a house...

How about a reward for grades or scholarship or for increasing to a certain number of work or volunteer hours?

I want to attend a university in Scotland, which for me as an EU citizen is free. I am not going to go into any debt and
my mother is ok with paying my living there, however I still want to get a job while I am there. And no, I cannot
study in my hometown(I was even forbidden to do this) or any other city here because for the past 3 years, I have been
studying everything in English and I am going to do all my graduation in English(except my native language ofcourse),
thus it makes more sense to just go to Scotland.

Basically, the deck is a reward for the only thing I have to work hard towards to these ten months, get four As and leave.

EDIT: Also thank you all for replies.

[chasesfish]

I have a different perspective, I played for a few years in high school, then boxed up the cards and didn't touch them for 10 years.  When I unboxed them and sold them, it was worth more than I paid originally.

I can remember the rich kids who spent all this money on a perfect deck with retired cards, it was fun to beat them when I could.  However, if you're going to play in the big money tournaments that are zero sum, then you have to pay for the deck.

Entertainment cost per hour isn't bad, but it is an anti-mustachian hobby.  You're not bettering yourself but having fun


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