We all have our thing. It may be designer shoes. Muscle cars. Vintage wine. Beanie Babies. No, I will never stop bringing up Beanie Babies. As long as I have a blog, Beanie Babies will live on. Whatever your thing is, you are absolutely allowed some guilty pleasure spending. That is, if your finances are in order! This week, I'm going to talk about how our guilty pleasure spending can get us in trouble, and how to enjoy the finer things in life responsibly.
This guy looks so dang guilty. I think it's the half-beard.
What Is Guilty Pleasure Spending?
There's really no hard and fast definition of what spending should be classified as a "guilty pleasure". Generally, I consider it as any excessive spending beyond covering basic needs. For example, we all need clothes, but we all don't need several pairs of designer sneakers. The difference between the "want" and the "need" would be guilty pleasure spending. Same could be applied for food, cars, or anything staple that you choose to spend more than you should. Of course, entertainment spending could be considered guilty pleasure spending - it's really all about levels. If your entertainment budget is $100/month for a Netflix subscription and going on a date night with your spouse, that seems pretty reasonable. However, if you're frequently taking long weekends out of town, going out to bars, seeing concerts, etc., I would qualify that as guilty pleasure spending.
Self-Realization
One of the biggest challenges we face in many aspects of our lives is developing self-realization. Having the ability to recognize aspects of your being is difficult, especially when it means changing your behavior. When it comes to personal finance, it's critical to recognize your spending habits. If you think you're living a "microwave dinner" lifestyle, but have a DashPass, you are not in reality.
This not to say you can't subscribe to a food delivery service, or streaming platform, or fruitcake of the month club. You just need to understand this is an entertainment (or convenience) expense, and not a necessity. The truth is, most of us can afford a guilty pleasure or two in our lives without jeopardizing our long-term financial goals. Where people get it trouble is when they don't distinguish between necessity and frivolity.
Breaking Down Your Expenses
Many personal finance experts try to pin a number on what you should spend on entertainment spending, with most around 5-10% of your take-home pay. In my humble opinion, it's ridiculous to throw out an arbitrary percentage tied to someone's income without knowing their financial circumstances! Personal finance is not just a snapshot of income vs. expenses - it's also an accumulation of past financial history and future projections.
Say someone has $25,000 in credit card debt and has trouble distinguishing between needs from wants (you don't need the Complete DVD Collection for ALF, believe it or not). You would really advise this person that they should spend 10% of their take-home pay for entertainment? Perhaps it would be wise to put almost all of that 10% towards the massive credit card debt. But, say you just signed a guaranteed contract with a basketball team for $228 million. After setting up your family for generations to come, can you spend 10% on entertainment? YUP.
It also depends on where you are in your life. If you are in an entry-level job and have massive student loan debt, your entertainment budget needs to be very minimal. However, if you're towards the end of your career, kids are out of of the house (and are paying their own bills!), and you have exceeded your retirement savings goals already, you can definitely splurge.
Can I Have Any Fun?
I know this all sounds like you can't enjoy any of your money. Not true! I'm not advocating for you to throw every last dime at your debts and/or retirement accounts (let alone emergency savings). You can and should spend some money on things you enjoy. The key is moderation. To make this more practical, here's a hypothetical situation to illustrate my point.
Using the entry-level job and student loan debt example from above, our friend Lance has just gotten out of college with his Bachelor's degree in Architecture. The fancy piece of paper comes with $54,000 in student loan debt, but did help him to find an Associate Designer position with an architectural firm. He is a little reckless with his spending, though, burning about $500/month on guilty pleasures (rolled into the credit card expense line item), in addition to having an expensive apartment relative to his income. He does read my blog, though, and is taking advantage of his company's 401(k) match (netted out of his take-home pay already) and is contributing a little to an emergency fund.
As you can see, Lance is barely getting by with his current lifestyle. While it would be nice to get a pay increase, he just started his career and is unlikely to get one soon. He's spending about 16% of his take-home pay on entertainment, so reducing his guilty pleasure spending is the best option to help improve his financial situation. If you break it down, $500 can easily be spent in a month - about $16 per day. If he's going out to lunch and dinner every day, that could easily cost $16/day more than making your own meals. Additionally, Lance could be (and should be) socializing. But, activities like weekly trivia nights or sports leagues cost money (plus the inevitable drinks during and after the event!) can add up. To be clear, this is not saying Lance needs to put his trivia season in jeopardy! It's really about awareness and making small cuts in this extra spending. As I wrote about with habitual spending, it's not about depriving yourself of any joy, it's moderating frequency and finding alternatives when possible.
So what if Lance could cut his guilty pleasure spending by just $100 per month and put it towards that hefty student loan balance? Assuming the loan has a 7% interest rate and a 7-year term, it would take the full seven years to pay it off at $800/month. By putting the extra $100 towards the principal, it cuts off A YEAR of repayment! All of the sudden, Lance would have an extra $800 per month a year sooner, which he could put towards other financial goals like saving for a house, increasing his 401(k) contributions, or bribing the trivia host to win the $50 bar gift card.
Guilty pleasure spending is nothing to be ashamed of... we all have our thing. But you have to keep this spending in reason - and know the difference between these "wants" and essential spending. And, if you're financial goals haven't been met, take measures to cut the guilty pleasure spending to give yourself some breathing room. Have wonderful week!
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