Do You Wish You'd Spent More When Younger

cornergran

Wer’e both reluctant to spend the far from a fortune we have saved over the past 56 years. We’ve had modest holidays in the past and now mostly short breaks. Our children are encouraging - pressurising - us to just do what we want, no matter the cost. Will we? The jury is out. It’s hard to undo the years of caution.

Cornergran, I'd say if you want to do it ..do it ..NOW ..while you're still able to do it together & enjoy it ! Who knows what's around the corner....you may not be able to do it soon. I've just bought myself a paddleboard for exactly the same reason ! 🥰🤩

I just wish we had had more to spend!

bluebird243 No. I've always lived within my means, used credit very rarely, never borrowed from anyone and usually saved for what I wanted, furniture etc., even cars. Worth the wait to have no debt to which I have an aversion

We're quite similar, paid the house quickly, no more debt. I also have an aversion to debt, I think many my age are the same.

I do spend on holidays, typically winter in Austria or Germany.

GrannyGravy13

Monica not sure what holidays you have been on, but that is definitely not our or our children’s experience of foreign countries…

Mine neither.

fat white Europeans
Does that exclude British people since Brexit?

Monica not sure what holidays you have been on, but that is definitely not our or our children’s experience of foreign countries…

Allira

I think safari parks do have their place, M0nica, in that some of the money people pay to drive around goes towards conservation projects.

Better than obscenely rich people paying to kill endangered animals for fun - trophy hunting. 😡

I am sorry Allira I did not make my point clear . What I am saying is that people going to exotice places driving round in big buses are looking at the local people as if they were the animals in a zoo and the people being treated like that are in their turn expected to act like circus animals to meet the tourist desires of the fat white Europeans who individually spend more money on their holiday than those expected to be the performing seals can earn in a year.

I compared the situation with a safari park because local people in poor countries are treated and expected to behave like the animals in a safari park while the tourists drive past never really meeting them touching or talking to them.

Well done Cariad. You should give a lecture to some of the younger, idle generation, who want everything handed to them on a silver platter.

However our frugality did mean that, like bluebird243 we had a lovely big house and paid off our mortgage in good time. I do worry that so many younger people now have huge credit card debts and mortgages, but still spend a lot on holidays - not a problem if they are working but a real millstone if they lose their jobs.
As you can probably guess I'm very risk averse and have already downsized before it was absolutely necessary!

My daughter, son and daughter in law are always taking their children for days out and foreign holidays. I remember when my four were young that I really couldn't afford to do much and wonder if taking them out so much is a reaction to our more stay-at-home life. We didn't even have many foreign holidays, though we were lucky enough to have a holiday home by the coast here.

We are having four holidays this year, first time ever we've done this. One of them is a family holiday treating 4 of them to a luxury holiday. Love giving the family a treat. We've always had good holidays in Europe and further afield. However this year in particular we just thought what else have we to spend our money on. Used to spend a lot on the house etc and whilst I still enjoy buying for the house do I need any more than I already have? No, I don't really. We have nice car and a nice lifestyle in our eyes. Just as long as everyone is happy I say.

Not exactly spent more......but I wish I had had the courage to borrow more and have the confidence of my convictions. However, it's all very well looking back with hindsight now.......

I am married to Mr Sensible we have always spent on holidays (yes we are the awful parents who took various children out of school) have been to every continent apart from Antarctica.

Our now AC are doing the same with our GC.

All the while mortgage and bills took precedence, now I am very close to adopting a sod it mentality, holiday wherever and whenever GC duty allows.

Otherwise what’s left - nothing but taxes and death to look forward

No. I've always lived within my means, used credit very rarely, never borrowed from anyone and usually saved for what I wanted, furniture etc., even cars. Worth the wait to have no debt to which I have an aversion.

My sons always had what they needed though, whether a bike or a trip out with friends or clothes in fashion, even when I was a single parent [on a tight budget] for many years. We had self catering/camping holidays: Devon, Dorset, Cornwall, a ferry to a French camping holiday, a flight to self catering in Majorca - and many days out [70's]. A holiday is a holiday no matter where it is, it's fun, time with siblings and family/friends, new experiences, new food, different surroundings, journeys.

My mother gifted me £50 in 1968 [equivalent to £766 today, apparently] towards a deposit on my first house when I married. In time, after a divorce, a couple of house moves/refurbishments[hard work], and a change of area I bought my own house mortgage free when I was 39. So frugality paid off. So no I don't regret how I managed money. I've had a very interesting life, money can't buy everything, and it isn't everything.

And - without holidaymakers (not all fat!) some of the people you mention would be even poorer as their economy and livelihoods depend on tourism.

Whether that's right or not is moot point.

I think safari parks do have their place, M0nica, in that some of the money people pay to drive around goes towards conservation projects.

Better than obscenely rich people paying to kill endangered animals for fun - trophy hunting. 😡

Sorry, wandered off thread a bit. But, yes, I wish I had spent more by paying into a private pension.

I wish I had set up a private pension when I was young. I live entirely on my state pension and it's my own fault.
But I have always been thrifty and good at saving. I'm never without a little pot of savings for a rainy day.

Now DH and I thoroughly enjoy a good home renovation, so when we had done up the house we lived in for nearly 30 years, we bought a holiday home in France and renovated that.

We go on holidays as well, but houses, like cars are something we have never spent much money on. It hasn't stopped us having plenty of really enjoyable holidays, but flying to exotic places to lie on the sand for a fortnight or drive round countries where the majority of people are far poorer than us and have to put up with fat rich people in air-condtioned coaches, spending more money than they earn in a year, on a holiday alwaays remind me uneasily of places like safari parks where people look at the animals while driving through hermetically sealed in their cars.

Not going to waste time on regrets though.

No. Thinking back to what you should have, could have done is just a waste of time.

I actually wish I had saved more....(or just saved!) ..... in my 20s/30s i was earning well....and spending above my means....i just couldn't imagine worrying about being old...but this side of 60 I do wish I had done my future self a favour. Not going to waste time on regrets though.

DD was recalling the first foreign holiday we had when she was just 9. No, not Spain, but it was somewhere just as interesting but rather different.

Casdon

We all have different priorities, and we always prioritised holidays and going to different places above home improvements etc. I’ve always worked, and we could afford to travel, which both my husband and I loved. As soon as we came back from one trip we’d plan and save for the next one, and both my children have inherited the bug and do the same. I want to go to Japan, I’m saving for that now.

It was on the bucket list, to meet DD there and see the cherry blossom but then came Covid.
Covid put a stop to a lot of adventures we'd planned.

Don't leave it too late, folks!

Casdon

We all have different priorities, and we always prioritised holidays and going to different places above home improvements etc. I’ve always worked, and we could afford to travel, which both my husband and I loved. As soon as we came back from one trip we’d plan and save for the next one, and both my children have inherited the bug and do the same. I want to go to Japan, I’m saving for that now.

No regrets, we spent our excess wisely on travel and adventures.

We've never prioritised home renovations, lived in the same old farmhouse for our ~65 year marriage. Our home will see us out.

We all have different priorities, and we always prioritised holidays and going to different places above home improvements etc. I’ve always worked, and we could afford to travel, which both my husband and I loved. As soon as we came back from one trip we’d plan and save for the next one, and both my children have inherited the bug and do the same. I want to go to Japan, I’m saving for that now.

I don’t wish we had spent more when younger but like SueDonim I wish mum had.Mum is now in a care home and her savings are being eaten up.I am sure there will be some left and she could have enjoyed life so much more.