As our savings account continues to grow, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting. How are Girl Ninja and I quickly approaching a $200,000 net worth at 25 and 27 years old? What’s the magic trick? How can I package our story up in to a $10 e-book called “Punch Being Poor In The Face” and sell it to you all?
I mean, we didn’t receive an inheritance. We didn’t get bailed out by Uncle Sam. We’ve never negotiated a huge bonus or pay bump. Our retirement accounts aren’t performing as well as I would have expected thanks to a stagnant economy. We aren’t incredibly frugal. And while this blog netted me about $3,500 last year, MANteresting cost me $7,500 so I’m not bringing in tons of passive income. Basically, my friends, there is nothing sexy about our story.
Unless of course you find boring sexy.
Fortunately, boring works! Not only does it work, but it works really, really, really well. If I had to summarize how we’ve managed to do alright for ourselves in one sentence I think it would be this: We want a lot, but need nothing.
For over two years now I’ve been hoping my crappy six-year-old Macbook would die. Well, actually it did die once, but I was able to revive it. I want it to die, because I REALLY want to buy a new laptop, but for as long as this little hunk of junk continues to power on, I will continue to blog from it. I recognize that I want a new laptop, and that I will buy one when this one no longer does it’s job, but I do not NEED a new laptop and there is no sense pretending like I do.
The same could be said about our housing situation. We want a house. We want more than 700sqft of space. We want a second bedroom for guests to stay in. Girl Ninja wants a second bathroom so she doesn’t have to go near it after I’ve “occupied” it 😉 We want to stop paying rent. We want to diversify our investments by including real estate in our portfolio. That said, we could still add a little more to savings to give us a bigger financial cushion after putting 20% down. We could definitely use more time house hunting and familiarizing ourselves with the local market. We want a house, and might buy one soon, but we definitely don’t pretend like we “need” one.
Heck, eight months ago we bought ourselves a new-to-us Honda Pilot (which we officially named Pontius). We dropped $20,000 cash on the car ($8,000 of which came from the sale of Girl Ninja’s Corolla). But even then, we knew the whole time the Pilot was a want, not a need. We never felt like we deserved a bigger car. We didn’t try to pretend our family of two needs a car that seats eight. Sure it was frivolous, but because we only wanted, and not needed it, we were able to make sure the purchase didn’t impact our financial situation significantly. A want has no sense of urgency; the same can’t be said for a need.
Most financial experts will tell you to separate your wants from your needs, and only focus on your needs. That’s terrible advice if you ask me. Let’s be real, we are greedy Americans who use the word “need” to justify anything and everything under the sun. If we can convince ourselves we need a new computer, phone, vacuum, or car; we suddenly don’t feel bad about buying one.
That’s not how I roll. Aside from basic necessities like food, water, shelter, and a kiss from Girl Ninja each morning I can’t really think of anything else I need. There are a ton of things I want. Some of these things we will end up buying, others we will just continue wanting. As long as I recognize that our basic needs have already been met, I’m confident our net worth will continue to rise.
Want a lot, need nothing.
