I’ve been writing a fair amount as of late around having a better attitude when it comes to your finances, i.e. not getting caught up in the comparison trap to your peers, not getting frustrated at the perceived ‘slow growth’ of your money, and now I’d like to talk about how I’ve been better attempting to celebrate your wins, no matter how small or how large they may be. When planning this post, I had originally just thought about talking about celebrating getting out of debt and how that’s important, but I realized that really we should be celebrating all sorts of personal financial victories in our lives. So, get your party hats ready and your best “huzzah” or “yippees” ready and let’s start celebrating.

Why it’s important to celebrate

In a couple of my previous posts, I explored the topics of “Why Personal Finance is Boring” and how “Personal Finance is a marathon, not a sprint” and discussed how the real secret to personal financial success is maintaining a slow, steady and safe investment and savings strategy and how sometimes that can feel unrewarding, disheartening or kind of boring. However, I’m convinced that it’s still the best way to get rich and that most of us won’t win the lottery, hit it big with a pop song or inherit millions from a long-lost uncle. Most of us will ‘get rich’ by having a good paying job, saving 15% for retirement and investing in low-cost index funds over a long period of time. 

All that being said, I think the ‘slow’ journey towards financial success would be a lot more motivating if you celebrated the small victories. Whether it’s a raise at work or hitting a savings milestone, take the time to pause and celebrate! You’ve got a good strategy and and good discipline that has brought you here, so go out to eat, take a vacation or order takeout to celebrate! 

Celebrating the wins, no matter how big or how small will help re-energize you and help keep you focused. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, so celebrate each mile market on your path towards the finish line. 

What you should be celebrating 

There are so many small personal financial victories that you can, and should be celebrating. Perhaps it’s making it a month without overdrafting your checking account, or ending a month having stayed within your budget. Maybe it’s setting and sticking your retirement contributions to 15%. What about fully stocking your emergency fund, or getting to $1,000 set aside if you’re just starting out? For those of us in debt, perhaps it’s celebrating paying off a loan, or refinancing down to a lower interest rate. Maybe you’re saving up for a house and you’ve just stocked your house fund with $10,000 cash. Maybe you’ve been buying an index fund share a month each year for a year. Maybe it’s reaching the goal that Fidelity keeps reminding me – having saved 1x your salary by the time you reach 30. 

There are all sorts of financial victories that you can, and should be celebrating. Of course don’t go overboard each time you do have a victory to celebrate, but take a moment to notice it, reflect upon it and if you feel like it and are able to – celebrate! 

How you should be celebrating

Having just established that you shouldn’t be going overboard for any and all victories, it is important to celebrate them all the same! Reflect on what you value and what you enjoy and then bring those into consideration. For Mrs. Money and I, we really love vacations, but we can’t do those as much right now during COVID (although we did make it to the beach twice). In COVID times we enjoy doing takeout, and we have one favorite tapas restaurant here in Atlanta that we really love. When we bought our house we celebrated there, and when Mrs. Money finished grad school (which thankfully along with her employers support we were able to cash flow) we grabbed takeout there. Or for smaller victories (or random treats for us), we enjoy grabbing ice cream from our favorite spot. 

What about you? Give some thought to what you enjoy and what would be a good celebration for you and start tying them to some of your goals! Next time you achieve one worth celebrating, have at it! 

The dangers in not celebrating 

Before we wrap up, I think it’s also important to call out the dangers in not celebrating wins. I’ve personally been stuck in some pretty bad cycles of feeling in a financial rut, or feeling like I wasn’t making progress. Those are tough to be in, and are one of the reasons that I am trying to do a better job of celebrating my victories. Celebrating is actually about something much deeper – it’s about adopting a posture of gratitude and reflection. By being thankful and appreciating both what you have and the progress you’ve made, you’ll be better suited to continue on your journey moving forward. Life can be tough at times and it’s easy to feel like giving up. Reflecting and celebrating your success keeps you motivated and hungry for more and reminds you that this is a long journey and not a sprint!

Summary

We celebrate a lot of things in life, and we should probably all be doing a better job celebrating our personal finance victories. Start setting some goals for yourself, start making a plan to achieve them and then tie them to celebrations once you’ve reached them!