I’ve learned a lot about myself during 2020 and 2021. Some things have surprised me; some things have changed given my circumstances or my preferences, and some things have remained the same. One thing that I’ve doubled down on is the quality of products and services that I’m purchasing. I guess it was a combo of reflecting on our own fragility and the earth’s fragility, but I have been trying to be less wasteful and purchase things that last. The same goes for services that I purchase, I’ve always known that I’ve valued experiences over stuff, but I really came to value experiences after basically they were all taken away from me during early COVID. We tried to do more things as a family, like go to the zoo, go for hikes, and go on long-weekend vacations. Pulling up GooglePhotos and seeing those memories continue to pay dividends in terms of happy memories!

It’s been throughout this year that I really leaned in on spending money on things that I enjoy and/or things that I believe will bring me lasting joy or happiness. These are definitely things that a much younger YoungMoneyFinance would have turned my nose up at (wait why am I paying for a latte, I have coffee at home?) but I’m pleased that I’ve grown and matured and am able to spend money in a lasting way that matters to me. Instead of getting into a deep philosophical post as to why I value spending money like this, I thought instead I’d just share examples as examples always seem to land better at least when I’m learning something!

Apple Music and a Homepod

Working from home for basically all of 2020 and 2021 (with that looking to mostly continue into 2022), music has played a much more important role in my life. Although I’m not sitting in my car for 1.5-2 hours each day, music is how I start my day, what keeps me focused, what keeps me relaxed and what helps me unwind while I’m making dinner or cleaning the house. Previously, I did not have any music subscriptions and either listened to the radio or fought through ads on YouTube to listen to the songs I wanted. It was about 8 months into 2020 (so 6 months into the pandemic) that I realized listening to music this way kind of sucked. I was spending more time clicking “skip ads” or suffering through songs I didn’t particularly enjoy listening to on the radio. I came to value better access to music.

It was at this time that I decided to add a Homepod (Apple’s version of Alexa) to my Christmas list. I was low key worried about Google or Amazon stealing my information (probably a post for another time) and believed (still do) when Apple said they took my privacy seriously. I liked the idea of having a smart speaker, so yes getting quality music into my kitchen or office and also the ability to create reminders (basically how I live my life now), check the temperature outside or sports scores. My Homepod came with a 4 month trial subscription to Apple Music and after it ended I’ve been happy paying $9.99/month.

Value I get: I’ve come to appreciate quality access to music and playlists more and more for my own enjoyment and wellness and a music subscription and smart speaker gives me the opportunity to have more of it in my life!

Lattes

Now, this is a bit of a repeat from an earlier post in the year but I still love lattes. Early pandemic we (like most of us) didn’t go out much and were stuck inside. There is a local coffee shop close by in our neighborhood and that became our Friday tradition – each week we’d walk together and get coffee. There was nothing wrong with my coffee at home, it as certainly wasn’t as good as a latte! Lattes are not cheap, with my local coffee shop charging like $5 for them but it’s a quality product that I enjoy and the quality experience I get. Those Friday traditions were huge, helped me get through the week and I always left in a great mood. Unfortunately the coffee shop experienced a lot of growth in 2021 and opened 2 additional locations and had to temporarily close the location in our neighborhood as they’re planning to remodel it and didn’t have enough bandwidth to keep a small coffee stall staffed while they had 2 other locations! I have definitely missed those Friday mornings!

Value I get: Great tasting coffee and a weekly tradition to look forward to.

Food Delivery

I never really did much food delivery prior to 2020, I knew of it but for many reasons, preferred being social and going out to eat instead and felt that delivery was always a bit more expensive than I was looking for. That totally changed during 2020 and although we’ve been to a few restaurants in 2021, food delivery is definitely a big part of our life now. Food delivery definitely comes with a premium, and it always seems a few dollars more in fees and tip but hey getting the food you want delivered right to your door is pretty amazing. Even more so with kids, when Mommy and Daddy need a little dinner date, we will cook something quick and easy for the kids and have takeout for us. It’s normally not the fastest (which makes total sense; they have to prepare the food and someone has to pick it up and drive it to us) so we normally order our food post kiddos dinner and it shows up post bath time and bedtime! We do get some offers through certain credit cards we have including DashPass and an UberEats Pass which save us a few dollars on deliveries each time we do it.

Value I get: Paying a few extra or getting credit card perks allows Mrs. Money and I to take a break from cooking or getting some nicer food to enjoy, something with the pandemic/kids we haven’t been able to do as much of!

A $695 credit card

If you’re a frequent visitor to the site or a long-time reader, you know that I’ve had quite the relationship with reward credit cards. I peaked in probably 2018 paying nearly $1,000 in annual fees, then trimmed down during COVID but I guess you could say I’m back at it having gotten a new one. I love reward credit cards, I think they’re basically one big game and I love games. There are lots of rules, lots of move, lots of tips and tricks, lots of strategies and ultimately the reward (for me at least) is free travel. Free travel that’s made nicer with other cards in my wallet that come with other travel perks. I’ll describe this more in detail in a future post but basically I decided the go for it and that the annual fee would be outweighed by the benefits I got. I get access to more lounges, we’ve gotten Walmart+ which comes with free grocery delivery (still trying to figure out that game), I get Uber cash each month (which pairs nicely with our new love for food delivery) and airline/hotel credits. Mrs. Money and I are slowly getting back into traveling (hoping that trend continues for 2022!) and so I figure being able to bring more quality to my travel instead of just quantity is what I’m after in my stage of life!

Value I get: Quality perks that make what travel I do end up doing just a little bit nicer.

Summary

Although I’m all about saving and investing my money all the while sticking to a strict budget, I’ve also more and more come to appreciate spending money, especially spending money that gives me a good return, in terms of enjoyment or lasting value. It’s been this realization that has caused me to reshift how I spend money in some areas and spend more of it in others! Some readers might gasp or shake their heads (‘YoungMoneyFinance is going soft!’) but I’m sure there are things in your life that you can appreciate and get value out by spending money on too! To quote the most interesting man in the world (older commercial if you don’t know), “I don’t often spend money but when I do it’s in a meaningful way that will bring me enjoyment or lasting value!”