Sometimes you may wonder ‘Is our spending more, or less, than other people?’. This can be tricky, as everyone has different priorities to what they spend money on.
However that doesn’t make the spending comparison go away.
2 Things
It’s in our nature to want to know 2 things:
1) How am I doing with respect to others and
2) How am I doing with respect to being able to meet my financial goals?
The second question tends to be a whole lot easier to answer than the first.
What To Focus On
While we may not know what other people are spending, we definitely know what we are spending.
We may not know how much we are spending, but we usually have an idea of what we are buying.
When we are able to gauge if what we are spending on is what we intend, it puts it into context the comparison we make with other people.
It could be that our reasons for what we buy are altogether different from other people’s.
That can help keep us from comparing our spending with everyone else.
Lifestyle
The lifestyle we have for ourselves is a big reason we spend money on what we do.
So, it could be a distraction to compare our spending with other people.
This is because our lifestyle is not necessarily the same as other people.
Financial Goals
When we are tempted to wonder if we spend more or less than everyone else, it can be helpful to remind ourselves that what really matters is if we are staying on course.
If we are staying on course to reach our financial goals.
Next Step
Ready to take the next step and work with a fee-only CFP? Reach out to schedule a Discovery Meeting to learn more.