All Smiles: Saving Money Is Hard Because Spending Is So Fun

Experts, analysts and even the general public can agree that saving money isn’t as easy as some make it out to be.

Sure, it takes work, and plenty of theories and ideas are consistently batted around when the discussion about saving money comes to the forefront.

You could easily argue that the reasons we can’t save money are plentiful. And there isn’t one point of view that wouldn’t have some merit of credibility.

When was the last time you revised your budget?

Do your expenses and income work properly together in that the former is a more substantial number than the latter?

Are you contributing to a 401K account through work, and on top of that do you have a plan in place to take leftover money and add it to a savings account?

These are all good questions and, if you’re not doing things the right way, could be easily an explanation as to why you aren’t able to save money.

But as much as we all grind into the specifics and get down to the nitty-gritty about saving money and why it’s so hard, we might also forget about the most obvious answer as to what is holding us back.

Happiness.

A line from an old sitcom, “Roseanne,” once had the dad (Dan) working to earn extra money over the holidays and as he was trying to earn commission on selling a hot tub to a guy, the customer began divulging information about his finances and needless to say the story wasn’t very good.

Dan had a conscious and told the male customer that may be a hot tub wasn’t right for him, to which the guy responded: “If I lived within my means, my life would suck.”

Yes, this was a sitcom, not real, but how many people have this mentality? Furthermore, studies have shown that, when asked why they spend money, the majority of people site happiness as the main reason. Spending money is a high that empowers you, mostly because in most situations you don’t have the money to spend.

You also can’t discount the newness factor to spending as well. As much as you convince yourself you need a new computer or car, most of the time you don’t. But that new car smell or the first few weeks on that new tablet are going to make you feel great until you realize when that first car payment or data bill shows up, and you’re instantly regretting it.

And that is the cycle that goes from buying and spending and happiness to regretting spending money and not saving it. The key is to understand that while spending money is enjoyable, it only leads to agony and anger once you realize you shouldn’t have spent at all.

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