A little known secret in life is this: “Memories pay dividends too.”
At 12 years old, my first job was in the cornfields of the Midwest pulling tassles out of corn stalks. Yes they pay kids to do that for seed corn operations! It was farm life at its finest, and by that I mean dirt on my hands, pollen in my nose, bugs in my eyes, and corn cuts all over my arms. (Interestingly, the same sharpness on the edges of reeds that we have at water’s edge here in Kitsap, is the same biting edge of corn leaves.) I earned every penny of the $2.95/hr that I got paid. By the time I was 16 years old I was running a field crew and earning twice that…and it was time to buy my first car. The cost was $700 and it was painful to pay that amount of money when I knew how much work it took to earn it.
That same emotion, but on a much larger scale, happens when you think about spending money on an experience when you’ve worked so hard to earn it and save it. Bill Perkins wrote a book titled “Die with Zero, Getting All You Can From Your Money and Your Life.” And he talks specifically about the value of money AND the value of experiences. But why is it important to have both?
It’s important because summer is vacation time, and many people have a (often secret) dream list of places they’d like to go and experiences they’d love to have. And the vast majority of people put it off, and never do it, because it’s expensive and it’s hard to spend that money.
What are your dream travel spots? What are your secret-bucket-list-memories-to-be? A private suite at the Mariner’s game? Backroom VIP winery tour? Three nights at the Post Hotel in Leavenworth or Fairmont Chateau on Lake Lousie? Rent out the entire movie theater for your birthday? Sailboat tour around the San Juan Islands with a private chef? Great seats plus backstage passes to an amazing concert?
These things sound extra, unnecessary, expensive. And they sound that way because they are! You have to pull money out to make them happen. Money that’s spent is not paying you dividends. But remember, a little known secret in life is this: Memories pay dividends too.
Sure you only have the experience once. But you keep the memory! And everytime you talk about the memory you relive it. Every Thanksgiving for decades you and the family will sit around and someone will say, “Hey remember when we …. that was awesome.” Memories pay dividends.
I have a client who was quietly content to continue his lifelong, good habit of saving, even in retirement. After a lot of conversations he realized recently that there is true value in experiences and so he and his wife started to travel. What do they travel for? Barbecue. BBQ all over the USA. And they LOVE it. They do one trip a year and talk all the time about the places they’ve tasted and the next place on the list. Another client who’s parents took the whole family out on a week long mega-catamaran trip, the grandkids too! They mention that trip almost every time they see a sailboat cruising into Liberty Bay. There may come a time when these folks can’t travel anymore BUT they will still be able to relive the memories and re-experience the joy of those adventures.
So make a list of “this sounds crazy” experiences, pick the one thing, plan for it, and do it. Travel well and invest in those memories. They pay dividends for life.
Advisory Services offered through Strong Retirement Solutions; an SEC Registered Investment Advisor.
