| Nice! I've been in similar shoes before, for a different reason. But I remember it feeling like a really weird and dicey situation. I wasn't sure how to trust myself. Here's what I learned to do, that worked for me: - Make a cool spreadsheet for yourself and run little experiments to see what works. Never trust a single, fixed number for savings, spending, anything. Life and emotions are way more nuanced than that, and part of you (especially the I'm My Own Person Now part) will practically yearn to disobey those unreasonably-fixed orders. - The spreadsheet should include projections, so you can adjust some numbers and see the results as they would turn out in a year or so. - When you notice lifestyle-overage issues, or shortfalls, accept it, make adjustments to the spreadsheet logic that may help, and don't scold yourself too much. - Splurge, always splurge to some degree. Splurge early and often. - When your splurging is over and you're going "why did I do that, man what a stupid day/week/month" that's the perfect time to head to the spreadsheet and set some very simple guardrails that may be helpful next time. - Some guardrails that can help a lot are things like automatic reinvestments and automatic withdrawals to places like brokerages. Just some ideas from my own experience, in case they help. Good luck...and congrats! |
I find it incredibly helpful for making sure I’m spending money the way I intend to. It’s very easy to otherwise forget how much is going where.