Life Isn't a Spreadsheet
Life is more than what your budget may say
Recently, I got a tattoo.
I was in Denver for July 4th weekend to see my sister and my friend, Tucker. I made the trek with my buddy, Harrison. It was the perfect setup. Spent some time not only with the family but I got to spend quality time with friends all while in a city I had never been to and now love.
It was July 2nd and we were pondering the plans for the day. It was a holiday weekend after all, so what did we want to do? Previously, I had brought up the idea of getting a tattoo, mostly joking. My conscience knew if I were to finally break the tattoo seal this was the perfect situation. I had my sister to hold my hand the whole way through, she is somewhat of a pro, and I had friends who weren’t strangers to it either.
I called up Tucker to set forth the plans for the day and the conversation went something like this.
“Tuck, we can go to Boulder OR get Tattoos today, what do you think?” I said, thinking he would surely opt for Boulder.
“Why not both?” Tucker smartly replied. A wise man he is.
Well, I guess the tattoo that I had internally debated for two years was finally coming to fruition.
Now where to go? Preferably a place that is cheap with walk-ins and open on a holiday weekend. I wanted to keep the price down and me being the tattoo novice I was, I immediately got pushback from my sister. If you are going to have something on your body for the rest of your life, surely you would want it to be done well? The $100 was just a small bump in the road for something you would wake up to every morning for the rest of your life.
My idea of trying to keep the price down was rather ridiculous. I was trying to cut costs on something you undoubtedly don’t want to cut costs on. There are times in which we should cut costs but this was not one of them. I had the wrong mindset.
Life isn’t a spreadsheet.
Life is meant to be lived and life should not always be constrained or optimized for the lowest possible cost. Not everything has to be punched into a budget. A tattoo is forever, the $20 I might have saved is not.
It was not a back-breaking amount either, my tattoo was insanely simple. “SCANTRON” on my thigh, for the brand as some may say. I was freaking out over a trivial amount.
A life lived within the confines of a spreadsheet is not fun and it was one that I was living at that moment. Money is the ultimate enabler and disabler but it should not be the ultimate ruler. It should not always dictate what we can and can’t do. If you can’t enjoy the fruits of your labor then what is the point? Realistically, what really mattered with the extra $20 I might save from finding a “cheap” spot?
Spreadsheet prison is death by a thousand cuts. There are appropriate times to splurge and appropriate times to save. There are appropriate times to run some numbers. It is different for everyone. It is a learning experience to figure out what works best for you but not every life experience should be optimized for your spreadsheet.
Weddings and Spreadsheets
Imagine your wedding. Hopefully, a once in a lifetime occurrence. A special night between you and your partner that marks the beginning of a happy marriage. A celebration with family and friends to flip the page to the new chapter of life. Weddings can be extravagant, they can be cheap, they can be grand, or they can be basic. No two weddings are the same.
I stumbled upon a post on weddings on Threads, RIP, that went something like this.
“$30,000 is the average cost of a wedding. 4 hours is the length of the average wedding. Taking out a loan to pay for a 4-hour wedding is crazy to me.”
I get it, $30,000 is a lot of money but it is a one-time expense that will forever be etched in your brain. A memory that will pay dividends for a lifetime. This is not the case to spend lavishly on a wedding. Rather, live life as you please and not within the confines of a spreadsheet. For all we know, a couple could want to splurge on a wedding due to culture, religion, or just because they cut costs elsewhere and the day means a lot to them.
We also know averages can be heavily skewed by outliers. The average wedding has 117 guests and costs $256 per person. Most people would say 117 guests is a rather small wedding. $30,000 may not be ridiculous as it seems and only 3.72% of people are taking out loans for a wedding.
Enjoy the Returns of Sweat Equity
Life is meant to be lived and life is meant to be fun. Don’t let some numbers and cells restrict you from something you have always dreamed about.
If you can’t enjoy the fruits of your labor and the returns of your sweat equity then what fun is life?
Enjoy the returns of your sweat equity just like a professional athlete may, within reason of course. Without fail, in every post-draft interview, the question is always asked, “How do you plan to spend your first paycheck?” The responses never disappoint.
Sacramento Kings Forward Harrison Barnes used it to buy a “really nice bed”, something he was not afforded as a child
Boston Celtics guard Derrick White used it to pay off student loans, a rather rare occurrence as most professional athletes are afforded athletic scholarships
Shaq bought three Mercedes Benzes
Chris Paul took his friends on a shopping spree
No two are the same. Some saved, some splurged, some went with the necessities, and some went with the luxuries. It marked the pinnacle of their athletic careers, up until that point, and it was an appropriate time to cash in on the returns of their sweat equity. It was to each their own and it doesn’t have to make sense to your spreadsheet. Everyone lives and spends in a manner that they find comfortable.
Splurge as YOU please
Ramit Sethi gives some simple advice on how you don’t have to be a disciple to columns A-Z and rows 1-100. The basis of his advice is that everyone has a different “Rich Life”. It is about what makes you happy and what allows you to interrogate the invisible scripts of success. What really enriches your life? What really makes you happy to spend money on?
Everyone loves spending money on different things. Everyone has guilty pleasures. I find my guilty pleasures to be haircuts, shoes, gym memberships (I refuse to go to Planet Fitness and I was once paying $210 a month for a CrossFit gym and programming), and silly things like buying overpriced granola at the grocery store each week. These are the little things that give me enjoyment but some people may scoff at.
Yeah, paying $36 twice a month for a haircut is probably not the wisest financial decision and one that a spreadsheet may compute and say I shouldn’t be doing. However, I will gladly not optimize my life for a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet can’t compute the intangible benefits of a new haircut anyway. Never is a man more confident.
I cut costs elsewhere to live my life outside of spreadsheet prison. I live with five other guys to keep rent down. I never eat out alone and if I do, it has to be with others. For each give there is a take and everyone’s is different. Live within your means but don’t be so confined that you don’t have fun.
Parting Words
Life is a video game and each level is different for everyone else. It is a game that is created as we go along and the levels of life will be much better when you are not constrained by a spreadsheet. People’s spending habits don’t have to make sense to you, they just have to make sense to them.
Don’t live a life optimizing for some spreadsheet. Thanks to a lesson from my sister, my tattoo turned out great and it is a memory of zero regrets. It was not ruined by trying to save $20, which might have resulted in a terrible experience and getting a horribly done tattoo. It is something I will forever remember.
Life is meant to be fun and life is meant to be enjoyed. Life is a whole lot better when it is lived outside the cells of a spreadsheet.
Thanks for reading. Now, go enjoy.
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