Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good Morning, This is Laura.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 2: Today's tip is to enjoy being penny foolish. If you've
Speaker 2: got the big pieces of your financial life in good shape,
Speaker 2: then there is no risk of you being penny wise
Speaker 2: and pound foolish. You are pound wise.
Speaker 3: So why not take advantage of that to feel a
Speaker 3: little profligate on the small stuff? Just from time to time.
Speaker 3: Longtime listeners have heard me talk about the importance of
Speaker 3: getting the big things right for financial health. Buying or
Speaker 3: renting less house than you could theoretically afford is one
Speaker 3: way to create massive amounts of space in your budget.
Speaker 3: The same goes for spending less on transportation. Perhaps you
Speaker 3: decide to move to a lower cost of living area,
Speaker 3: or you choose a district where you can send your
Speaker 3: kids to excellent public schools for the cost of your taxes,
Speaker 3: which you have to pay. Anyway, you've paid close attention
Speaker 3: to your retirement account and you aren't paying exorbitant fees. Ideally,
Speaker 3: most of it is in low cost index funds. If
Speaker 3: you are doing all these things right, and the money
Speaker 3: coming in is greater than the money going out. Then congratulations,
Speaker 3: you are the opposite of that saying about being penny
Speaker 3: wise and pound foolish. You are pound wise, so you
Speaker 3: can probably be a bit penny foolish sometimes without it
Speaker 3: being a problem. One of my favorite penny foolish things
Speaker 3: to do is to buy red peppers instead of green
Speaker 3: peppers in the grocery store. Red peppers are always more expensive,
Speaker 3: so I am tempted to just go with the green ones,
Speaker 3: which are generally fine, But then I realize I don't
Speaker 3: necessarily have to buy the least expensive peppers. Then suddenly
Speaker 3: I feel rich buying the red peppers for the price
Speaker 3: of an extra dollar or so in the grocery store.
Speaker 3: I have talked with various people about how they let
Speaker 3: themselves be penny foolish from time to time. One person
Speaker 3: decided it was okay to order dinner if her spouse
Speaker 3: was out of town for several days. Another called an
Speaker 3: uber rather than walk from the train in the rain.
Speaker 3: Someone else told me he had bought that best seller
Speaker 3: he was eyeing when it looked like the library hold
Speaker 3: queue was going to take months. None of these were
Speaker 3: per picularly huge expenses, but these were frugal people. Who
Speaker 3: tended to try to make wise choices with both pounds
Speaker 3: and pennies, so consciously choosing to make penny foolish decisions
Speaker 3: felt very decadent, which can be kind of fun. One
Speaker 3: of my favorite quotes is from Pablo Picasso, who said
Speaker 3: I'd like to live as a poor man with lots
Speaker 3: of money. The idea is that the poor man could
Speaker 3: still be delighted by little things, the sorts of things
Speaker 3: that a lot of money would let him easily do.
Speaker 3: If you are a pound wise person, being occasionally penny
Speaker 3: foolish is about the closest thing to approximating the sentiment
Speaker 3: behind that quote. I know I feel that way buying
Speaker 3: my red peppers. It's such a little treat. If the
Speaker 3: big pieces are good, then it's probably fine. In the meantime,
Speaker 3: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 3: the most of our time.
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just
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Speaker 1: Breakfast Pod that's b E the number four then Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot Com that before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters, thanks so much, should I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
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Speaker 1: favorite shows.
Speaker 2: Oh don't want again again again,