Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to buy the umbrella. Money is a tool
Speaker 1: to enable the life you want. If a small purchase
Speaker 1: would enable an experience that you want to have, then
Speaker 1: this is probably a good use of money. So the
Speaker 1: topic of today's episode came to me when I found
Speaker 1: myself lacking an umbrella. I own a great mini umbrellas,
Speaker 1: but I had not thought to bring one with me
Speaker 1: on my recent beach vacation with my family. Hurricane Aeron
Speaker 1: swept up the East Coast, resulting in some very rainy
Speaker 1: days at the beach. I looked for an umbrella in
Speaker 1: the rental house so I could go for a walk
Speaker 1: and not feel so cooped up, but I came up short. However,
Speaker 1: I did take my kids to Target to go back
Speaker 1: to school shopping, because hey, we couldn't go to the beach.
Speaker 1: They had their school supply lists and they dutifully chose
Speaker 1: the right number of folders and notebooks. And then as
Speaker 1: we were walking toward checkout, I saw a display of umbrellas. Now,
Speaker 1: my frugal soul reminded me that Hello, you own half
Speaker 1: a dozen umbrellas, but those umbrellas at my reel house
Speaker 1: weren't doing me much good at the beach. An umbrella
Speaker 1: at the beach would enable me to escape the house
Speaker 1: and walk around the adorable Victorian town where we were staying,
Speaker 1: So I decided to spend the twenty dollars. I went
Speaker 1: for a rather adventurous walk amid the wind and the rain,
Speaker 1: and felt much more able to face a household of
Speaker 1: kids who were upset that they couldn't go into the ocean.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you two have faced a situation where you would
Speaker 1: like to have an experience, but it seems a little wasteful.
Speaker 1: You could walk with your new colleague to Starbucks and
Speaker 1: talk with them and get to know them, but you know,
Speaker 1: isn't there a pot of coffee and your break rim already?
Speaker 1: You could get the rack for your car that would
Speaker 1: enable you to bring your bike to that beautiful trail
Speaker 1: you keep seeing, But let's think about it, how often
Speaker 1: are you really going to do that. You could buy
Speaker 1: a cheapish plane ticket to go visit your college roommate,
Speaker 1: but you could only go for one night over the weekend,
Speaker 1: and doesn't that seem a bit profligate. Well, I am
Speaker 1: a pretty cheap person, but I am here to give
Speaker 1: you permission to go ahead and make a small purchase
Speaker 1: that will enable you to have an experience that you
Speaker 1: truly want. Not if you are drowning in debt, of course,
Speaker 1: and not if you are the sort of person who
Speaker 1: treats yourself all the time. But I am guessing that
Speaker 1: is not the case for a lot of people who
Speaker 1: are listening to this Before Breakfast listeners are very responsible,
Speaker 1: so know this money is a tool to be used.
Speaker 1: Life is all about the experiences we have. I am
Speaker 1: not entirely sure what else I would have done with
Speaker 1: the twenty dollars I spent on the umbrella. That would
Speaker 1: have been much better, and I realized that that is
Speaker 1: a very privileged place to be. But once we get
Speaker 1: past the point of counting every penny, those pennies can
Speaker 1: start to enable some fun things. A walk in the
Speaker 1: rain is much better with an umbrella. So if an
Speaker 1: umbrella would enable that walk you want to take, go
Speaker 1: ahead and get it. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.