What Do We Want to Spend More Money on in 2015?

Everyone and their dogs and cats are going to be talking about “cutting back” and “budgeting” this month, and that’s all fantastically well and good, but I want to flip the conversation around a little bit. We are what we repeatedly buy, right? (That’s totally what Aristotle said. Everyone else translated the Greek incorrectly.) So what do we want to spend more money on this year? How do we actually want to use our hard-earned dollars?

Here’s how I’m thinking about increasing my spending in 2015:

Debt: I keep picturing myself as Link from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (yes, I’m picturing a very specific iteration of Link here) and my debt as the Helmasaur King. All I gotta do is hit the scorpion monster a specific number of times and he’ll go away. And if I do it with a fully-charged sword, he’ll go away faster. We all get the metaphor here, right? Putting more money towards our monthly debt payments is like holding down the B button until Link’s sword is fully charged.

Media: I want to spend so much on media in 2015. I want to throw fistfuls of money in the air and say “this is all for you!” I want to buy Kindle books, get the final (half) season of Mad Men, donate to amazing Kickstarters, get all my friends’ new releases, and play whatever new game everyone else is playing. Media spending has usually been what I hold back on, since it’s easy to say “I don’t really need to pay for that book: I can wait six months to get it from the library.” But it’s also some of the most interesting and fun stuff in my life, and I want to buy more of it.

Rent: Spending more money on rent means I’ve moved into a better apartment and am no longer washing my dishes in a bucket.

Estimated taxes: Spending more money on taxes means I’m earning more money, right?

Hosting people at my apartment that is not a microapartment and that also has a kitchen: Someday. This might be a goal that has to wait until 2016.

My Roth IRA: Um. I feel like this one should be on the list because it’s important to at least strive for, you know, saving for the future. So I’m going to pull the old Law of Attraction thing and say “Future Nicole, you are going to figure out how to at least partially fund your Roth IRA in 2015.” I know the Law of Attraction says I need to frame that statement in the present tense, so: “Current Nicole, you are currently funding your Roth IRA.” Has it happened yet? Is it happening right now?

Why is charitable spending not on this list? I’m actually pretty good on my charitable spending, thanks. I’d like to keep that constant in 2015. Same goes for anything else I haven’t mentioned, like food, clothes, and travel.

What about you? What do you want to spend more money on in 2015? (If you want to discuss how you want to spend less money in 2015, that’s Ester’s post.)

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