I’m dating a wonderful woman and this is often a point of contention in our lives. She’ll say something innocent and sweet like “why don’t we order delivery for dinner?” and I scream “NO!” I have a physical reaction. My stomach tightens up. Delivery is FORBIDDEN. It’s too expensive. Takeout is OK, but we have to go pick it up to save on delivery fees!

While it’s TRUE that delivery is expensive and the higher menu prices and hidden fees can add up to be double or more what you’d pay for pickup. It’s also true that I can easily afford it. In fact, right now you could delete the cost of 100 takeouts from my checking account balance (not to mention my investment balance) and I don’t think I’d be able to tell the difference. So WHY the physical reaction? I think it stems from my childhood!

We all soak up so much as children and live are lives as though what we learned as kids is fact as an adult. Many kids learn that “wealth” is whoever is driving the nicest car. But as an adult we know that nice cars are often swimming debt, and represent the opposite of wealth. In my family, paying for convenience as forbidden. We didn’t have Cable TV. Buying a movie “pay-per-view” was a luxury unheard of in my household. If free parking was possible, we’d circle forever or walk for miles before we pulled into a paid lot.

Is that type of frugality “right”? It depends. If you’re broke and buried in debt, I definitely would not be digging your hole deeper by rewarding yourself with luxuries of convenience. That’s just making it harder for yourself down the road and will make your life harder and more stressful overall. But if you can afford it, it’s important to remember that the winner of life is not who dies with the most money in your bank account. Your investment balance won’t mean much when you’re worm food. So look for opportunities to use money as the tool that is and convert it to happiness when you find a chance.

As always, reminding you to build wealth by following the two PFC rules: 1.) Live below your means and 2.) Invest early and often.

-Jeremy