The best thing about money: Having fun with your funds

MONEY should be used to impress yourself, not others, so it’s wise to spend it on stuff you’re going to enjoy. Here’s how to avoid getting caught by the bills financial grinder.

“THE best thing about being a woman is the prerogative to have a little fun.”

So sings country music superstar Shania Twain.

I personally don’t know the best thing about being a woman, because I’m a bloke, but good ‘ol Shania was certainly onto something when singing about having a little fun.

As millions of Aussies prepare to suffer the year’s biggest case of Monday-itis as they return to work after their Christmas holidays, their thoughts are probably anything but fun.

While thinking about the work year ahead and regretting that holidays are over, we need to inject fun into our finances.

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The mega-rich like to spend money on fun. For example, the Sultan of Brunei likes cars, so he’s got a collection of more than 5000 including 300 Ferraris and 600 Rolls Royces.

Super-geek Bill Gates paid more than US$30 million for a notebook containing the scientific writings of history’s greatest super-geek, Leonardi da Vinci.

The world’s richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, spends billions on starting space tourism. But unlike the Sultan of Brunei, cars aren’t that important to him — he drove a 1996 Honda Accord to work after becoming rich.

Shania Twain sings about having fun. She’s onto a good thing. Picture: AAP/Morgan Sette

Of course, it’s easy to buy fun when your cash is overflowing. But everybody needs to spend some of their money on fun.

Otherwise we become a slave to the dollar. A sad, frustrated slave.

If you love cars but can’t afford a Ferrari, look at organising a fancy weekend in a city where you can hire one.

Almost everything can be borrowed in today’s sharing economy, from cars and caravans to new fashions and beautiful holiday homes. It delivers the experience without the impossible price tag.

The best way to do ensure some of your spending goes towards fun is to include it in your budget (if you have one). Write it down among your goals or new year resolutions (if you have any) or set up a separate bank account or money jar at home.

Rather than buying fun stuff after paying all the bills, stash it separately as part of the bills so there’s always room to buy, save and spend on thing you enjoy.

It can also help control spending, and lead to better saving and investments because they also become automatic. Most of us spend more than 100 per cent of what we earn, pushing many into expensive debt such as credit cards.

Saving and investing is the only proven way to build enough money to have bigger, better fun later in life.

Jeff Bezos and others want to charge $250,000-plus for tourists to travel in space in the coming decades. Or you could spend less by renting a space movie, or fly through an asteroid field wearing a virtual reality headset (they are really freaky!)

Money breeds more money, and there’s a mountain of research and advice available online for would-be investors, while financial planners can be valuable despite their shocker of a year in 2018.

Don’t think of money as something to impress others. Use it to impress yourself.

@keanemoney