I was perusing Facebook last week and checked out the BiggerPockets Money group. There was a post that amused me:
Predictably the comments were all over the spectrum. Many did not appreciate the well-worn piece of furniture:
Others were more supportive:
This one cracked me up:
Finally, this one provided some food for thought:
Crappy Couch Cacophony
I have some thoughts on this situation. Choose your adventure:
Situation 1: You aren’t Financially Independent (FI) yet
FI has a load of value. Once you’re FI, life changes:
My new boss is a jerk!
Quit.
I discovered a new passion for basket weaving and I don’t have time for it with my job.
Quit.
My father is sick and I need to take care of him.
Quit.
Yo quiero estudiar Espanol y la Ciudad de Mexico es muy bonita y barata!
Quit. Then move to Mexico City.
The value of FI is that if gives you options. FI allows for life pivots. You don’t like your life? Great, choose a new adventure!
There is infinite value in freedom and if you aren’t FI yet, I strongly encourage you to live with <insert one: your sh*tty couches, your sh*tty cars, your sh*tty phones>.
Situation #2: You are Financially Independent
The situation gets a little trickier here, but the first rule is easy:
Don’t do anything that would jeopardize your FI status.
This isn’t difficult to understand. If your annual spend is $40,000 and you plan to live by the 4 percent rule, if you have $1,000,000 saved up, don’t buy a helicopter.
After you accumulate more money, it’s OK to let loose a little. I did this when I bought a fancy car. But, you have to be careful here too. I thought the NSX would bring me happiness and it didn’t, at least not the car itself. I did find that it was fun to hang out with other owners:
And I can hang out with fellow car people even if I don’t happen to be driving a fancy car, so that’s my outlet. I get the fun of talking to like-minded humans without the hassle of the car. The NSX went to a new owner.
After basic needs are taken care of, no matter how much money you have, it’s still a valid exercise to practice mindful spending and restraint. A recent trip reminded me of the importance of the latter point.
Being in a hotel, we ate at restaurants every day. This quickly gets old and the appreciation for the experience goes out the window. The first time, it feels pretty great. By the 5th meal, you feel bad.
So, what should Mr. Crap Couch do?
My thought is that he should do whatever the hell he wants. If I was in his situation, I’d probably keep the duct-taped monstrosity too. As long as the thing is comfortable, who cares? If people judge him based on the state of the furniture, those people can go find friends with nicer couches.
But, I wouldn’t judge someone with nice furniture either. If your FI house is in order and a $5,000 couch gives you joy, go buy it!
Perhaps my main takeaway from this exercise is not to be judgmental. I’ve been guilty of this in the past and my thought now is this:
Who am I to judge another human’s choices? Their choices are a culmination of decades of experience that I have no knowledge of.
What do you think?
Leave a comment with your thoughts!
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i would buy the couch if it meant something to me at this point. i would also hope to go into the decision knowing if i buy the couch there is something else i cannot do once that money is spent.
the last time i bought a couch was about 10 years ago after i won about 4 grand on a horse race. i didn’t spend the whole 4 but spent quite a bit on it. that being said we live with crappy 40 year old cracked linoleum kitchen floors and laminate countertops. i guess we like couches more than taupe colored granite counters.
freddy smidlap recently posted…A Break From Digital Was Perfect
When I received the money from my property development and I was financially free I bought 3 couches. Real leather. Cost me around 5K. Very happy with them – though I had to make the decision to never get another cat. Damned if I want these babies getting scratches!
I’ve decided that any other furniture I get (which will be minimal at best – my house is pretty much taken care of) will be second hand. I like the idea of hunting down a bargain!
We are the third owners of what is probably a 10+ year old leather sectional. We got it for free from my brother in law. It’s seen better days but the color isn’t awful and it fits perfectly in corner of the living room. We also have young kids and as a general rule, they prevent us from having nice things so we have no plans to upgrade anytime soon. I’m with Mr. Crap Couch, if it doesn’t bother him I’d keep it for now.
I’d probably buy a new couch, but go find a helluva deal on one. Back in January, I bought a big leather chair/recliner that retailed for $2,000. It was super comfortable but I was even more happy about the $1,800 I saved by paying only $200 for it!
Does it feel as bad as it looks? If the sofa is no longer comfortable, it may be causing problems with your back, which leads to spending more money, time and energy to treat that problem. My new sofa and loveseat are arriving in a couple of weeks because my 14 year old sofa and loveseat are just too uncomfortable to sit on for any period of time anymore. Of course I got a great deal on the new ones, otherwise I might wait just a little longer.
Suzanne recently posted…Comment on Things You Should Never Buy If They’re Not On Sale by Dividend Power
While I can live with a crappy couch my wife cannot. So we purchased a new couch last year. I will live with this couch as long as possible (its really nice and comfy), but if it gets used well and my wife can’t stand it any more and it has reached “Crappy” status again, I will probably get a new couch. Of course it will be after delaying that as long as possible
I feel ya Brian. I am the same way. The couch wouldn’t bother me but my wife would be pushing for a new one. The last time we bought new furniture we looked around for a few weeks and endup buying them from a scratch and dent store. Got a great deal and can’t tell anything is wrong with them.
Chris recently posted…Why Don’t We Teach Our Kids Personal Finance?
For their last couple of houses, my in-laws were the sort to have a “living room” that didn’t actually get lived in. Ever. I’d be shocked if their nice La-Z-Boy sofa had more than half a dozen butt-hours on it between 2005 and 2014.
So we kept our crappy secondhand couch forever — to the point of my mom sewing us a slipcover for the cushions to keep them from falling apart — until my in-laws downsized and gave us that one. This was seven years ago; it still looks like new even though we use it for a couple hours a day. Thanks for reminding me to pay attention to it — I just flipped and vacuumed the cushions for the first time in years. 😀
If he’s happy with his couch and it’s not hurting him or anyone else who lives with it, he should enjoy it!
If not, maybe budget to replace the thing at some point. We’re in Camp 1 and while I Very Very Much want to be FI, I also remember every FI friend also cautioning us not to forget about life today as well as planning for tomorrow. So there are compromises to be made. Maybe we replace a couch, maybe we don’t. It depends on the person’s priorities. Our old couch was killing my back and after ten years we decided that it was time for a new one. We enjoy it every day. We haven’t replaced our cars, they’re going on 20 years old, they work well for now and we’d rather keep that cash invested. But we also aren’t on the road much these days. Maybe that equation changes in a few year. We’ll reevaluate when the time is right.
I only get judgy if someone makes decisions and whines at me about them! 😉
revanche @ a gai shan life recently posted…My kids and notes from Year 6.5
In my personal opinion, not to be judgmental but to be objective and factual. I think that borders on cheap part of financial independence rather than the frugality part. Would I make a different choice than him? Yes. However, I wouldn’t tell him to buy another couch, it doesn’t affect my life at all whatsoever whether he does or not.
David @ Filled With Money recently posted…The Unknown Billionaire You Need to Know About
Heh. Well I think I can speak from a little experience.
We just bought a lovely 60s teak mid century modern couch in the style we’ve been looking for the past few years. A couple years ago, our existing couch went to Jenni’s sister’s family when they bought their first place. With two young boys, we figured they’d make better use of it than we would.
That couch itself was a bit of a placeholder—a handmedown from family. We’d had our eye out for just the right vintage piece for a while but didn’t want to spend more than it’d be worth reselling years in the future.
So, when we gave away our existing couch, we went without. Our living room TV had two chairs parked in front of it instead. And we were already long past FI at that point.
It wasn’t that we couldn’t afford to go buy any couch from Walmart or even a nice piece from a local showroom. Rather, it’s that we wanted something specific and at a good value. A find. That treasure hunt makes it a little fun, too.
In the meantime, we had a good conversations starter when friends or family visited. ‘Where’s your couch?’ Ha.
I suppose my point matches yours. We’ve all got different priorities and goals. Lots of folks would think we were crazy to wait to find the right thing and sit on chairs for a year or two. But it didn’t bother us and served as motivation to hunt down the right thing. It worked for us. And I guess the duct taped leather behemoth works for the OP. 😉
Chris@TTL recently posted…How Closing a Window Almost Cost Us $450 (Sash Cord Replacement)
The concept of people treating money as a treasure rather than a tool resonated with me. I think this is a real risk for those who have the mindset to achieve FIRE. What’s the point in depriving yourself and ending up with more money than you can ever spend?
I have a similar experience to this. My wife and I had been wanting a new couch (sectional to be more precise) for quite some time. Well we ended up dropping down about 5K on a new custom made sectional and a couple ottomans. It was a tough pill for me to swallow as I definitely don’t like to spend heavily. I was fine with our old couches even though they were ugly and not comfortable.
Fast forward a few months and I am actually glad we made the purchase. The sectional fits our whole family (plus the dogs) and is super comfortable. I have some pretty bad back issues and the couch is great for those issues. We actually find ourselves enjoying more family time together binge watching a show sprawled out all over the couch. Before someone was always camped on the floor. I often went into the bedroom to watch TV because the old couch sucked for my back issues. It had no impact on our FI status either as we simply used stimulus to pay for it. I’m glad we did it.
I don’t scrimp on my home (including necessary furniture) or travel. Clothes, vehicles, other niceties, I could care less about. Quote of the week right here, though: “Who am I to judge another human’s choices? Their choices are a culmination of decades of experience that I have no knowledge of.”
We once had a wraparound couch where one of the sections broke (the seats caved in, probably due to too many parties in college…) We ended up getting rid of that section and built a side table off of the end that was missing. Ended up keeping it for a few years until we moved and my wife made me leave it behind lol.
Money is a tool to live life. If something is important to you and it doesn’t pose a risk to your financial future, go for it. That broken couch was back when we were beyond broke and a couple hundred dollars was a big deal so we couldn’t afford a new one. Life is different now and I would probably just buy a new one for my wife’s sake.
Buy the couch. The concept that you are FI but can’t afford to replace a couch probably means that you are not really FI.
Dividend Power recently posted…Coffeehouse Investor Portfolio – Week In Review
I don’t care about looks, but if the couch was no longer comfortable – OUT it goes!
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