{"id":19452,"date":"2025-08-14T23:37:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T23:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=19452"},"modified":"2025-08-14T23:37:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T23:37:03","slug":"big-paychecks-big-regrets-how-to-avoid-splurge-pitfalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=19452","title":{"rendered":"Big Paychecks, Big Regrets: How to Avoid Splurge Pitfalls"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gene Caballero learned a hard lesson when he bought himself a Tesla, thinking it would be \u201cthe perfect upgrade\u201d \u2014 and then discovered that it was hard to find an apartment in Nashville, Tennessee with sufficient <\/span>electric vehicle<\/span> chargers. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s become a headache constantly worrying about access,\u201d says Caballero, who is a co-founder of lawn care platform GreenPal. \u201cI wish I would have stuck with something more traditional.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ashley Carroll, CEO of business consulting firm Operations House in Philadelphia, spent $12,000 to join an upscale country club in the area. She hoped she and her husband would be able to make friends and do some networking. \u201cThis was a treat for us,\u201d Carroll says.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In reality, they went to the club twice and both times it was mostly empty. They ended up canceling, losing their deposit and joining smaller, more meaningful local groups.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThat $12,000 could have funded a year of business retreats or simply padded our emergency fund,\u201d Carroll says. \u201cInstead, it evaporated with zero return.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One of the nice things about making a good salary is that you can afford the occasional splurge \u2014 but not every purchase is a winner. Here\u2019s how to be smart about your indulgences.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Why you might have buyer\u2019s remorse<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Regrettable purchases share some common themes: You didn\u2019t plan for it, you bought it during an emotional high, it\u2019s hard to resell, or it doesn\u2019t fit your lifestyle or goals. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Alexandra Rooney, a certified financial planner in Greenwich, Connecticut, sees these patterns all the time. One of her clients, for instance, recently considered buying a million-dollar <\/span>rental property<\/span> that was five hours away.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cShe\u2019s got considerable wealth, but she\u2019s not equipped to be a handyman,\u201d Rooney says. \u201cIt\u2019s not a good fit for her in the lifestyle phase that she\u2019s in right now.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Not every purchase you make will be a slam dunk. But if you\u2019re going to treat yourself to something fancy, here are some tips on how to still like yourself in the morning.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Budget with splurges in mind<\/span><\/h2>\n
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\u201cHigh earner\u201d and \u201cbudget\u201d may not go hand-in-hand in your mind, but <\/span>budgeting<\/span> is still important, especially if you\u2019re planning to indulge yourself. As always, it\u2019s crucial to cover your needs before your wants. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOnce you\u2019ve allocated [income] to all the necessities \u2014 the food, clothing, rent and the savings \u2014 then if there\u2019s a surplus, we can talk about that surplus,\u201d says Glenn Downing, a CFP in Miami. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What he advises clients, Downing says, is to make a rule for <\/span>windfalls<\/span>. For example, steering a third to savings, a third to retirement and a third for fun. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rooney suggests that clients buy luxury items with money in the bank \u2014 not expected income. While we might plan for spending on an annual basis, \u201cwe don\u2019t want to spend money we haven\u2019t received yet,\u201d Rooney says. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Otherwise it\u2019s easy to feel like that purchase is already covered, she says, which means new money that comes in could get used for something else. Some of her clients even set up a separate account to use for big purchases. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s having that long term annual plan and almost saving up for it,\u201d Rooney says.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Reflect before you spend<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Consider all the angles of the thing before you buy it. Downing often has conversations with his clients who want to buy a <\/span>second home<\/span> for vacations or other real estate. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAt what point does it make sense for you to own something rather than just renting something when you get there?\u201d says Downing, who walks clients through all the logistics: Who will maintain the property? What if there\u2019s an emergency? If you want to rent it to vacationers, does local law allow it? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rooney reminds her clients that they should be comfortable using the luxury purchase they\u2019re making. \u201cIf you buy a mink coat and you don\u2019t feel comfortable wearing it, what was the purpose in buying it?\u201d she says. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One client of Rooney\u2019s committed herself to hundreds of thousands of dollars in cruises without ever having been on a cruise. In the end, the client lost about $10,000 in deposits when she realized she wasn\u2019t a cruise person. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe marketing we\u2019re fed these days is extremely effective,\u201d Rooney says. \u201cIt\u2019s crucial to coach clients through how they feel after spending money, and helping them understand themselves before they sink too much into a luxury item.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Assign meaning to your money<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Jack Heintzelman, a CFP in Boston, has clients think about the deeper meaning in their splurges. \u201cTake a moment to say, \u2018What is important to me?\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then put the dollars toward that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That focus can prevent what he calls the \u201cspiral,\u201d when one luxury purchase leads to another and another. \u201cThe key is not about doing everything that is nice,\u201d Heintzelman says. \u201cIt\u2019s about what is important to them and going deep on that level first.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rooney remembers a client whose job involved frequent plane travel, and his company offered free first class transport \u2014 but the client turned it down to fly private. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt was such an enormous cost to the overall plan,\u201d Rooney says. \u201cWhy spend meaninglessly for something that\u2019s really not adding to the bottom line for you?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When you\u2019re a high earner, \u201cyou can do anything you want but you can\u2019t do everything, and you can\u2019t do it all at once,\u201d Rooney says. \u201cWhere are those dollars more impactful and where will you find the most joy?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Gene Caballero learned a hard lesson when he bought himself a Tesla, thinking it would be \u201cthe perfect upgrade\u201d \u2014 and then discovered that it was hard to find an apartment in Nashville, Tennessee with sufficient electric vehicle chargers. \u201cIt\u2019s become a headache constantly worrying about access,\u201d says Caballero, who is a co-founder of lawn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[485,242,5029,3366,7737,7738],"class_list":{"0":"post-19452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-avoid","9":"tag-big","10":"tag-paychecks","11":"tag-pitfalls","12":"tag-regrets","13":"tag-splurge"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}