How Are Your Emotions Messing With Your Money?

Recently, I had to take my car in because there was a problem with the tire pressure gauges. Or rather, it said there was a problem, and there wasn’t a problem, so that was a problem.

So, I took the car in, and they gave me a loaner car. And those sneaky devils gave me a car that is light years ahead of mine, all souped up, better sound system, bigger engine, faster, faster, faster.

I took it from zero to 60 about 50 times, for no good reason except just because I could. I took it around very tight corners and really just enjoyed the heck out of driving it.

It is a different color than my car, with a different interior and all of these upgrades. Just so many upgrades.

And, of course, next time I go to buy a car, I will remember this loaner car and all of its amazing upgrades. (So sneaky.)

But the interesting thing was, I found myself kind of missing my own car. Mine was a step down for sure, but still, I missed it. I missed my car.

It struck me that I had an affinity for this object. Kind of odd really.

And when I saw a picture of my old Honda the other day—it was just so thrashed—it was the same thing, I was nostalgic. Real, genuine feelings about a hunk of metal.

It made me think through my finances. What am I attached to, that isn’t rational at all, but emotional, and how might (must?) those emotions affect my decisions?

It would almost be impossible to separate our emotions from our money entirely. And some of those emotions play into our priorities, they help us determine what is most important to us, and what makes us the most happy. And some of those emotions make us impulsive and irrational and threaten to upset the budget and our long-term goals. There has to be a balance.

My question for you is are you emotionally attached to spending on certain things? Are you even aware of it? Just start there.

I’m certainly not passing judgment because I was behaving pretty irrationally. But be aware of it. I’m exploring it myself and I just find it inherently fascinating.

We are emotional with our money, and is that even a bad thing? Or can we just operate within the confines of the rules, and carry on with our happy emotional, irrational selves? Perhaps.

Let’s just keep asking questions, questioning our behaviors and being intentional with every dollar, and recognizing our emotions are an inevitable part of the whole equation.