Time to question your money habits
Yes, you should question your financial beliefs and habits over the years. Plus, tips for how to make moving more affordable.
In My Humble Opinion
It’s important to question your money habits.
Last Tuesday, Peach and I hovered under construction scaffolding while waiting for a bus.
“Do you want to just try and get a cab or Uber?” Peach asked multiple times.
“No, it’ll be impossible to get a cab in this weather and we’re a mile from home, it feels so rude to take an Uber or Lyft,” I responded.
But really, I just didn’t want to pay for a cab or Uber. This is a frugal behavior that’s a relic from my early days living in New York. The truly broke millennial days in which I really couldn’t afford to take a cab (rideshare didn’t exist yet) or if I did it meant I couldn’t afford something necessary, like half my groceries, later on in the week.
Smash cut to nearly 12 years later and I could afford to take cabs and rideshares when necessary, but it’s just still so hard for me to justify. While I do value my time, usually, I don’t often see cabs or rideshare options as the faster route – or safer, if I’m alone – in New York. Our mass transit might be old, smelly, and deal with insane delays or random stop shutdowns for construction on weekends, but I’m comfortable with and used to it. Plus, the horrible car traffic in this city means it isn’t always faster to take a cab from point A to point B.
Of course, there are times when it makes a lot more sense to shell out the $50 or $75 it’s going to cost to take a cab home, like when we went to a Halloween party in the middle of Brooklyn and it would’ve taken well over an hour to get home and people would be drunk and wearing masks, which increases the likelihood of violence on the trains. In that situation, the time value of money calculation swung in favor of going against my frugal nature. It was also a decision we discussed before even going to the party and factored into the cost of attending.
It does become important for us to occasionally question why we do the things we do, especially when it comes to our financial behaviors. It’s likely there was a time in which certain ways we budget, save, spend, and invest served our situation and our values. But situations change, as do values, so it’s important to assess from time to time and make sure the behaviors with which we’re engaging actually align with who we are now.