I’ve heard it said that it can be better to spend money on experiences rather than things, because experiences are more likely to create happy memories. My sister subscribes to this notion. She and her husband make decent money but don’t own many grown-up toys; they prefer spending their money on nice vacations and dining out.
But spending on experiences being better than on things is not always the case-- as a co-worker pointed out when I brought the subject up once, if you buy a jet ski, that’s a thing, but it will sure create some great experiences!
For myself, my wife and I (with and without the kids) have had some nice vacations in the past, though we haven’t had a real vacation in years, for reasons I won’t get into here. We spend a fair amount on consumables-- high quality food and drink. One ‘thing’ that’s been a very satisfying recent purchase for me was buying a new computer. I work at home, and my ancient work-issued laptop just wasn’t cutting it. Asking for an upgrade would just get me a slightly newer hand-me-down after several months, if I was lucky. My new computer just works, and instantly. It’s also gaming-level, so I’ve been getting into gaming in my late middle age, which has been more fun than I thought it would be. So the new computer has been a satisfying improvement to my overall quality of life.
So what’s a significant purchase that you were really glad you made? I’ll leave the size of the ‘big-ticket’ part to your own definition: could be anything from a particularly transcendent meal you had in a restaurant to buying your dream house.
After several boats, including new and used, smaller and larger, we finally found the boat that’s perfect for us. It cost more than any of the others, but it matches our needs. Big enough to handle rough water, small enough to tow kids on an inner tube. A range of over 250 miles. Fast, but relatively fuel efficient. It is not the boat I would have thought I wanted 5 or 10 years ago, but trial and error worked to get us “our most satisfying big ticket item.”
There are some people who buy things just to have them, i.e. for them, merely owning those things is the experience. Seems like a waste to me.
My first motorcycle was a big-ticket purchase that changed my life. Any objective observer would have said it was ill-advised, buying a big sport-touring bike with relatively little prior experience and buying such an expensive bike so soon after leaving college and starting my first job with essentially no savings. But over the course of a decade and tens of thousands of miles, I met new friends, traveled the country, and saw and did amazing things I would never have done without that bike. Most satisfying.
A new TV. Not exactly that big ticket, but a $400 TV that’s 65", has integrated Roku and seamlessly links to the stereo has been really satisfying. Adding in the cost of the stereo, $300 for the receiver and $300 for the speakers is $1,000 all in for a system that just works.
In the past, I’d practically need to write an instruction manual for operating a home theater system, put this on and that on, check this setting, check that input, on 3 different remote controls. Now I can watch TV through a nice system by pressing one button on the tiny Roku remote, turns everything on and to the right settings. So satisfying.
(1) Shortly out of college I attended a few weddings of former classmates whom I was close to. My salary at the time didn’t justify this but for three of them I pruchased a 1 ounce .999 fine gold Krugerrand as a wedding gift. I thought it special. I have no idea what happened to those coins but I still get pleasure from knowing I did it.
(2) In 2010 I finally decided I needed more than a 20 year-old 80286-based PC running DOS. So I ponied up $2,000 for a high performance video/audio editing workstation. I still use it to this day. That was money well spent.
'99 Dodge 2500 pickup truck. It was old when I bought it, and is now no longer road-worthy, but still manages to plow the driveway and haul firewood around my yard. In some ways it might be a boondoggle, but it makes me happy.
But I think it’s edged out by the substantially cheaper chainsaw. I use it whenever I can, and haven’t cut any body parts off yet.
Nice boat! Boat ownership is one of those things that can be both very satisfying and very frustrating. The old joke about the two best days in a boat owner’s life is funny because it’s so true. I’ve owned a couple boats, both older and very used. I still own the first boat I ever bought because its 65 HP outboard motor was pretty easy to fix and tinker with. Then I bought a bowrider with an I/O motor, still used but newer than my first boat, and an ‘upgrade’. But that thing was nothing but breakdowns and trouble, and the I/O motor was much harder to work on than the outboard. It was truly one of the happiest days of my life when I got rid of that lemon.
These days my wife and I mainly just do kayaking-- no motors or complicated parts, kayak fishing I think is even more fun than from a bigger boat, and it’s just easy to throw the kayaks on the racks and head out. So buying the kayaks was a satisfying purchase for us that we’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment out of. Sadly, I think I will finally have to part with my old outboard boat this Spring, since I never use it anymore
Haha, the actual name of that emoji is ‘disappointed_relieved’, which perfectly describes how I will feel when I finally get rid of my last boat.
When I was 27 I bought a 2011 Challenger SRT8. I loved that car, 470 horsepower and more fun to drive then you can imagine. I have so many great memories in that car and even my wife loved it enough that she requested it feature heavily in our engagement photos.
Buying the right toys enables memories that are just as strong as buying experiences. The secret is to buy things you’ll actually use not just sit in a drawer that you tell people you own.
I’ve loved every boat purchase I’ve ever made. Because we haul our dogs along, who get wet and muddy (river boating) I’ve always purchased used, beater pontoons. I’ve kept each pontoon boat for 3-5 years, eventually selling it for about what I paid.
I’ve purchased kayaks just because they were great deals, eventually reselling or giving them to people who need them.
Having your kayak dragged around a lake by a large mouth bass is a thrill.
Yeah, I’ve already clicked on that link a few times to watch the video of the boat in action. @Procrustus , if you’ve awakened my boat jones again, my wife is not going to be happy with you
Yeah it is! Been there. And if one hits on a crankbait, jumping out of the water, it’s cooler to see from a kayak perspective.
My scuba gear comprises several items totaling thousands of dollars. But I acquired it all in relatively short order, so I still think of it as a big-ticket purchase to buy it all instead of continuing to rent. Renting gear, as I did for the first 6 months after I got certified, meant I could give up the sport anytime without acute embarrassment. But it also meant I didn’t have as much flexibility to go diving whenever I wanted to. It’s also nice to have everything adjusted just the way I like it, and know it’ll stay that way from one dive to the next because it’s mine and nobody touches it.
My car. I bought a limited edition Challenger II R/T and I love it. I don’t drive it very often, but I love driving it around. When I was a kid I always wanted a muscle car as the rich kids had, and this was the closest I could come to that look and feel but with modern systems (unbelievably to me, the thing gets like 25 miles to the gallon with a huge V8…that just seems impossible, and it’s a lot less than my daily driver, but still impressive for what it is).
I always liked the look of those 2nd Gen Challengers and always heard good things about them. When I bought my last vehicle, a 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee, I gave the Challenger in the showroom a lot of longing looks. But the Jeep was much better suited to my overall needs.
I first saw one as I was tooling down Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu. They we filming a commercial in one of the parking lots with the ocean in the background. It was the Atlanta Blue one with the tan top, just like in the James Bond film which hadn’t come out yet (Goldeneye).
I got years and years of enjoyment out of that one.
This was definitely not my ‘need’ vehicle (I have a daily driver for that), this was a ‘I wants it, yes my precious, I wants it’ type deal. I love it, definitely my most satisfying big-ticket purchase (I actually don’t buy a lot of big-ticket-type things, so this was one time I did something just for me).
My driveway. Other than the house itself, it’s the most expensive single purchase I’ve ever made (including the car parked on it.)
But it’s really nice to come home to a driveway that’s not an embarrassment of weeds growing out of poorly patched cracks. I also made it a double wide, so that I can fit two cars in it, rather than having to leave one out on the street.
