I look out through the French double doors installed on my gazebo and asked myself that question everyone does when they are staring out at a great view through double doors.
“Why didn’t I install a screen door?”
It’s that burning questions everyone doubtlessly asks of themselves while looking out at fog-blanketed mountains in the distance, and it’s the best of both worlds. I get the breeze slapping me oh, so lovingly across my face and the advantage of keeping the bugs out, they that like to compose orchestras of Brahm and Chopin in my ears.
Try as I might, I could not get this question out of head, it kept on pulling itself out over and over on the ticker tape inside my head. And then, success, or something resembling it…I visited a dear friend with exactly the same setup I had in mind and blurted out the question again, this time reformed to suit the moment.
“How much did it cost you to install a screen door?”
Happy songs played inside my head for all of 2 seconds and then reality hit me in the form of an answer, a preposterous one.
“700 dollars only”.
For a moment, I thought my ears deceived me and then I realized that he was being serious and that my ears weren’t playing tricks on me. That’s preposterous, I might as well turn on the air-conditioning instead, that would be infinitely cheaper. But a few days later, on a particularly barmy day, the idea again danced inside my head when I refused to turn on the A/C for reasons beyond me. If I wouldn’t use the A/C even on a day like this, is it fair to compare the cost of installing a screen door to the cost of running an A/C? And then, another question from me; clearly, I’m on a roll.
“What else is there that is frugal for some and excessive for others? What defines worth?”
It really is a question of one man’s food being another man’s poison. Some view financial planners as the detritus of society, making money off of other people’s money by charging a set percentage each year. But surely that isn’t the view of anyone that finds it hard to resist the lures of an oscillating market, or those that find it hard to figure out how to maximize their own wealth. Starbucks is by all accounts expensive, but those that like their caffeine burst in the morning from Starbucks will gladly splurge thousands of dollars a year on it. If something satisfies some primeval urge within you, what’s to stop you from spending money? After all, those printing presses didn’t spit out all that money for you to hoard.
Honestly, a majority of us are in the “save, save,save!” mode all the time since we don’t save nearly enough. But sometimes, what looks like a huge expense is more of an investment, serving you well for years to come. And most importantly it’s not just a materialistic investment, it’s an investment in you. And you cannot put a price on that.
Gingerly, I picked up the phone to get the number of the screen door guy from my friend. It’s time to invest in me.
