Weekend Reading: Overcoming the Frugality Syndrome

This article appears as part of Casey Weade's Weekend Reading for Retirees series. Every Friday, Casey highlights four hand-picked articles on trending retirement topics and delivers them straight to your email inbox. Get on the list here.
Weekend reading frugality syndrome Weekend reading frugality syndrome
Weekend Reading

The author here (a self-proclaimed pyromaniac) makes a very important observation as it relates to the popular Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement: “It is usually easier to start a fire than put one out.”

READ THE ARTICLE

Fear and frugality: The biggest driving force behind the FIRE movement stems from extreme frugality. Individuals are retiring as early as age 30, and for many, this intense focus around saving becomes a lifestyle, and a habit that’s hard to break. It begins slowly, but after years of accumulating enough to support your lifestyle, it can turn into a complete shift in mindset – even a fear of spending. This is what the author refers to as “frugality syndrome.”

Extinguishing the fire: Someone experiencing frugality syndrome often pushes their financial threshold forward, even after reaching the amount needed for financial independence. It can develop a momentum that’s hard to stop, which makes pivoting from accumulation mode into retirement distribution mode all the more difficult. How can you get past a habit of frugality and begin to focus on enjoying the fruits of your labor? Three steps include:

📌Realize frugality syndrome is normal: Give yourself some grace and recognize that shifting into a distribution mode mindset might come with some difficult emotions

📌Prepare a spending plan: You surely had a savings plan to get you to retirement, now create some guidelines that will help ensure that money lasts your lifetime

📌Get a checkup: As you get closer to no longer needing that company paycheck, partner with a trusted financial advisor to get professional help in preparing for your transition

Money and meaning: It’s important to enjoy what you’ve worked so hard for, responsibly of course, but it can be difficult after a lifetime of frugality. I faced this predicament, and trust me, it takes time to learn how to spend and enjoy life to the fullest.