This guest post is from Mr. F, an Australian reader in his
mid-20s who works for the government. We’re often told to “spend
money on what’s important,” “spend according to your values” or
“spend on whatever takes up most of your time.” So, for example,
you should spend money when it comes to things like education,
or family, or on a mattress. That’s a good guide, but in day-to-
day situations you often have to make a number of smaller
decisions about when and where to spend money, and it’s not
entirely clear how you should be applying these guidelines. Even
when you set aside money for specific categories, there’s always
an implicit choice to be made – should I spend the money now, or
should I wait until later in the week/month/year to exhaust this
budget item? For example, let’s say you’re an avid computer
gamer, and you see a game or two on sale. You weren’t really
looking to buy the games now, but it would be nice to have them,
and you would definitely play them and get hours of
entertainment out of them. W