I scan probably close to 1000 blog headlines a day, and scan about 20 articles - maybe I will actually READ one all the way through.

Today, that article was a story at The Wall Street Journal about how ‘Splurging Is Good For Your Health’.

Note: My wife can stop reading at this point.

In the article, a report entitled ‘When Virtue Is A Vice‘ published in the Harvard Business Review is discussed. The report examines short and long term regret based on people’s spending decisions.

Briefly, the report suggests that extravagant spending is more likely to result in short-term regret which fades over the long term, while withholding from such purchases results in long term regret.

(I want to point out that I sent an email to the WSJ protesting the headline - the source article does not discuss the health effects of spending whatsoever)

Now, let’s discuss this interesting theory of how being frugal can result in long-term regret.

One of the examples given are of college students and how they choose to use their time over spring break.

In the long term, students who chose to work or not travel on spring break experienced a long-term regret.

I, for one, agree totally with this analysis, as not only do I regret working over spring break in college, but I regret working during college PERIOD. If I were to do it over, I would have begged, borrowed, and stolen to avoid working a single day of college. I would have learned so much more instead of just getting by, and I would have been able to socialize more as well - I did not realize at the time how singular my college experience would be in either regard - I just wanted to ‘get through it’.

At the time, I felt a great deal of self-satisfaction knowing that I was putting myself through college without any grants or other large gifts. Now, years later, that means relatively nothing to me - it was a once in a lifetime experience, and I should have lived it to its fullest, and not compromised - not then.

In my experience, it is extremely important that you recognize times in your life when you need to finance living well. As Joel Goodsen says:

“Sometimes you just have to say, ‘What The f*ck?’”

Truer words were never spoken.

Similarly, I have never been a good vacation planner - I always piggybacked on the plans of others, and spent much vacation time just goofing off and saving money - I regret that.

I don’t necessarily agree with spending extravagantly generally has this effect, but when it comes to stuff like vacation and free time, I agree 100%.

In fact, two of the most unaffordable trips I have ever taken, both of which threw me into the two biggest piles of debt in my life, were also two of the most important experiences of my life - and one led me to relocate and a much more rewarding career. It was, indeed, life-defining.

So, when it comes to living frugally or living well, I lean towards living well.

Living well begets living well to a large degree, I think - and some seem to be in agreement with me that one day, when are dead, the stories of how we saved will be unknown and the stories of how we spent will be remembered fondly and shared among our survivors.