Money Monday- Buy Vs Invest

     

With my daughter having a new house, she's been little by little adding things to turn a house that had been stripped of any identity prepurchase, to her home. There's things she had to buy, like a lawn mower and a dehumidifier for her basement. Then there's touches shes now adding. She was smart to keep her savings at both an emergency fund level, and keep 6 months living expenses. As a single person, working in the quasi public/ NGO world and having no second income to fall back on means she's making every dollar count. I'm so proud of what she's accomplished.

     This brings me to my Monday noodling. When is spending money on something an investment, and not just a purchase? I feel firmly that when our homes are cozy, reflect our personality and lifestyle, we want to spend more time there. When we're home, we're not spending money, online shopping aside. Her recent purchases included bohemian floor rugs for her living room and dining room, sheer, but patterned curtains that will tie her eclectic style together with cohesion, and a chaise. She bought a few accent items, throws and pillow for a sunny yellow pop. 

     The floor lamp was the same one I found as part of a $5 anything in a bag, church sale. ( That also yielded three pairs of like new jeans, a Christmas platter, and a decanter). She loves the result. She has other thrifty ideas to keep adding style, but is done with buying as she's adequately invested in her home for now. Her next investment, and will be major, is a fence, hopefully this spring.  

     I've rambled for years that we need to redo bathrooms and the deck/patio. I see these as investments both in quality of life for however long we decide to stay in our house and for resale. We know once we go to put our house on the market it should sell fast, but still want it to be at it's best. We are in that sweet housing market spot of having a house big enough for a family, including 3-4 bedrooms or office, three on one floor, two living rooms (family room as we call lower level) a large kitchen with seperate dining room, and two bathrooms. We're on a Cul de sac and back up to a park. But, we're not McMansion size or price, so the buyers market should be broad. Our two housing negatives are no main floor laundry or bathroom. The buyers that need those features though are the same as us, which would be why we'll move eventually.

     Unlike our daughter, we're not buying any home furnishings. I plan to keep what we have in good shape, protecting the investments made years ago. This spring I'll repaint the 30 year old kitchen table and chairs, steam clean the 16 year old living room furniture, and we need to repaint all the walls. Any other spending would just feel like that, spending not investing. We may want different furniture once we move so replacing old, but not worn now seems wasteful. Plus, I still really like my living room set. 

     We've toyed with replacing kitchen counters as they're still builder grade formica, but they're a light gray neutral, and once we updated the flooring and appliances four years ago, they look fine. How we managed to avoid any damage over 32 years is a mystery. Original upper level carpeting needs replacing as does the stuff in my office, but once DH retires, he can research options. Purging is the biggest home improvement we can do, and 2023 must be the year, garage included. 

     So that brings me back to my question to myself. When is it investment and when just spending money? The answer is individual to each person, each family. When things have no wow factor, nor help hold or increase value, to me that's just spending. As for pets, pup will probably cost us more in his care as he ages, but we'll spend what's needed to keep him healthy with a good life. The puppy makes my daughter's house a home, and we consider him adopted to the family. He's her biggest ongoing expense, but worth every penny.