Chasing the Fionist Dream

After listing all of the things we don’t spend money on, we’re following up with the expensive things we DO spend money on, lest you think we’re stingy. 😂 Our Fionist lifestyle isn’t about living as cheaply as possible. It’s about changing our mindset and prioritizing our spending on things that are important to us. While we invest a large percentage of our income in our financial future, we also invest in our health – both emotional and physical, and in our children. Because having a nest egg and being financially free in the future doesn’t mean much if we are not healthy enough to enjoy it or no longer on speaking terms. And while we talk a lot about the future, we need to enjoy the present, and our journey, or we’d quit and never reach our goals.

After that intro, let’s cut to the chase. We don’t buy all of these things every year, but on average we do spend a bit over 70K per year on things from this list. Here are the expensive things we do buy:

Insurance – Any eventuality that has the ability to wipe out your savings or put you in debt needs to be insured against. You need to decide what this means for you and buy insurance plans wisely as many agents will push you to buy policies you don’t need or that cover incidents you’re already covered for in order to gain their their commission.

Private therapy as needed – A couple years ago we did half a year of marriage counseling with a private psychologist. We met with her to resolve a particular issue that had the potential to get worse. We learned lots, gained tools and “graduated” right before the world shut down for COVID. Those skills became particularly useful during the lockdowns. Once in a while we still check back in for a refresher session. In retrospect, we couldn’t have chosen a better time to go. While therapy can be very expensive, investing in yourself and your relationships with those you love most is priceless.

Day trips and vacations – We love to travel and share the world with our kids. We plan on sharing some of our many budget travel tips in future posts.

Dates at restaurants – We like to eat. And as much as we make great inexpensive food at home, we do go on a few occasional restaurant dates here and there – and pay for a babysitter too.

High quality new appliances – In the past two years, we replaced our 10-year-old oven and 13-year-old washing machine (both of which we had outgrown, b”h) even though they both still worked. We also bought our first dryer and dishwasher – even though neither of those are “needs”, but they have greatly improved our quality of life. All of the new appliances we bought were name brand and had excellent reviews – and bought on sale. We purchased our oven with our Israeli COVID stimulus check and our washer and dryer with one of our American ones. We bought our dishwasher with BuyMe. These new appliances save us time, have significantly lowered our water bill and haven’t increased our electric bill.

Good supportive shoes – When you don’t have a car and walk as much as we do, good foot support is crucial.

Netflix – While it’s not that expensive, this is something that many people easily go without. We have the cheapest package. That’s enough for us.

Whole grains – While it does cost more, we are very into our whole grains – brown rice, whole tehina, whole wheat, etc. We’ve learned the best places and times to stock up.

Our kids are incredibly important to us. While we dress them in hand-me-downs and and don’t buy them tons of toys or junk food, we happily spend money to keep them happy and healthy. We don’t compromise on quality when it comes to ganim/schools and summer camps, good toys such as magnet tiles that will last them for years, books, chugim/after school activities that they enjoy. Our beloved babysitter even recently raised her rates and we happily obliged, because she’s worth it.

By cutting spending on things we care less about, we are able to invest more in the things that are most valuable to us – our children, ourselves and our financial future.

What “luxuries” do you currently have? What luxuries would you like to have in the future and how do you plan to pay for them?