There are 4 common styles of lifestyle spending: Always, Early, Later, Never

Always Spender:

This style of spending has no restrictions and massive debt is common to this particular lifestyle spending.  The spender may follow this path because they have a short lifespan, they believe an unseen hand will provide and take care of them. they are rich, they may be weak-minded or low self-esteem, and too many other reasons to list them all…

Unless you are rich, have a short lifespan, or extremely lucky, this lifestyle will have the spender paying later in their life by living in poverty.  Still, is this an incorrect lifestyle to live?  For most of us (including me) yes, but for other, it depends on their situation.

Early Spender:

This style of spending typically happens when you are also young and finally are cut loose from your parents.  Some kids go wild with their spending because they are their own boss, or because they weren’t properly educated in financial matters!  There are many great bloggers out there that come from this type of background (J.D. roth @ www.Getrichslowly.org, Jason @ www.Frugaldad.com and  Jeff @ www.deliverawaydebt.com).

Like the above bloggers, with some dedicated focus and determination, the Early spender can recover from this debt and still go on to acquire great wealth!

Later Spender:

This style of spending happens when the new spender achieves a certain level of financial security, and thus starts spending a bit more money than they did earlier.  It’s common for these spenders to be financial independent when they start to loosen the purse strings on their finances.  Of course, often times these spenders still continue to save more than they spend!  This groups should be able to leave behind an inheritance for their kids.

This is the style that I am pursuing, although I’m not really financial independent yet!  While I intend on spending more, I too, still plan to save more than I spend!  I just want to increase my spending a little more, but not too drastically!

Never Spender:

Another name for this style of spending is Miserly.  In my opinion, this group is the worst to be in!  This groups lives in a continual state of depravity.  They are constantly looking to save a buck at the expense of everything else!

Scrooge is a character in The Christmas Carol, but he epitomizes the miser fairly well.

Conclusion:

So in my opinion, I would not want to be a “Never” or an “Always” spender!  Both of these spender types have too much of  a negative end results.  Obviously, I’d rather be a “Later” spender than an “Always” spender!

There is another spending style that is not common and somewhat difficult to achieve, and that is the Balanced spender!   The typical balanced spender may have a budget to control their spending!  This may be the best of all of the spenders types because they accomplish their savings goals, while still spending money on fun stuff!

A great example of blogger that follow this path are Crystal @ BudgetingInTheFunStuff.com and J. Money @ BudgetsAreSexy.com!

-MR

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