The importance of having a play fund or account

I was born a saver. When I was a kid, I really love saving money. The allowance I received from my parents, most of it, are fed to Mr. piggy bank. I love the feeling of knowing my piggy bank is almost full. 

When I started to work, I learn about investments and was immediately addicted to it. I invested in the stock market, mutual funds and other financial vehicles that let your money grow. However, a part of me felt empty. I was truly saving money but the emotional side of me long of spending a part of that money. 

Just recently I learnt about a powerful technique in money management and was able to save a portion of my funds for a play account. and amazingly, it was very effective! Today, let me share to you how I spent my play account and the importance of having one.

It is important to have a play account

The money management technique I learnt is T Harv Eker's Money Jar System. Where your income is divided into 6 accounts: financial freedom account, long-term savings for spending account, play account, education account, expense account and give/charities account. (I will be blogging soon about the psychology of each later.)

My favorite account is the financial freedom account! Ofcourse, I'm a saver! But next to it is the play account. The psychology of the play account is that we are a creature living in four dimensions: the physical world, the emotional, spiritual and the mental world. The play account satisfies the emotional world we are living in. 

After understanding all the psychologies of the money jar system, I realized why I was feeling empty despite being able to save a lot of money. Another realization was that, I was already able to save almost a 6 figure portfolio in my stock market but due to unavoidable expenses, that portfolio almost got depleted. There I realized that I was not satisfying my emotional realm, and thus the universe took a chunk of the physical realm. The universe demands balance and we need to satisfy all 4 realms.

Today, managing money was never this fun! After the end of month, we now have a portion of our funds that we are required to spend! Let me repeat that: REQUIRED to spend! Guilt-free! The funny part was that, we (me and wife) were having a problem deciding how to spend our play fund! What a wonderful problem! So we decided to have dinner buffet:

spending our play fund on a dinner buffet

And that my friend was the time we were most-full! 

Another thing I did is that, aside from our joint play fund, I also have my own personal play fund. (I'll be blogging about our money management technique for couples soon.) Another psychology of the play fund is that you need to experience all the good stuffs in life. If you want to be rich, you need to feel the feeling of being rich. So I spent my play fund on over-priced coffee while reading my new book bought from my educational fund. (Guilt-free!) 

guilt-free!

After which, spent on riding a 4D roller coaster alone (which I long to ride ever since but was unable because my partner doesn't wanna ride it.) And went home riding a taxi (which I rarely do.)


You see, life truly is meant to be enjoyed. And though I know the importance of saving money, after this grim realization, I now being to question this statement: 

"sacrifice now and enjoy later or enjoy now and suffer later." 

Why not enjoy now and enjoy later? 

Invest in your growth, 

Tiyo Pilo