> Finances tl;dr I have 900 in expenses a month. I take home

Lower your expenses so that you are actually over 5 years for bills. Safety nets usually are 1 year of bills so you are kinda over. Maybe invest the excess? Any profits in investments could be justified in buying stuff?

>>17550076

by spending it? you're asking ofr a personality shift, there is no process for this.

the best i can offer is that you create a 'plan' where you can only spend say, 300 a month on new stuff, and you go through the checlist buying what you want each month.

but you need to be willing to begin with.

>>17550083
I'm iffy on the investing due to how my retirement accounts are always either negative for the quarter or around 1% return. My safety nets are in the 'higher' yield savings accounts (1% APY).

>>17550076
I do financial planning for a living.

What you want to do is divide your leftover money in three and designate the three parts based on time frames: short-term (next 3 years), mid-term (3-10 years), and long-term (10+ years).

Your mid-term account should have 6 months of your bills covered in liquid assets; you seem fine there. If you actually want to force yourself to spend money (I don't know why), you can designate a special account for spending on whatever.

Mid-term should have liquidity within the time frame you plan on using it. If, for example, you plan to buy a house in 3 years, just put the money in a savings account. If, on the other hand, you plan to wait 10 years to touch that money, there are assets that gain interest for 10 years and become liquid after that. Your retirement assets should be placed in safe investments and diversified on a pre and post tax basis. I don't know where you live, but taxes are low in the US right now, so post-tax assets make more sense. You'll want to invest in Roth accounts for that.

>>17550094
>negative for the quarter or 1% return
Your retirement accounts shouldn't be tied to the market. That's a horrible performance. What did you invest in?

>>17550076
You don't have a problem. You're wise to save your money. Maybe on your birthday give yourself permission to buy something for yourself for $1000.