Planning for a Mid-Life Crisis

December 4, 2011

BY KATHY FOUST

Call it a mid-life crisis. Call it a second child, losing your mind or whatever you want to call it. However you describe it, planning for the mid-life crisis may mean the difference between enjoying the life you have and giving it all away to a bankruptcy court.

Put your finances in order. You pay your bills. You have a Christmas savings fund. You have a retirement plan. What you may not have is money set aside just for your mid-life crisis. While you may not think it now, you’ll eventually buy things that you never thought you would and spend money on frivolous things that wouldn’t even have been a thought in your mind previous to this mid-life crisis. Put a bit away each week so that when the time comes, you don’t spend money that you had planned for other things, like your retirement.

Try to spend on items rather than activities. When you do get the urge to splurge, try buying something rather than paying large amounts of money for an activity. If you buy something it has the potential to be sold later. It’s pretty hard to get your money back out of that bungee jump.

Try it before you buy it. Maybe you want to make some changes. No problem, but you might want to make them temporary before you go full tilt. That tattoo might look great in the magazine, but you might want to try a temporary version before you have something like “Elvis lives” permanently inked on your body.

Think before you speak. By the way, you might want to rethink telling your friends what you really think during this time. There are no refunds on erratic thoughts spoken aloud!