“You can’t take it with you.” It’s a phrase that I’ve heard plenty of times throughout my life, usually when someone spends their money on something stupid. “You can’t take it with you” is sometimes used as a means of justification to spend recklessly. Alternatively, it’s sometimes used as a means to justify giving to others, which could ironically be dangerous to your own financial situation. Some people are so reckless with their spending that they can let this mindset ruin their financial lives. On the other hand, some people are so altruistic that they forget to think about their own future and how giving away large portions of their wealth or income can affect it.
True, you can’t take it with you. But, you also can’t get it back once you spend it or give it away. No, I don’t think that money should be your number one focus in life or that you should try to save as much as possible to make your life better and never use it to enrich the lives of others, but I do think that saving for, and thinking about, your future is important. Too many people don’t think about their future selves and how the money that they are (or are not) saving today could affect not only their life, but their family’s life, and the lives of others.
Justification to Spend
I’ve heard “you can’t take it with you” more in my life in terms of spending money on something that someone probably shouldn’t be spending money on. It’s a term that’s used as a justification to spend blindly, without regard to a budget or how else the money could be used. If this mindset continues over a significant period of time it could have negative financial consequences later on. Your spending and giving should both be within the realms of your financial plan and budget.
There are so many options for money. You could use it to buy something today or you could invest it for your children’s education (a form of giving). Would it make you happier to buy a brand-new car today or to know that your children may not have to suffer the burden of student loans?
Justification to Give
Maybe you use the “you can’t take it with you” mindset in terms of giving. While this is a much more honorable use of the money, it can be detrimental to your financial situation as well. Spending and giving both mean that you have less money, no matter where the money goes.
It’s important to ensure that your giving is built into a financial plan and, just like with spending, that it won’t leave you in a bad financial situation. Some people try to take care of family members by continuously giving them money or paying for college and ultimately sacrificing their own financial independence. It’s ok to take care of yourself and make sure that you have a stable financial situation before considering giving to others. In fact, it’s what you should do. You don’t want to be the one who gives so much that you end up on the other side of the equation.
You Can Use It To Help Others
How would it make you feel knowing that spending and saving your money wisely could positively impact countless people through charity by investing is prudently now rather than spending it because “you can’t take it with you when you die”? Utilizing this mindset may make you think twice the next time you want to spend money on something that doesn’t provide much value to your life.
You may not be able to take it with you when you die, but if you invest it wisely, there could be a lot more there to help many others when you die than if you spend it all because you can’t take it with you.
There absolutely is merit to giving money every year to charity or church. However, I want to explore an alternative scenario.
If you invested $1,000 every year over 30 years and received an average rate of return of 6%, rather than donating that $1,000, then you’d have $79,058 to give to charity versus the $30,000 that you would have given over 30 years.
What if you did give $1,000 to charity every year, but you also found $1,000 to invest, with the intention of giving it to charity in the future, because you reevaluated your “you can’t take it with you” spending and cut back? Now, you’ve given $30,000 in addition to the $79,058 at the end of 30 years.
Increase the amount in the first scenario above to invest $5,000 per year and the amount you’d have after 30 years increases to $395,291.
I was a little shocked when I saw the difference, too.
Could you cut back on spending on things just because you can’t take it with you to potentially provide $395,291 of benefit to others later in your life?
Spend & Give With Justification
Am I telling you that you shouldn’t give money to others, charity, or your church and that you should invest that money instead? No. There are people and organizations who can really use that money now and lives that could be changed with it. I’m attempting to offer a different viewpoint of how you could use money that you currently spend without good justification. No, you can’t take it with you when you die, but you can choose to utilize it more wisely and help others, if you feel called to do so.
Ultimately, it’s best to build the “you can’t take it with you” money into your financial plan and make sure that you’ve taken care of yourself as well. Make a commitment to not only help others through your giving, but to also help yourself as well through developing a well thought out giving strategy. You can do so much more with your money to benefit all parties, if you plan for it.
