If you’ve developed a process of living below your income and saving money, you deserve congratulations. You might also find that you cannot stop being careful, tracking your spending, and continuing to save well beyond the time you need to do that. Do you still deserve congratulations if you cannot stop that habit in your retirement years? Isn’t that the time to start spending your assets?

You may believe that spending money will make you happier. If it doesn’t, you might think you spent it on the wrong thing, or in the wrong way, or you didn’t spend enough. You could just spend more to see if it works. Maybe your spending isn’t in alignment with your long-term goals and desires?

How you spend money speaks to what you find valuable, who you want to be with, what you spend your time on, why you do the type of work you do, and how you want to be perceived by other people (even if they don’t care or notice you).