Delayed gratification is good for financial planning, but be careful not to take it too far. That doesn’t mean just break out the credit cards and spend like there’s no tomorrow, but if you really want to do something, make room for it (in your budget and in your schedule).
One of my friends once told me, make sure that some goals are just for you. Not for your parents, not for your friends, not for work and not for your partner. Don’t put if off for too long. I have smart friends, huh? 
This applies to other (non-financial) aspects of life too. For as long as I can remember, life has been punctuated by the Next Big Thing (NBT). College admissions, job interviews, etc. etc. There’s always the next goal, bigger and better. It never ends.
Now that I’ve got a job, the goal is to amass a respectable nest egg, give back to the college, and try to keep my patched-up relationship semi-together, all while working 16-hour days and weekends. Ambitious? Perhaps. Idealistic? Definitely. Crazy? Don’t answer.
I do know that life’s too short to keep jumping from Point A to Point B without enjoying the scenery in between.
Do I sound like a Hallmark commercial. Or one of those “carpe diem” postcards. Eek. It must be close to college graduation time.
Patched-up relationship, hmm?
Sixteen hour days can truly be hell on everything. I hope you’re at least going to be making more than I was when I worked 16 hours a day ;). Somehow I feel it would have been more bearable that way.
Mmmmm.
It’s funny you should post this… as I close in on a lot of my goals for 2007, I have a triumphant feeling for a few moments and then its like “that’s it?” Then on to the next goal. The worst is when I am impatient and want it all now and I get crabby waiting. But I do think if I had it all now I wouldn’t know what to do with it… (Just look at these ridiculously wealthy celebrities our age… too much too soon and they just lose it!) Long term-big term growth is best handled in small increments… no?
The Next Big Thing… I think this style of living is fine-in moderation-it’s also called goal-setting. What you’ve listed are goals and you’ve continued to achieve and that’s a GOOD THING.
You need to worry when you delay things waiting for the NBT… like being happy and mindful of the here and now… There’s a lot to appreciate NOW, don’t let it pass you by waiting for the NBT. It sounds like you have great balance with most parts of this.
Best of Luck,
MissGoldBug
[...] Stop Living the Stop-gap Life by Wanda @ Well Heeled. A simple, unconventional (but sensible) message: Delayed gratification is good for financial planning, but be careful not to take it too far. [...]
Couldn’t have said it better!