Sunday Territorian

ANTHONY KEANE

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ford a Ferrari, look at organising a fancy weekend in a city where you can hire one.

Almost everything can be borrowed in today’s sharing economy, from cars and caravans to new fashions and beautiful holiday homes.

It delivers the experience without the impossible price tag.

The best way to do ensure some of your spending goes towards fun is to make sure you include it in your budget (if you have one).

Write it down among your goals or new year resolution­s (if you have any) or set up a separate bank account or money jar at home.

Rather than buying fun stuff after paying all the bills, stash it separately as part of the bills so there’s always room to buy, save and spend on things you enjoy.

It can also help control spending, and lead to better saving and investment­s because they also become automatic.

Most of us spend more than 100 per cent of what we earn, pushing many into expensive debt such as credit cards.

Saving and investing is the only proven way to build enough money to have bigger, better fun later in life.

Jeff Bezos and others want to charge $250,000-plus for tourists to travel in space in the coming decades.

Or you could spend less by renting a space movie, or fly through an asteroid field wearing a virtual reality headset (they are really freaky!)

Money breeds more money, and there’s a mountain of research and advice available online for would-be investors, while financial planners can be valuable despite their shocker of a year in 2018.

Don’t think of money as something to impress others. Use it to impress yourself.

Anthony Keane is the personal finance editor and columnist for News Corp Australia

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