The Hardest Category Is Play
The challenge isn’t deciding what matters. It’s deciding what to do with everything else.
By now you may have noticed something.
I haven’t given you percentages.
I haven’t told you how much coffee is too much.
I haven’t even told you how much you should spend.
That’s intentional.
I’m not trying to give you another budgeting formula.
I’m trying to help you develop a financial practice.
And nowhere is that practice tested more than in the category I call Play.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve worked through a simple framework.
Priorities protect your life.
Problems pull resources away from your life.
Passions make your life richer.
That leaves one final category.
Play.
And I think it’s the hardest one.
Not because play is bad.
Because it’s where intentionality is tested.
“I Want That...”
My partner and I have a running joke from Napoleon Dynamite.
There’s a scene where Uncle Rico and Kip are going door to door trying to sell plastic storage bowls. To sweeten the deal, Uncle Rico dramatically pulls a tiny sailboat out of a cardboard box—the free gift that comes with the bowls.
The woman immediately says, in a slow Southern drawl,
“I want that...”
That line has become shorthand in our house.
One of us will see something online, walk through a store, or stumble across some ridiculous gadget and say, in our best Southern drawl,
“I want that...”
We almost always laugh.
Not because the thing itself is funny.
Because we recognize that voice.
We know that voice isn’t going away.
The practice is simply learning to recognize it sooner.
Five seconds earlier...
We weren’t looking for it.
It wasn’t on a shopping list.
It wasn’t one of our priorities.
It wasn’t one of our passions.
Someone simply introduced a new possibility.
The Salespeople Never Left
Years ago, if someone wanted to sell you something, they had to knock on your front door.
Today they don’t.
They’re already in your pocket.
Amazon.
Instagram.
Target.
Costco.
TikTok.
YouTube.
Every one of them is incredibly good at the same job:
Introducing possibilities we hadn’t considered five seconds earlier.
Most of those possibilities aren’t bad.
They’re simply competing with the life we’ve already decided we want to build.
That’s not because these companies are evil.
It’s because they’re exceptionally good at what they do.
The challenge isn’t that these opportunities exist.
The challenge is that they’re everywhere.
All the time.
Nobody Accidentally Funds a Priority
Here’s something I’ve noticed.
Nobody accidentally funds their mortgage.
Nobody accidentally contributes to a Roth IRA.
Nobody accidentally books the trip they’ve dreamed about for years.
Nobody accidentally pays off their credit card.
Those things require intention.
But people accidentally spend $200 on Amazon every month.
They accidentally subscribe to another streaming service.
They accidentally stop at Target.
They accidentally click Buy Now.
Play is where intention quietly gives way to reaction.
That’s why I think it’s the hardest category.
Even Our Passions Have Limits
Here’s a personal example.
I’ve been thinking about buying a balance board for months.
It’s only about twenty dollars.
It would support one of my biggest passions right now—my health.
And that’s what makes this tricky.
Even our passions don’t have finish lines.
I could always buy another piece of exercise equipment.
Another book.
Another course.
Another gadget.
The list never ends.
Life keeps presenting new possibilities.
Eventually, every one of us has to decide:
This is enough...for now.
Not forever.
For now.
Detours
I don’t think financial literacy is about avoiding every detour.
Some detours become our favorite memories.
Some become expensive distractions.
The difference isn’t the detour.
It’s whether you chose it.
Or whether it chose you.
Every dollar has an opportunity cost.
Every detour changes the journey.
Sometimes that’s exactly what you want.
Sometimes you’d rather keep moving toward something you’ve already decided matters more.
That’s your choice.
Not Amazon’s.
Not Instagram’s.
Not the algorithm’s.
Yours.
This Week’s Exercise
This week, I don’t want you to make a budget.
I want you to notice something.
Every time you catch yourself thinking,
“I want that...”
Pause.
Just for a moment.
Then ask yourself three questions.
Did I want this yesterday?
Does this support one of my priorities or passions?
What am I choosing not to do if I choose this instead?
Maybe you’ll still buy it.
That’s okay.
The goal isn’t to stop spending.
The goal is to spend intentionally.
One More Thought
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that this never gets easier because the world never stops offering us new possibilities.
The detours don’t disappear.
Our priorities change.
Our passions evolve.
Life keeps changing.
That’s why I don’t think financial literacy is about finding the perfect formula.
It’s about returning to these questions.
Again.
And again.
As your life changes.
The practice is what keeps your money aligned with your life.
Next week, we’ll bring everything together with one final question.
What is enough?