I Used My Mojo to Buy a $10,800 Handbag

Hi Scott,

I am a long-time Barefooter and, overall, have made money decisions I think you would be happy with: I have a good job ($110,000 a year), have paid off my bad debts, have started maxing out my super, own my car, pay extra on my mortgage, and have started a share portfolio. Most importantly, I have three months of Mojo — until yesterday, that is, when I walked into a Chanel store and bought a flap bag for $10,800 (my 38th birthday present to myself). I’m giddy with happiness and anxiety all at once. This is a classic bag I will have for life. Chanel raises their prices each year (it cost $6,000 five years ago), so I will never lose money on resale. Yet I also feel sick as it is an enormous amount of money — am I insane?

Elisha

Hi Elisha

So I learned something this week: handbags are an investment.
In fact, research from Knight Frank found that, over the last decade, handbags have more than doubled in value.

Well, not every handbag. (Liz’s is like a lucky dip to another world: you can pull out half-eaten crumbly cruskits, a hairy hairclip, a Wiggles concert ticket from 2018, but never the ringing mobile phone that she’s desperately searching for.)

Elisha, you seem to have worked hard to get your financial life in good shape. And if the bag makes you “giddy with happiness”, well, that sounds like a good purchase to me. You may as well enjoy it!

The only thing I’d say is that you raided the wrong bucket: it should have come from your ‘Smile’ bucket (the savings account for longer term purchases that will put a smile on your dial). 

Having a well-stocked Mojo bucket is not nearly as flashy as a Chanel bag, but it will give you the inner confidence to face any financial fires coming your way.

Scott