What is your posture toward medium/large discretionary spending these days? Is it dumb to buy a new TV that I really want but don’t strictly need?

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I love movies and video games and between watching stuff as a family and my relaxing time on my own, I’d say I’m a bit of an enthusiast. I have had a rock-solid 55” TV for the last nine years. I desperately want to upgrade to a new 65” OLED.

My wife on the other hand would be perfectly happy with a 32” from the 80s and thinks upgrading when our current TV works fine is not a good use of money.

We’re comfortable, if not lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills. Mortgage and cars are paid off so the only big thing on the horizon is college for the kids, which admittedly we could be saving more toward (we want to pay 100% for all).

We had an agreement in the winter that I would do my upgrade in the spring, but then corona happened.

So I guess the question is, given that some signs are starting to look better but it’s not over yet, is it stupid to spend $2-$3k when we could have another dip, could still lose my job, etc.?

One-income family. I am willing to move down in cost to the next-best model but I really want to hold firm on OLED.

Part of the challenge is that it’s not just the TV, to get the 4K HDR benefit I would also need to upgrade the receiver and Apple TV. I want to do speaker upgrades at the same time because it’s much easier while the TV is off the wall and I can get at the space.

That could be a place for some wiggle room; maybe just phase out the TV and receiver, and do speakers farther into the future.

I’m going to talk it over and see what she’s thinking. I think it’s a good opportunity to hit up a college cost estimator to see how we’re doing vs goal. If I can show that we are on track to hit the goal and still have room for wants, I expect I’ll get less/no pushback.

I did a quick analysis with a college cost calculator and we’re pretty much spot on if you assume the kids get scholarships and we continue with what we are saving now. We’re about 20% short if you assume they don’t.

For the worst case, we already have enough in regular investments to cover that gap, PLUS we just got an unexpected windfall from the death of a relative that covers it within spitting distance.

Suffice to say, I feel like we can easily afford it and even in the worst case we could take out a couple of loans.

I’m a proponent of doing the things you love. Just be reasonable with the purchase. Perhaps the $2400 tv

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