For those of us focused on saving money, the idea of spending it may seem a bit uncomfortable, especially if our personal finances seem perched on or near the edge. Nevertheless, there are times when spending money now can help us save more money over the longer term. To do this, we need to hone our skills at seeing opportunities and risks; opportunities for success, and the risk of things not going as one might hope. I certainly don’t consider myself to be a pessimist, I rather think of myself as an optimist and a realist, but it seems to me that success generally takes a bit of work, whereas failure can often come along and bite us on the backside with a bit more ease. After all, it’s no effort at all to allow things to happen to us, whereas success requires that we make it happen. In the end, perhaps it’s all a matter of personal perception, but for most of us, we’re eager to welcome success while we tend to cringe at the idea of failure or setbacks. Read more »