Monthly Rambling: The Finances Behind Boardgame Acquisition
In my time of being a boardgame hobbyist, the fellow boardgamers I have met come from incredibly diverse backgrounds and yet describing a boardgamer is surprisingly simple – boardgamers are basically “people”. I have met boardgamers who are chefs & doctors, business owners & office workers, filthy rich and average income, male & female. Just as diverse are the disposable income levels of boardgamers which dictates the spending habits of a boardgamer, some live a FOMO lifestyle, some prefer having a flavour of the week then offloading whilst the hype is still hot, some treat it like an annual bonus and some rent an experience at a boardgame café. You would think that enjoying this hobby does require some disposable income, but if you happen to be friends of a collector looking for players, then lucky you! For this month’s rambling, I thought I would share an inside look into the financing strategy of my personal boardgame collection.
50 / 30 / 20I am now at that age where I have been promoted from the initial career stage for the second time (long story). Gone are the days where I barely just get by, let alone save anything. Balancing car payments, petrol and costs of socializing already seemed so daunting, let alone having to add housing loan instalments into the mix, especially in this economy. I am very grateful that I have a career and circumstances that allow me to be pretty close to the 50 / 30 / 20 model as per the above. Just last year, I finally managed to pay off my car, which led me to this thought about how I should be spending this “extra” amount of funds that was previously earmarked as the car instalment each month. I had this (to my mind) insane idea that I could be buying a new boardgame every single month and still have leftover to put into Savings (20) for the month. And if space ran out, I could use the accumulation of the leftovers to get more Kallax shelves. More games, more shelves… buy, buy, buy.
Down that road, madness liesNow I truly believe that everyone should have a hobby for their sanity, but… not to the extent that the hobby has them instead. So, despite my newfound additional disposable income, I chose to continue with the soft limits I have set concerning my boardgame acquisition.
Annual BudgetThe first limit I set is an annual budget, its nature is soft because it is dependent on the surplus / deficit of my Wants (30) pool for that year. It is also dependent on any extraordinary expenses that are also deducted from the Wants (30) pool. As you can imagine, the surplus / deficit of this Wants (30) pool changes throughout the year, so it acts more like an airbag instead of a concrete road block when a good boardgame or a good deal comes around. I keep a record of my purchases for the year versus the surplus and as long it is a positive figure, I can check out my cart.
Birthday BudgetThe second limit is a birthday budget, unusual in the sense that there is no monetary limit, rather it is a quantity limit of one game, any game. When you have a local FLGS that also gives birthday discounts to recurring customers, this purchase is most certainly an exciting and well researched purchase that I look forward to each year. Boardgame of the year videos by boardgame content creators are usually very helpful in this regard. It is also very comforting to know that even in a bad year, I’m giving myself a minimum spend of one boardgame as hobby expenses for that year.
Be comfortable in your own hobbyHaving said that, the underlying principle is that the hobby should fit your lifestyle comfortably. I have seen students who have no disposable income spending way above their means, some resort to even petty larceny to fund their hobby, and thankfully the permeation of boardgaming into our society now has provided so many different means of enjoying the hobby. It is so much easier to find a group looking for players, to rent a boardgame at a boardgame café, to joining a play session at your local FLGS event, we are now in a world where you don’t need to own it in order to enjoy it.
So that’s how I finance my little hobby of boardgaming which currently stands at 70 games. Financing aside, I do have a practice of using a wishlist to curate my boardgame collection, which you can read of in my year in review on the blog. Having all of these practices helps me strike a nice balance where I can be right in between the two poles of “letting my hobby take all of my money” and “enjoying my hobby in a financially comfortable way”.
Until next time, keep calm and play better.
No comments:
Post a Comment