Your Budget Deserves A Vacation

A lesson most financial advisors are afraid to tell their clients

By: Chase McCormick

In my first couple of months as a financial advisor, I've come to realize my job is a lot like being a fitness trainer. I spend my days pushing young professionals to do the hard, unglamorous thing: save more, spend less, delay the reward. Do it now, and you'll be thankful you did. A little cardio each day and you'll be absolutely shredded in thirty years.

And that's real. The discipline matters. But somewhere along the way I caught myself doing what a lot of advisors do: treating saving as the whole point, as if the only goal is to watch the numbers in the investment account get as big as possible. But financial health, like physical health, involves much more than just numbers. After all, if a trainer (solely focused on the numbers on the scale) told their client to stop eating and work out excessively, they wouldn't be doing their job.

These past few months, I felt like it was my job to practice what I preach: nose down, save relentlessly, defer the costly fun. Soon, I was miserable. Forcing myself to stop enjoying my money drained the meaning out of work. Really, out of life. I said no to plans with friends, cancelled my expensive gym membership, and shamed myself over every petty expense. I moved into the apartment of my dreams but couldn't enjoy it, because it was over my budget. The numbers in my account were going up, but I was putting myself in agony to get there.

Leading up to the vacation of my dreams, I was more nervous about what it might do to my bank account than excited for the once-in-a-lifetime trip. Even with every expense budgeted out, this new financial-advisor mindset had taken over, and I didn't know how to turn it off.

Luckily, on the flight over, I met someone who helped me put things in perspective.

Before we'd even left the tarmac at LAX, I watched the guy sitting next to me wolf down two Double-Doubles from In-N-Out. Impressed, I complimented him on the effort. As we struck up a conversation, my new friend Cosmo told me he was actually a health and wellness coach. My jaw dropped.

Even dietitians have cheat meals? What would his clients think? I had a million questions.

Cosmo told me he encourages his clients to have cheat meals. He claimed it was the best way to reward their long-term discipline. My world was shattered.

The more he explained his philosophy, the more I began to rethink everything. I'd spent months calling myself a holistic financial planner while focusing solely on the bottom line.

It was time to enjoy my money and to start encouraging my clients to do the same.

What the money is actually for: Freedom and Fun

It's my job to build spending into a financial plan. At GK, our managers train us to use a bucket approach: setting up a savings bucket for each goal and filling them accordingly. Filling a vacation bucket without a bucket for retirement would be irresponsible — our job is to make sure you have both.

Money in an account isn't the goal. It's a tool. It's stored-up freedom, waiting to be turned into the very thing that makes life feel worth living: a home that feels like it's yours, a celebratory dinner with friends, memories of adventures far away from your desk.

If the money never becomes any of those things, then it was never really wealth. It was just a number on a screen.

Instead of moving the goalpost, start filling a new bucket

Here's the thing nobody warns you about when you start chasing a savings number: the number is never big enough.

Morgan Housel put it perfectly in The Psychology of Money: "The hardest financial skill is getting the goalpost to stop moving." Every time you hit a target, your brain quietly slides the goalpost a little further out. A little more security, a little more cushion, a little more later — and then I'll enjoy it. Then I'll feel free.

If you're not careful, you can spend your whole life like that: always saving toward a finish line that keeps backing away from you. You end up rich in a spreadsheet and poor in memories. And no financial plan should ask you to sacrifice your entire youth just so you can have piles of cash on your deathbed.

As an advisor, I now look forward to encouraging my clients to spend money. The same way I needed a nudge from Cosmo, I want to be the one who rewards others for their hard work by reminding them to enjoy life. Hopefully, I’ll do so by presenting them with a vacation bucket that's been filled to the brim!

The Greek islands were worth it

Let me be honest: my trip this summer, and the new apartment I moved into, were not great decisions for my own investment account. The trip wasn't cheap, and higher rent is a real number I pay every month. I use the same spreadsheet for my own budget as I do with my clients, and when I let compounding run for forty years, the "cost" looks genuinely alarming.

I could tell you about the future gains I "lost." Or I could tell you about watching the sun drop into the Aegean, about meals that lasted for hours, about the specific kind of laughter that only happens when you're meeting new friends in a foreign land. Those are memories I'll have for the rest of my life. No compounding chart will ever give me those.

And my new apartment? Every morning I wake up somewhere that feels like mine, and I start my day with a wave of gratuitous energy bursting within me. That's not an expense. That's a daily return that pays out in a currency spreadsheets can't measure.

Save on purpose, then spend on purpose

None of this is a case against saving. Saving is exactly what made these choices possible. The freedom to say yes came from hundreds of disciplined no's, and I'll help you build that foundation as seriously as anyone.

But discipline without purpose is just deprivation with extra steps. My job isn't only to grow your money for the long term. It's to make sure the plan leaves real room in the budget for money to be spent and enjoyed along the way. Not someday, not on your deathbed, but while you're young enough to swim in the sea and remember it.

The saving and the living aren't enemies. They're partners. We build the foundation so that you can stand on it and reach for something that makes you happy.

So here's the permission most advisors won't give you: you deserve to spend your money. Define what "enough" looks like for you, protect it fiercely, and then have the courage to actually spend some of that hard-earned freedom on the things that make the whole thing worth it.

I celebrated my own progress this summer by loosening my grip on it a little. And I have never felt richer.

SOURCES: 

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housal

 Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management is an investment advisor located in California. Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Registration of an investment advisor does not imply any specific level of skill or training and does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by the Commission. Gerber Kawasaki only transacts business in states in which it is properly registered or is excluded or exempted from registration. A copy of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management 's current written disclosure brochure filed with the SEC which discusses, among other things, Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management's business practices, services and fees, is available through the SEC's website at: IAPD - Investment Adviser Public Disclosure - Homepage .

Chase McCormick is a Financial Advisor of Santa Monica, California-based Gerber Kawasaki Inc., an SEC-registered investment firm with approximately ~$4.78B billion in assets under management and assets under advisement as of 6/30/26. The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which course of action may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor. No strategy assures success or protects against loss. Readers shouldn't buy any investment without doing their research to determine if the investments are suitable for their situation. “All investments involve risk and one should consult a financial advisor before making any investments. Past performance is not indicative of future results."