Last year I got really interested in ancients and spent so much in accumulating 100+ coins that nearly dried up my savings, but this year I've seriously dialed back on my purchases and focused on coins that I really like to have in my collection, even then I painstakingly wait nearly a month before pulling the trigger, and save some more money in the meanwhile. And when I finally decide to buy it, I just can't bring myself to spend the money I've been saving up so I ultimately loose interest on some coins and move on to others So far my range of purchases have been around 50-100 bucks, with more than $100 once or twice a year if I have some 'excess cash', and the most I've ever spent on a single coin was a couple of years ago on an unc 1915 Perth mint Sovereign from the money I got for my birthday. I'm just wondering how do you fit your coin purchases into your budget? Do you take some from your savings to buy coins or do you separately have some money just for coins and hobbies? If you are in a relationship, how do you manage it then?
I never dip into savings to buy coins. Coins are a "nice to have". Savings is a "need to have". I try to budget less than $100 a month (in reality more like $50) for coins/hobbies. This gives me some money to play with but won't break the bank. It also keeps my wife happy that I'm not spending all our extra $$ on coins
I spent fifty years as a rabid coin collector on a poor mans budget. Working 9-5 and raising three kids didn’t leave any fluff money. There were times I waited years to snatch up a coin I wanted…… The coin Gods smiled upon me in my later years and gave me a little financial leeway to enjoy some of the pieces I dreamed of my entire life. I think that is why I still to this day enjoy a worn slick V-nickel every bit as much as a BU piece……. Enjoy what you are able to enjoy and as my amphibian friend mentioned…. Leave the savings be.
I can't agree more with the previous messages. If you're dipping into savings, you might be more addicted than actually enjoying the hobby. I went through a phase like that years and years ago and I once nearly drained my checking account to buy a 3 cent silver piece. I was young and still had safety nets then, but I realized that my coin collecting was more of a coping mechanism than an actual hobby. I took a long break and now I buy very cautiously and infrequently, but I also enjoy my purchases much more. I don't know if the OP is actually addicted, but the warning signs are there. Hobbies shouldn't cause bankruptcy. It does sound like the OP has dialed it back a bit, at least, which is the right way to go. Coins and types will come and go and seem fascinating for a week, or a month, but doing some reading and research may help determine one's true collecting interests. I can't list the amount of coins that I've bought impulsively in the past that I now regret owning. I've settled on a few coin types that I truly enjoy. I research them, read books on them and buy fewer but more expensive examples of them. I find that saving up for a larger purchase often is far more satisfying than 100 tiny purchases, but it takes discipline. Fight the urge to buy everything you see. That will not lead to any form of satisfaction.
Personally, I just roll hunt to satisfy my need to be adding something to the collection and feel like I'm progressing, and I spend about $400 a year on the hobby in total, so $30-$40 a month maybe but I do that when It's something I either need like supplies or a coin thing I just have to have, but it's in the budget, if it's not, I have to pass, so I try to hang on to some of that $400 a year budget to save for a bigger budget the next year. I don't do ancients or really anything that is well beyond appearances in circulation though. that would force me to have to buy them in order to collect. I know you can't roll hunt if ancients are your thing, but still, stick to a budget in my opinion. My $30-$40 comes from eating sandwiches for lunch and packing it every day instead of buying lunch, so in essence I sacrifice from somewhere in order to have the money for the hobby without feeling like I'm eating into something more important I should be using the money for. As far as roll hunting, I also factor those costs into the budget and deduct same way for the finds, its why I am always trying to dodge fees. I've got to keep flipping over the money to get the coins to search, and keepers and fees will eat into that and it's got to come from somewhere. When I wasn't paying attention to it I was realizing $5-$20 here, $40-50 there just gone and it adds up. money just starts disappearing with nothing to show for it unless you are getting some lucky finds, so I became mindful of everything that comes out of my pocket to do it, even of the short rolls. my opinion, it's not so much fitting them into my budget, either it's there or it's not. If I get lazy and decide not to pack my lunch and start buying it out, I'm sticking to that $30-$40 a month total and I'm not spending ont he hobby that month. And if it's not there, don't rob from Peter to pay Paul, that's always how budgets go sideways and don't work and you end up dipping int savings. people I work with spend $10 a day, 5 days a week, or more to buy lunch out. seems crazy to be spending $50 a week, or $200 or more a month on that to me. Maybe I'm the crazy one though and cheap or frugal. costs me roughly $12-$15 a week for 7 days of sandwiches and a can of soda a little bag of chips. rather than spend that $50 a week at McDonalds or something, I spend the $12-$15 and the $35-$38 goes to my hobby,, while the other weeks go to savings mot on coins, things need repairs constantly. there's always something. Like I've said many times on here, I'm single and one income. the only way I can have my house and car is by stretching money, making sacrifices, and sticking religiously to the budget even if that means I have to go without something. There's nothing to fall back on for me, but also nobody to let down besides myself. If I spend money on credit, then it's got to be dug out from somewhere also. I have no idea what it's like to have that 2nd income except looking at my brother who takes 3 vacations a year and eats out a lot. is that normal? I dunno. I suppose if I had an extra $50-$60K a year from a spouse income, I might not be so concerned where the money comes from to pay for things either, that's like having mad money to blow through.
I look at my available funds at the end of the month. Unless there was some necessary large purchase, I want to see if I have more money at the end of the month as compared to the previous at the end of the month holding. If I have more I'm okay to continue buying coins. It helps that I'm selling duplicates and other coins of no longer interest.
Good subject. Before collecting ancient coins I was under the impression they are much more expensive. I had no idea that you could steal nice coins for 10-20-30 EUR. After starting to study some budget auctions I decided there is a place there for me. I now possess 215 ancient coins, all catalogued and exactly 195 bought after I decided to go for ancients. Usually I take into consideration about 30 coins that tick a box somehow in an auction and I end up buying between 10 and 15 (some of them impulse purchases because the ones I'm after quickly disappear in the pockets of richer bidders ) I don't hunt expensive coins and I participate in auctions with low start prices. Usually I inform myself about a reasonable price and I don't go past 70-80% of it. Funny enough, the coin I spent the most on was 75 EUR + fees. I say funny because that one was overpaid, I wanted it badly and I should have waited another auction as it wasn't rare. However, 75 EUR was not a disaster. If I see a coin going up in the sky, I don't care too much - I don't have a clear subarea of collecting so no coin is an absolutely must have. However, even if I don't go after expensive coins, buying 10-15 coins a month is a knock in the budget. I can't complain too much as the biggest invoice was 520 EUR (before Christmas, I bought myself some presents ). But spending 2-300 EUR each month is something that needs to stop. I saved some money last month as I'm going on vacation. So just one coin for me, but that one was found locally, by accident and costed 15 EUR. After this, I will probably buy 2-3 coins per month and not every month. And if I really want something - as last 8 months were "OK, what auction do we have this month?" Most likely I will not be able to complete a 12 Caesars set too soon or get expensive coins but I don't find this very disturbing. I am happy with what I got so far, beginner's rush is about over, I have completed about all the goals I had. I never use money from the savings account, although I will try to add more to my savings account instead of buying coins. I can see that my girlfriend is not 100% happy but we discussed this at the beginning of the relationship. Everybody needs a hobby. I don't smoke, I don't drink, especially after Covid era, I rarely eat out, I don't have a car (didn't feel the need for one) so this is my major knock in the budget. Even if I love coins, the priorities are paying the mortgage, utilities, food and all the other important stuff. Paying too much can be dangerous. I know a guy, modern coin collector. Noticed he was selling modern coins at low prices. And he was buying modern coins at high prices. Asked him why and he explained me something like "I know I have a problem but when I see a certain coin I need to have it, I can't sleep at night, I just NEED it." So he sold previous coins (ones that he also NEEDED months or years ago) cheaply, to get funds for buying new coins that he needed. Or worse, last time I heard about him he was trying to sell some furniture from the house. He didn't need it. I try not to judge but I surely don't want to end up like this.
I agree with what others say. Yes, you want a lot of them when you first get going. However, always remember this is hobby money. I know its tempting to go overboard. I will not say I have never have. I always have to get a reality check and intentionally back off at times. I have never been successful at "budgeting", using the excuse that in ancients sometimes you have to buy what you can buy when you can buy.
Great subject,I've often wondered how people handle this. I respect the folks that bring their hobby down to under 100 coins to just the coins they can't do without. I'm definitely not there yet, lol. I'm married, am raising a daughter and my husband works full time. I am self-employed, part time gig. Once I got back into this hobby I struggled because I couldn't justify purchases unless I figured out a way to save us money in some way. My husband had the same issue for his hobby so we figured out a small monthly stipend so we can each can be guilt free, honor system, and we can't go over it. When I went to a big show, I sold duplicates to fund my purchases over my stipend. It's worked for 5 years now and on my birthday my husband gives me a homemade gift certificate (in the shape of a coin) for a certain amount to shop, really sweet. Caveat- if I see an interesting coin, I research it and think about it. If I forget about it because I've gotten busy, it wasn't something I was interested enough in to buy.
When I realized I was taking money out of savings to pay for coins, I had a serious talk with our financial advisor. I told her to add $30/month in our budget. Now, if I go a month or two without getting anything, I have money left over. However, sometimes I still need to scratch that itch. My coin club holds an auction every month, and I get a bid sheet the week before. I pass it along to friends who can't attend and ask them to indicate the coins they like and their bid limit. They trust me to not get them a bad coin. This way I don't have to spend my money, but still get to scratch! So far, my wife hasn't objected to the money I spend, but I'm starting to feel s little guilty because I'm spending it on me and not so much on her. I need to fix that, I think.
This. you don't necessarily have to spend on her, but I think you need to be considerate of her wants and occasionally take care of her needs/wants rather than your own. People that don't get it generally see it as money being wasted on stuff they wouldn't spend money on, even if there's value there, that's the perception, so sometimes you gotta blow some money on her and take care of her like you'd take care of yourself..... or start keeping secrets. LOL
I would think it is "fixed", by the simple fact of a strong marriage. You both own it, rich or poor in sickness or in health until death.
never dipp into your savings unless and only unless you can reap more profit than your expense and usually youd be over spending .. although your in better to tell you budget than anything else...
Thanks for that. I guess it's pretty strong after 45 years, but she still isn't used to me being around all the time since I've retired. Hey, maybe I can give her a gift of time by running off to coin shows! Yeah, that's the ticket!
I personally have found it difficult to have a budget set for coin purchases. Every time I try to set a limit on spending for lets say a month, coins pop up that I have been looking for for sometime and there goes the budget. I just try not to go overboard with purchases. I agree with the advice of not accessing the savings account to fuel ones coin addiction.
My theory is that collecting coins is or at least should be > a combination of hobby and investment. Ideally we want our purchases to appreciate in value over a lifetime. I've made some hideous mistakes in some purchases especially early on but I have learned through those mis-steps and try hard not to let my heart rule over logic. I look at buying a coin not so much as a purchase but as a conversion from worthless fiat currency to something that is likely to retain intrinsic value.
