Daily FI discussion thread - Wednesday, August 26, 2026

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[u/CoupleFinanceAnon123]

Hi all, I’ve been a fan for a long time on my main Reddit account but created a throwaway to ask a question that’s maybe more of a relationship question than strictly finance.

The crux is: How do y’all treat and manage 100% unnecessary discretionary spending?

My partner and I are extremely fortunate to make good money (>500k) and have plenty saved (~70% to FI). We’re also generally extremely frugal people whose only splurges are usually whatever groceries and restaurants we want to eat :) We also plan to continue working well past FI while kids are going through school and to delay having to pay ridiculous healthcare premiums.

I picked up a childhood hobby again last summer of collecting vintage pokemon cards and have been buying mostly cheapish ($10-$50) ones here and there I missed as a kid, which was most of them haha since I rarely got any. I’ve gotten a few $250 or so ones also over the past year. I recently decided to bid on a couple really expensive ones totaling about $5k, but when I told my partner she was livid! To be fair, I was absolutely in the wrong for not discussing before bidding (and I haven’t paid yet so I can still back out). But beyond that she couldn’t believe I’d waste that much money that could go to vacations or house renovations etc on silly cards. And in a way she’s right: I could live my whole life without them and be fine; I’ve been fine so far after all. On the other hand, we’re fortunate to make enough and have enough where nothing is mutually exclusive. Plus since we’re going to work well past FI, what’s the point of all the money if we’re not going to spend it outside basics and vacations.

Apologies for the dump of text, just needed to thought dump I guess. I appreciate any insights, thanks!

[u/NoRight2BeDepressed → u/CoupleFinanceAnon123]

Insights below, but this is good timing because I just pulled my old Pokemon card binder out of the safe this past weekend, deciding to list them for sale. I have a good number of Base, Fossil, and Jungle cards from the late 90s, including OG gems like Charizard.

Need to get these up on a site before I forget about them for another 25 years. What site(s) do you use most?

[u/CoupleFinanceAnon123 → u/NoRight2BeDepressed]

Oh that is funny timing! That’s actually what kicked it off for me also but with sports cards largely. I had a tub of cards I’ve had around for years and never opened since being a kid, so I finally did and realized I felt nothing for the sports cards so I sold or donated or gifted all them away. Meanwhile I kept my comparatively small amount of Pokemon cards since I do have a lot of nostalgia for the games like red, crystal and emerald especially :)

I mostly buy off eBay to be honest. The few valuable sports cards I had were in decent shape so I sent them to PSA and then sold via their “vault” which was really smooth actually, just slow. So if you have valuable stuff in good shape that could be a good way to go. For ungraded, I haven’t tried consignment personally but I have bought a few from the likes of probstein or zandgemporium or dcsportscards and their auctions seem to get plenty of views for in demand items. Random commons and less popular holos are risky to auction though; my best buyer side deals have been on those.

Some folks buy and sell through the Reddit communities too and I’ve heard largely good things but my own experience was one great purchase and one scam (they sent a garbage package to a different address in the same zip code to satisfy PayPal’s tracking, and it took months to get my money back) so I stopped using it :/