The Art Of Financial Trade-Offs: What Do You Value Most?

September 01, 2017

Last week, I found myself debating the best course of action for watching “The Money Fight” between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather (spoiler alert: Mayweather won, to no one’s surprise). I’m a big fan of mixed martial arts (MMA), but for those who aren’t as into it, the appeal of the fight was that the biggest star in MMA (Conor McGregor) accepted a challenge from the biggest star in boxing (Floyd Mayweather) to go head to head in a boxing match, for what turned out to be Mayweather’s 50th win and last fight of his undefeated career.

I’m not a Mayweather fan (mostly because he glorifies a lifestyle of excessive spending, which is OK if you’ve earned $1 billion in your career like he has, but not great advice for most of his fans), so I was rooting for McGregor to win by early knockout. Despite the odds being stacked heavily in Mayweather’s favor, both men stood to win several million dollars.

In the fight world, this is a big deal. And, for me, it presented a challenge of how I wanted to watch the match — a challenge of both finances and fun. I had a few options here:

Stay home and buy the pay-per-view at ~$100.
Pros:
– Watch in my PJ pants and eat/drink whatever I want.
– Ability to adjust the volume to be whatever I need it to be.
– No line at the restroom or waiting for a drink.
Cons:
– Unless I invited friends over and they brought food or beverages or chipped in for the PPV cost, this could be my most expensive option.
– If something spectacular happens, there is no crowd yelling, which is part of the joy of watching with a crowd.
Head out to a local pub that is showing the fight.
Pros:
– I can control the cost by limiting the number of cocktails and food I consume.
– The bigger the crowd, the more entertaining the “oohs” and “aahs” and “OHMYGOD’s!” are.
Cons:
– It would be very crowded, so may be tough to get a table.
– I’ve gone to watch big fights before and never gotten a table, and standing at the bar all night isn’t my favorite activity.
– It could be a long night, so chances are that I would order food and a few beverages that could raise the cost close to the PPV cost.
Skip the fight and read a good book, catch the highlights online the next day.
Pros:
– I get to read a classic and check it off my list.
– It could be a nice, quiet night and I probably wouldn’t stay up till 1AM.
Cons:
– I wouldn’t get to experience the adrenaline rush and joy that I get when I see a great night of fights (although I find boxing incredibly boring after a decade-plus of watching MMA).

Making the trade-off

The trade-offs I had to make here, and that you probably face at times, had to do with several factors:

Cost vs. experience
How to spend discretionary dollars
Evaluating “needs vs. wants”
Probably a few others

At times, budgetary concerns are the deciding factor; other times, the fun and experience factor is what decides it. What I had to do in this situation was determine what my end goal was and then set a spending limit for my choice.

What I decided

I went with a hybrid of immersing myself in the experience while trying to limit my spending: I ended up going to a local pub with some friends, but first I made dinner for the kids and myself at home. That way I didn’t run up a big tab at the pub on food, but still got to see the fight without spending $100+.

I’m curious – how do others make this type of trade-off? I’d love if you would share your thoughts with me on Facebook or via Twitter.

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