For the adventurists and folks who play on the weekends – those who decided to never grow up – you can enjoy fun activities like you are a kid while still maintaining the responsible finances of an adult. My resolve to never grow out of adventuring or playing in some way actually helped inspire my path towards financial freedom since the more financial freedom you have, the more you can make time for fun. If you are reading this, you are probably also addicted to a hobby, whether boating, skiing, chess tournaments, bird watching, or anything else. This is how I fund my crazy hobby.
I play rugby. The common refrain among the rugby community is that rugby is less of a hobby and more of a lifestyle. In a way, this is by design: Going into a tackle without full preparation is extremely dangerous. The casual hobbyist can get by with relatively limited spending, but the obsessed adventurer needs a targeted spending plan to fund their hobby.
The Must-Have Costs
The beginning of how to fund a new hobby is the easy part: Figure out startup equipment costs and any initial outlays like membership fees or insurance. For rugby, you need cleats (called “boots” in the rugby world), a mouth guard, and rugby shorts. You probably also need a warmup shirt for your team, but that may be included in team dues, another expense. Finally, you need to register with your country’s rugby program and your rugby union to obtain eligibility to play and secondary insurance for rugby injuries.
However, if you have been involved in a hobby for some time and have some equipment, it can be more challenging to determine how much to save for replacing equipment. Similar to the logic behind planning for your specific safety nets, I suggest you determine the following:
Cost of the item
Average length of life of the item before you need to buy a new one
The average length of life for items can vary significantly. Take cleats: Most folks need a new pair anywhere between each season and every three years, depending on how much they play rugby, their position, and the quality of their cleats. But aberrations exist: My fellow flanker once destroyed three pairs of cleats in one match, so she may want to buy cleats in bulk.
Once you determine how often you need new equipment, whether three pairs of cleats per match or one pair of cleats per three years, you can use the capital expenditure (“CapEx”) logic to determine how much money to put into a HYSA each month. Divide the cost by the number of months in their typical length of life to determine the cost per month:
*The table above includes hypothetical scenarios except for #7, which is my actual calculation.
Repeat this process for all your regular equipment that wears out and needs to be replaced, so you can purchase more when you need it. You can also use CapEx to save for any recurring costs, like annual membership fees, by dividing the cost of the fee by the frequency you pay it, in months. This is also true of any regular travel expenses or simple expenses like gas and food on the road.
The Unpredictable Costs
If your hobby involves adventure, it probably includes two types of unpredictable costs: The exciting expense of making it to an upper-level competition at a location that would require travel or the frustrating expense of incurring injury. These two big unpredictable categories of expenses exist for any sort of sport, from soccer to boating, skiing, or mountain biking. If your hobby is something more like chess, you may be less likely to experience an injury but still have the possibility of upper-level travel. If you climb mountains, you may be able to control and predict your travel, but the unpredictable injury expense exists.
Whether only one of these categories or both applies to you, plan for it! The exciting unpredictable expense in rugby is making Regionals and/or Nationals. I save for this the same way I save for an unpredictable happiness expense: Figure out the cost of going to Regionals, how long you have until Regionals, and save a little bit each month so you would have the money in time.
This may seem confusing since I consider my “Rugby Fund” a recurring cost but have unpredictable expenses calculated into it. Again, these numbers are not an exact science, but they build the kind of safety net that always allows you to say yes. I contributed the CapEx amount of basic gear and recurring costs combined with the CapEx hypothetical unpredictable cost of going to Nationals in the same “Rugby Fund” for a number of years. I attended Nationals a couple times, but I usually did not, so that money stayed in the account and grew. This means, I now have a bit of money remaining in the account and actually contribute slightly less than the CapEx calculation since that safety net already exists.
Last fall, I was lucky that I had that extra money in the account because I experienced a dead leg that had me hobbling around on crutches. I paid for a couple physical therapy sessions and bought materials to wrap my leg like a mummy to get back on the field as soon as possible. It was an expensive season. That said, most of these costs could qualify as a medical expense paid for by an HSA (except perhaps my self-adhesive foam), but I prefer to pay for medical expenses and save the receipts to let the HSA grow if at all possible.
If you have had your HSA for more than a year and have let it grow, that can be your medical emergency fund for your hobby as well. However, if you do not have an HSA, you may want to allocate some money towards a potential injury, just in case. You can look up averages for your activity, but everyone is different. If you have been skiing for 30 years, base the calculation on your own experiences and save for enough of a safety net to provide peace of mind.
Fun Longevity
If you want to extend the time you enjoy an activity, spending on preventative health procedures may add years to your snowmobiling, basketball, or golf career. Particularly if you participate in an extreme sport or want to make sure you can play tennis in your 80s, starting preventative maintenance care early should be a priority.
Preventative health costs are generally recurring costs that are easily calculated. The bigger issue is that folks feel guilty about spending on them. Money is just a tool to make your life happier, so if running a marathon at age 90 makes you happy, take care of yourself to make it happen. I invest in a monthly sports massage. It lets me train harder because I have better recovery, and it increases my chances of playing rugby until I am 40 years old. If you love your hobby, invest in yourself so you have a long future participating in it. Keep having fun.
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