Hello and welcome to yet another, Scotch Street!

For those of you who are new to Scotch Street, we write stream-of-consciousness articles about money while drinking Scotch…that’s not unique, right?

Today, we have the one, the only, I, Vigilante.

I’ve liked the Vigilante’s stuff for awhile now so I am happy to have him indulge us in a Scotch Street article.

Oh, and by the way…

I love how The Vigilante ends this.  I laughed.

About I, Vigilante

“I’m The Vigilante, your mentor. I’m here to show you the virtue of unapologetic selfishness (“I”), the virtue of rebelling from authority and expectations often (“Vigilante”), and how it is all intimately connected to your ability to live a happy, healthy, and ridiculously fulfilling life.”

Read more at: ivigilante.com

Scotch Street Guest Post – I, Vigilante

I routinely write my posts while sipping on an ounce or two of whisk(e)y, so expect this to look roughly like a normal post of mine. For better or for worse.

“Normal post” means several things. Paragraphs. Hard opinions. Harder facts. Mostly money and whiskey-related. But since this is a Scotch Street guest post, let’s hit those in reverse order, shall we?

I’m drinking a Scotch named for my daughter (I may have that backward): Caol Ila 12. The joke would probably be funnier if you had already known my daughter’s name is Isla, but sometimes I like to leave to leave the joke too opaque to be enjoyed by 99% of the audience, and then I explain it to bore the remaining 1%.

This Scotch is fantastic. Probably not my “favorite” whiskey, if there is such a thing, but it’s one of the higher-ups. I find it rather impossible to rate whiskey comparatively because each one serves a different purpose for a different day: Woodford Reserve is my “good old days” whiskey, Laphroaig 10 is my “damn it all” whiskey, Bulliet is my “enjoying the evening” whiskey, Glenlivet Founder’s Reserve is my “beautiful sunny morning” whiskey, Larceny is my “time for a cocktail” whiskey, and Redbreast 12 is my “almost every other purpose because it’s freaking awesome” whiskey. Caol Ila 12 is somewhere between “beautiful morning” and “damn it all,” so maybe my “the world is beautiful but needs a swift kick in the ass” whiskey? Anyway, I’m drinking it now, so maybe you, dear reader, can tell me what personality this whiskey brings out.

Speaking of personalities: I like to save money. It’s a big part of my personality. Which sounds pretty lame, but let’s explain it better: I like to build wealth so that money can be made into an afterthought rather than the burden that it is right now. And I like to think of, practice, and talk about ways of achieving that goal.

The thought I put into saving money shapes a lot of what I do. Like how it makes me cook my own meals – which I’d probably do most of the time, anyway, because I enjoy it and can control the ingredients/flavor of my food – but I put a bit more emphasis on cooking because I’ve discovered I can eat like a king while spending less money than most of my peers who eat heavily-processed, low-flavor, over-priced shit every day.

The thought of money also makes me more aware of my real wants and needs. I know I may want a new suit, but since my old ones still fit and still look professional, I don’t bother. Why spend more money – and therefore more work time – on new suits to show off at a job I’d rather not be doing, anyway? I know I might want a new sectional for my living room so that we can move our current furniture to the basement, but I realize there’s no rush because we have more pressing things to do this year, like a deck and daycare, and we probably couldn’t max our pre-tax investments and get those more important things done and buy the furniture. I know I want a new bottle of Scotch, and while the $5,000 Macallan M might be nice, I can settle for wasting a bit of money for the exquisite enjoyment I can get from a $50 bottle of Caol Ila, instead, to help me retire and enjoy more Scotch that much sooner.

Since I’m honestly not sure how to wrap this up or tie it to a bigger theme, let me just say: Whiskey’s great, money’s almost as nice, and people are crazy.

Thanks to I, Vigilante for the great article.

Want to know more about The Vigilante?

Check out his origin story – I, Vigilante Origin Story

Want to read more amazing Scotch Street nuggets?

Here are a few:

Scotch Street Guest Post – Tuppenny – Champers

Scotch Street Guest Post – The Flawed Consumer  – Glenlivet 15

Scotch Street Guest Post – I Dream of FIRE – Bowmore Legend

Also, read more about what Scotch Street is here:

What Is Scotch Street? Description, Rules, and How to Guest Post!