It seems to me there is, at least on certain topics, a surfeit of personal finance information. And with many of those topics (rent vs. buy anyone?), there are a number of strong opinions. At times the discussions, calculations, and arguments are overwhelming. So what do you do, how do you decide? Here’s what I do. I come back to my own life and determine what I want out of it, what I want to accomplish. Some people talk about setting goals and I think that’s part of it, but not all.

Here’s an example: Let’s say that you have a goal of saving a million dollars for retirement by age 50. My next question to you would be: why? Why 1 million and not 1.2 million? Why not 0.9 million? Why age 50 and why not 54? But mostly importantly, what exactly do you get out of life, that you want, by having that goal. What have you actually accomplished? Don’t get me wrong, I think that having financial goals are important; without them many of us would end of floundering around spending money willy-nilly and not saving for things that are truly important. However, if we limit ourselves to just financial goals (based on what we read and other people’s lives) we could easily end up saving for things that aren’t truly important to us.

Let’s take the rent versus buy argument. Let’s say that you’ve run the numbers and for your area it makes more sense to buy versus rent. But that doesn’t mean that it makes more sense for you. Are you living where you want to be for the next 10 to 30 years? Do you want to live closer to your relatives when you start a family in the next two years? Do you want to live abroad after you’ve saved up enough in the next few years? If that’s what you want out of life, then that’s what you should focus on. Life is more than calculations: it’s friends and family, dreams and travels.

Personal finance decisions should be personal. What’s the point of making the “best ” personal finance decision if you miss out on the things of life that are really important to you. Does it really matter if saving money instead of paying off student loans is a net gain in interest if you want to be debt-free so you can realize your heart’s desire of joining the PeaceCorps or doing humanitarian aid abroad? Personally, I don’t think so, do you?

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