Happy birthday! Just a personal anecdote, and apparently very different opinion, so take it with a grain of salt, and please dont judge my humble upbringings (but with a big spending habit)
Right when I was out of college, I saw this person from a VC that used to come out to help out at the start up that I was working at. She would always carry, I thought at the time was the most gorgeous
Prada handbag, and I said to myself (and to my then-boyfriend, now husband, so he could hold me accountable) that I would buy that same bag once I started making over $100k. Then in just a few years, I did (this is with stocks because that im living that SF tech life)
so then I was like ok, I have a lot of other things I need to spend money on, so I'll buy it once I make over $100k in just base salary. And that only took a couple years after that. So in my mid-20s, I had hit my goal. I didnt get the Prada (because tastes change) but I did get a YSL, which at the time was the most expensive handbag I had purchased all on my own (i.e. not with parents money or monetary gifts received from family, lol). A discretion that I grew up in a practical household, in which rolex was the most expensive luxury good purchased (excluding real estate).
The thing is, there's always going to be an area where money is "better spent", whether that's investments, saving for down payment, student loans, travel, etc. But I personally believe if you think that way, the right time is never going to come.
As long as you meet a specific goal (e.g. when student loan is 100% paid off; have enough for a down payment on a house; saved 100k in 401k; have 6 mo salary saved up as emergency funds, etc) i think its OK to splurge and reward yourself.
