As someone who has a serious medical condition and has altered my lifestyle to get healthier, I think "don't get sick" is more of a choice than most people seem to believe. And "don't get sick" -- or, more accurately, get my sorry ass well -- is, in fact, the big foundation of my financial plans. I am not where I want to be financially, but I am making poropgress towards my goals, including paying down debt.

If you're getting sick each year (or a long-term illness) and it's costing you your $15k/yr savings, I think many people would be screwed when it comes to covering the costs.

Kids are a choice - but even with kids one can still live frugally or prepared. For example, choosing to not have a child until you've accumulated enough savings to cover all of the extra surprise costs that can occur that most people don't plan for when having a child.

My father worked two jobs to barely make ends meet for 8 years because his financial planning revolved around a family plan that he didn't actually plan for. My family plans are actually planned and revolve around my financial plans. One problem I see people make is that their financial plans revolve around their family plans (or lack thereof).

No surprise child at 18 years of age. No poorly-planned "I think I'm ready but I'm not actually ready" child at 21-23 either. I've seen very, very, very few parents under the age of 25 that a) planned for their child and more importantly b) properly planned for their child.

Lack of planning - or having a poorly crafted plan is what is "risky" or "doesn't scale".

No, it's just be frugal. You can still pay for insurance and kids.

In fact in TFA he says he has a kid.

So step 1 don't live in the US.

fixed that for you :)

  it's a lot of risk

What’s a lot of risk? Saving a significant portion of your income? Sounds less risky than “work until I’m 70 and then hope I have a good pension.”