TL;DR: Use your money to buy experiences, not things.
>> Slightly higher on the consumer thrills ladder is the new slogan of, “Don’t buy things, buy experiences! Travel! Take Cruises! Go to all the happy hours!”
>> It’s a nice idea, and it does work to a certain degree: experiences are more memorable than things. After all, your favorite trip still glows warmly in your memory, even while that iPad2 you purchased just a few years ago is hopelessly outdated now and sitting in a storage bin under the shipping boxes from your iPad3 and iPad4.
>> In the mainstream media, the analysis ends there. Spending on experiences is better than spending on stuff, so just spend all your money on experiences and you’re set.
>> But there’s an even more satisfying thing you can do with money, which is rarely mentioned: not spending it.
I don't make a lot of money, and I'm a long way from retiring early like MMM. However I've started to realise that the idea of being completely financially independent (if not 'retired', then at least able to live without working for long periods) is even more satisfying than the thought of exotic holidays.
Of course, there's no right answer to this. If I'm hit by a bus tomorrow, I'm sure I'll be lying in the road wishing I'd taken that trip to California.
[0] http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/04/14/how-to-make-money-...
Then you'd better hope you live long enough to enjoy that independence/retirement, and not die when all you've done with your life is hoard money.
There's also the opportunity cost that you should take in to account. Travel and especially living for extended periods in places very different from the ones you're familiar with can really broaden your view of life, other people, yourself, and the world. Those experiences can be literally lifechanging, especially if you have them while young and when your world view is not yet petrified by old age.
Travel and living abroad can also present you with many opportunities, introduce you to many interesting people, help you network and perform beter at work (for a wide variety of reasons that I won't go in to here), etc.
Trying to make up for this by travelling after you're retired won't be the same. For one, you'll no longer be young, so your mind will be different, your outlook will be different, you'll probably not be as open to new experiences or as open to changing your outlook on life. Your body also won't be as up to doing many of the things you'd easily be able to do while young (like walking through cities or the countryside for long periods of time, eat a lot of exotic food, hang out late, etc).
You may also not have nearly as much desire to travel by the time you're older, or if you do you might be more likely to take tours with lots of other tourists than strike out on your own or with a few friends (especially as by then all your friends will have kids to take with them or take care of, or will be retired and more-risk averse themselves), etc.
In short, there's something to be said for living for the moment rather than living for the future, and you might want to get your travelling in while the going is good. Your enjoyment of, benefit from, capacity and desire for travel is likely to reduce as you get older.
I think that it is certainly true for some people that they would be happier retired early, and doing volunteer work or so, or working with random things (I think MMM does carpenting or something? On top of running a blog). I also think there are plenty of people for whom that is not true.
I like knowing that I COULD quit. Actually quitting work wouldn't make me happier though, I think. Someone is actually giving me pretty good money for doing things that I enjoy. That seems better than not getting money for doing things that I enjoy, or getting low amounts of money from it. Sure, it does come with those crappy days when I truly dont enjoy what I do, but they are certainly less common than the days when things are nice.
This doesn't mean the stereotypical "retire on a beach somewhere and never do anything again" most people imagine. Instead you don't have to work on anything you don't want to. You can choose what you work on and how often you do so. If you don't feel like it that day, then fine. You have full control over all of your time for the rest of your days.
Want to take up woodworking? Go for it! Want to continue doing freelance coding? You can! It'll only increase your financial independence, and you don't have to take on projects that don't interest you.
It's crazy how most people don't even realize this is an option. Most people are on the old spend all your money, work til you're 65 (or maybe 70 these days) kick. I didn't even realize it until I stumbled upon his blog. Things are sooooooo much better now, and I credit a lot of that to MMM.
You get a much better travel experience than you would if you spent all your money on a package deal to Hawaii, and the bonus satisfaction of having done it on $10/day.
Given the example in the article of the woman who got plastic surgery, she doesn't get the dopamine hit the day of surgery and now mysteriously years later she's still happy, instead she gets the dopamine hit every time some guy pays attention to her or she gets someones attention, which might be as recently as today, therefore there's no mystery why she's still happy.
Your situation is probably a long term / permanent memory of having vision problems combined with those problems being gone now. The article seems to imply no matter how poor you have been, you'll forget it eventually once you're rich enough, which I find unlikely.
Ah, we agree then, because a statistically relevant correlation never requires 100% participation. Or lack of 100% participation never disproves a correlation.
Certainly ongoing peer / public recognition is a very significant difference between that example in the article of plastic surgery and the other example provided of buying a, now obsolete, original ipad. An analogous plastic surgery / body mod that can become obsolete over time is obscure, hard to think of, unlikely... maybe a tattoo with the name of a former S.O. Maybe fad piercings.
Why did you choose IOLs over Lasik?
IOLs can also be used in myopia. The implantable lens is placed in front of the natural lens to correct the near-sightedness, like a contact lens but INSIDE the eye. The natural lens is left intact so you don't lost the ability to focus close up (accommodation).
There are also accommodating lens implants, which are pretty new. So a cataract patient can regain their ability to focus close up.