If I hadn't ever played WoW, I could have had 540 to spend on Amazon. I probably also wouldn't have been as fat growing up.
If I had not paid for that dumbfuck YOLO trip to Singapore near the end of college, I'd have 2k to throw at Netflix. Or, actually, BP, this was right during the spill.
In other words, Amen man. So now I think today - why do I still go out to eat sushi, instead of tucking it away for another Microsoft buy? Why do I still play Overwatch with my friends here and there instead of spending another hour or two learning something? Why do I still blow assloads of cash on trips once or twice a year?
I guess, what the hell else am I gonna do with my time and money? Keep it till I die? I ride a motorcycle, I could die tomorrow. Actually, my family has a history of heart disease, I could die literally right now lol.
As long as peeps are putting away enough money to survive a crisis, and following the basics of investment principles re: their retirement, they're doing life "right," in my unprofessional opinion.
Sure I didn't buy a lot of stock at 18, but I did have a part time job, which let me go out to eat with my friends and take girls to movies and buy a car to drive us to Ren Fest in (with enough leftover to put together a SICK pirate outfit). I had enough saved to make it easy to buy my books in college. Playing WoW was fun and relaxing, oh well. That YOLO trip to Signapore beat a bit of that cultural close mindedness out of me as I engaged with a bunch of other students from around the world... and it got me a job in Taiwan after college, which was eye opening in ways I never could have imagined. Same with my trips today.
I could have done things differently and have more money right now, but if I had more money right now I guess the only difference is my apartment might be slightly nicer (maybe, I love my apartment), my motorcycle would be slightly faster (maybe, the one I have is kinda perfect for my style), and my clothes would be slightly more expensive (maybe, I'd probably just shop at Uniqlo anyway). I honestly can't think of anything really different about my life right now. Maybe when I retire I'll be like "dude you asshole, if you'd bought 30 more Apple stocks we could be on a boat right now." But then again, I might just die before then, so, shrug.
"X% Americans live paycheck to paycheck"
"Y% American have nothing saved up for retirement"
"Z% Americans don't have $SMALL_AMOUNT for an emergency"
etc etc.
Your post perfectly explains why.
Shitloads of Americans are in a tenuous fiscal situation because our education system has been gutted, our healthcare system is a bad capitalist joke, and thus wealth disparity is shockingly bad here. These used to be things that affected me, but now I'm fortunate enough to be a software engineer and so they don't.