if you focus on saving money, you skip $5k vacations
what’s a number in an account worth if you never use it?
(They don’t necessarily need to be expensive vacations, though.)
I know people who are basically close to burnout all the time, and a week here and there of no-responsibility vacation would do wonders for their mental health. It’s not necessarily always about fulfilling a dream, but it can be about doing a little self care.
Those weeks don't have to cost anything. You could stay at home, go camping, etc.
There’s a balance of course, but I know a few people who go too far into the “save everything” category. They are slaving away in their 20s and 30s, prime time for exploration and fun, for a retirement when they are older and have other responsibilities.
I have a family member who had a serious health scare when she was younger, and still lurks over her head. It’s really a different perspective: why have no fun now saving for a day that might never come?
Of course, you do need to save something, because retirement will hopefully come. Balance is everything.
I realized I lived through a peculiar hell when I was young, so I definitely made up for it buy working hard, playin' hard.
It's good that you'll be fine if you go back to nothing, but it very much isn't a reason to spend all the money.
Reasons to spend all the money could be eg that it makes you happier (I very much doubt that) or that it makes the world a better place (you didn't say how you spend the money, so perhaps?).
Like when you are in your 20s, living with roommates (even if you can afford not to) is fine and could be fun, and you can just enjoy friends coming over for beers vs more expensive outings etc.
And if you save enough, you have the "dry powder" to buy that house or whatever when time comes.
On the flip side, if you don't save when you are young, and you can't afford shit when you are older - it gets not cute really fast. Like being 40 and not having a house because you never got your shit together for a down payment (because you lived it up the prior 2 decades) is pathetic.
If people want to live different they can. Plenty of people die in their 50s and 60s. Some earlier.
The fact is I see much more people who are too poor relative to their age living miserable lives because of that.
> Like when you are in your 20s, living with roommates (even if you can afford not to) is fine and could be fun, and you can just enjoy friends coming over for beers vs more expensive outings etc.
Fair. I’ll just say we have different definitions of fun :) (nothing against what you said, people enjoy different things. I am actually jealous of people who find that stuff fun).
Some people must have nerves of steel, I couldn't sleep living life like that. A stiff breeze takes most people out financially and the feel comfortable going on vacations!
If you want to live in a society of relaxed, happy well-off people then you're going to have to do some work for someone else that you never collect on. That is literally the only way to achieve good outcomes. We call it "savings" and it is a great idea.
Live below your means is good advice. It says nothing about not taking a vacation.