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Regarding the last point: one of the most common deathbed regrets is to have worked too hard. An extension can be made for being overly frugal: leading your lif
by johnloeber 11y ago
Regarding the last point: one of the most common deathbed regrets is to have worked too hard. An extension can be made for being overly frugal: leading your life hamstering cash is not much fun, and ultimately, pointless.
A common pitfall of frugality is to save money at the expense of your personal happiness. Example: In many companies, people head out to lunch together, grab a sandwich or whatever, eat together, and try to have a social time. That costs about $3300 a year, assuming 220 working days with the price of lunch at $15. That's a pretty large expense, and if you frame it solely in terms of food, probably not worth it for most. MMM would say that you should bring a packed lunch to work. However, I would argue that it is absolutely worth it for most office workers: chances are their jobs are in some way unpleasant, and if they bring a lunch from home, it's only a small step to eating that embarrassing, soggy PB&J in front of the screen, working and missing out on that small break. That can be very demotivating.
Beyond that, I think that some contrarian cases can be built for high-income, high-expense lifestyles. For one, an expensive lifestyle can be a great way to meet other successful people, which may open doors to opportunities. (There's a caveat on this: some kinds of expensive goodies, like vacations to Zermatt or living in a great area, are probably much better investments than buying a $15k handbag.)
Spending money on great experiences while young is also probably worth it. Having had "boring" 20s and 30s is another common regret, and it's quite feasible to prevent that, if you're confident in your earnings potential later on.
- s3nnyy 11y agoI disagree. It all boils down to social skills. I am living frugally in Zurich and I am saving 80% of my income (see post above). What I do when I want to participate in social meals is this: I just eat my own food before so I am not hungry, and then I just order a drink at the restaurant. My colleagues at work know my lifestyle and accept me the way I am. If I am eating out with people who don't know me, I just say I am not hungry.
- johnloeber 11y agoI gave an example to illustrate a point. Granted, my example was not perfect. The overall point still stands: not to make the mistake of sacrificing expenditures that are (in some way) critical to your happiness and motivation.
- xiphias 11y agoHow does your girlfriend/wife like this situation of just saving money?
- hobo_mark 11y agoI am frugal and like many people here also attend to my side project on nights and weekends, committed relationships are off the table with this lifestyle (sure, there might be rare exceptions).
- s3nnyy 11y agoShe likes that I don't waste money on useless shit like everyone else but rather save such that I can finance studies at Stanford or some other good school for our future kids, if they desire to do so. Having kids will mean I can't retire in 5 years but maybe in 15 years. In any case I have a heads up compared to everyone else. Having tons of cash on hand and little expenses gives you sort of super-freedoms other people don't have.
- miseg 11y agoYou can also bring in fantastic home-cooked meals.
- another-one-off 11y ago> eating that embarrassing, soggy PB&J ... can be very demotivating. I don't follow the American labour market so office wages are a bit outside what I want to look up. However... Using the average weekly wage for men >25 years old [1] I get an annual salary of ~50k. $3.3k is ~7% of that, or half an hour each 8hr working day. Eating a soggy sandwich is not so terrible that it is worth staying at work for another half hour each day. Figuring out some method of socialising without that 15 dollars (which isn't that hard, talk is proverbially cheap) would be well worth it. [1] http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat37.htm http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat37.htm the average weekly wage