You make some good points. Working yourself to the bone until retirement is probably not the best approach. Spending ALL your money is maybe a bad idea though.

You make some good points. Working yourself to the bone until retirement is probably not the best approach. Spending ALL your money is maybe a bad idea though. My plan is in the middle somewhere. I earn a decent living, and have a modest pension. The plan though is to save enough for a large piece of land in a cheap but stable country (inasmuch as THAT's possible - current thinking is Austria or South Africa), with a house, and then become self-sufficient on that land. Until I cash in my chips.