Sorry; this advice is not helpful. (I originally said "this advice sucks" but realized that I came off too strongly.) (I'm sure the OP is a fine person but I

Sorry; this advice is not helpful. (I originally said "this advice sucks" but realized that I came off too strongly.) (I'm sure the OP is a fine person but I am allergic to advice like this and get a visceral reaction to it every time.) The people I know that spend much less than they earn are either (a) homebodies that are perfectly fine with the "wake up -> work -> come home -> eat -> sleep" lifestyle, or (b) already have way more money than their lifestyle requires. I'm not like the people in (a). I've never been like that. I can barely stay home as it is. And, at least in the US, everything outside of home costs money. And while I get closer to (b) every year, especially now that I track all of my expenses and know where our annual spending baseline is, I'm not there yet. I think there are a lot of people like me. So financial blogger people or SJWs on /r/personalfinance saying "just spend less than you earn, bro" is exactly like people with like 10% body fat or whatever telling overweight people "calories in, calories out, bro; not hard!" (interestingly, many of those people have negative to very negative relationships with food) I mean, you're not wrong, but it's also (a) not very good advice, (b) completely ignorant of people's personal preferences, and (c) makes me think the author is hiding something. My advice is more practical: save progressively, make a goal, and track your spending. I acknowledge that this only works for people that don't already have runaway spending problems, but I think it's much more pointed than "just spend less!" If you don't save, start with something small, like 1% of your income. Some amount that you won't miss. Increase that every month by a small amount. (I do like the idea of having a six month rainy day fund, though I think engineers can get by with less.) By "make a goal," I mean this: you have infinite money. What does your life look like every year? Write everything down, no matter how outlandish, then actually do some homework and figure out how much living that life will cost. Sum everything up, divide that by 40%, and, boom, there's your number. Figure out how to get there, and get there! If you track your spending while making minimal changes, then after a year, you'll know what your annual burn is. Then, over time, you'll know whether you (a) need to make more money to support that lifestyle, (b) whether your burn is increasing too fast relative to your income, and (c) have a better idea of what you need to save to guarantee your lifestyle without making any cuts. You only live once. Why spend it constantly pinching pennies if you don't have to? So that your grandkids can spend your money after you die?