This allows your money to really grow and accumulate earnings.

If they have the capability and are in the right situation, your early 20s is the ideal time.

Retirement and medical bills are something that also scares me. When I think about some of the money that I've already thrown away on things that I might not have needed at the time, it really puts my savings situation into perspective. When is the best time to start saving for things like this? I want my children to be better prepared for these things than I'm going to be.

Very sad but true.

That's not exactly wrong. In addition, there are children and parents to also look for in later days. While they may have their own savings, it's not always enough and we can't help but to help them, even when they live by wasting their resources.

Honestly, when I think of savings, I usually think long term. Things like retirement and medical expenses is something that scares me, so if I can be considered a hoarder of money, that's my main focus.

As long as you can afford spending too much on an item once in a while, that's fine. I know people who live beyond their means and then cry that they will be working forever to pay off their debt. I've found that I can be frugal most of the time by staying away from brand names and buying generic.

You are so right Medi. Spending too much just once in a while isn't a horrible thing to do. I think if you save your money you should be able to reward yourself from time to time.

Breakinger wrote:

Medi wrote: Saving up excessively with the mindset to 'simply be rich' is not ideal, given that we live in this kind of age. We do need to save up for celebrating the birthday of someone important, buying necessary books for classes, getting treatment for our parents' illness, and so on. It's about priority.

This is exactly how I feel, Medi. I know a few people that do nothing but work because they feel that they need to have all of this money put into their savings and they live with almost nothing. It seems to me that they are missing out on some of the good things in life because they are too worried about spending some of their savings. I don't know how they go through life like this.

I suppose we can bluntly admit that among all the purposes of saving money, buying luxurious things is indeed one of them. I released the tension a bit by allowing myself to buy shoes or expensive favorite food once in a while. As long as there is a sensible limit, it's still possible.

Medi wrote: Saving up excessively with the mindset to 'simply be rich' is not ideal, given that we live in this kind of age. We do need to save up for celebrating the birthday of someone important, buying necessary books for classes, getting treatment for our parents' illness, and so on. It's about priority.

This is exactly how I feel, Medi. I know a few people that do nothing but work because they feel that they need to have all of this money put into their savings and they live with almost nothing. It seems to me that they are missing out on some of the good things in life because they are too worried about spending some of their savings. I don't know how they go through life like this.

Completely agree. And priority is not the same for everyone. There isn't necessarily one right way an it depends on what people want to get out of their life.

Saving up excessively with the mindset to 'simply be rich' is not ideal, given that we live in this kind of age. We do need to save up for celebrating the birthday of someone important, buying necessary books for classes, getting treatment for our parents' illness, and so on. It's about priority.

Rob101 wrote: This is of course just my personal opinion, but frugality has aways been a ticket to mediocrity in my opinion. One thing is to never go overboard with what you spend and what you earn, but constalty lookig at what you spend and always trying to save every cent possible is not the best approach. I say try to live just a bit ver your means and this will force you to look for ways to earn more money.

That is truly the way to success.

What you're advocating is a life constantly in debt under the guise of that debt being a motivational tool. Therefore, debt is not taken seriously in the way that it should be. You seem to be taking a personal approach to business decisions and I, personally, think that is a recipe for both personal and financial disaster.

Well said CENTS!

I agree with the others who said living beyond your means as a motivator to make more money isn't going to work and could get you in a lot of trouble. If you don't like being frugal, that should be motivation enough to try to make more money.