How well off you feel on a low income has a great deal to do with where you live. If your area/country has very little crime, no hostile underclass and great public services, I can see it making sense - especially if there is something about you that connotes high status, as you will then still be able to score with good looking women. As it is in many places, u don't want to do it because with a low income you will in one way or another be pushed in with the degenerate, criminally prone underclass and your quality of life will be in the toilet.
Agree. This is the first public signal or cry for help of a downward spiral. Why not just make more and enjoy??
I'd say they guy with the blog has his head on straight as he seems to have goals that he is working towards rather than the mindless life most live. I(We) save almost half. Look at my screen name, consider what my day job might entail, and if you could swallow crow from all the people I gotta swallow from...yeah, I'm gonna retire ASAP. Then there is a next chapter, doing what I want, when I want, with who I want. LBYM is key. MMM does it. Many bogleheads do it.
Think much is how you grew up or how mentors taught when growing up. First 20% went you rainy day account, next 10% went to those in need, 5% went to saving for rental property(buy one house a year), next 65% went to expenses and anything left went to misc account. Sometimes not enough to pay all the expenses and have to cut back to live within your means. Credit is good for large purchases but not small. That's what I was taught, be self sufficient. I guess it comes down to what one sees as fun, I can't stand golf, have traveled most of USA and several countries, I often see work as fun, new challenges
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Excellant points.Even though working 7 days a week or retire early/couch potatoe tends to wreck one' s health. NOT a prediction,George Burns burned cigars @ 90 years-NOT wise.
I guess this makes sense if a person is weak-willed, weak-minded, and cares what other people think. Otherwise, it makes no sense at all.
Why not concentrate on ramping up your means? ( this is in general, not to you) rather than wasting your life dreaming about the future? When the future comes, its gonna suck just like the present if you don't know how to enjoy life regardless of working. Peace
For some people (not me by any means), living frugally does provide them with happiness. Living above or close to their means, may bring enormous stress into the lives of people that gravitate to the intense retirement savings lifestyle. To each their own. I shoot for somewhere in the middle. I want to save, so that I can get to a place where I can choose to work how I want, when I want, etc and still travel (or whatever) as I desire. But I certainly have a minimum standard (suburban) lifestyle that I want to provide for my family. There's more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak. I think that if some of these hardcore frugal lifestyle people spent as much effort in advancing their income, as they do controlling their expenses, they would likely get to the exact same place as they're trying to go. With that said, many of the high earners that live check to check, could learn a thing or two about reducing expenses and trying to save.