Retirement saving is a big theme that I hear among older people. Mostly, they seem to lament not having saved more in their earlier years of wage-earning. Presumably, that darn past self of theirs should have given up the fun toys and frivolities of youth so that their present self could reap the benefits!
Since I'm under thirty years old, the typical retirement age of sixty-five is the second most distant life event I can think of, next to being dead (hopefully). With longer left until retirement than all the time I have experienced thus far in my life, how am I supposed to plan for it?
Despite my doubts as to how much is "enough" to save, we have settled on a strategy for now: we try to be frugal in our buying decisions, and any extra money we have goes to savings. We spend enough to have everything we need, with some comforts to boot. And we even put some of our budget toward "frivolous" things that are important to us, like travel. But we have agreed that those extras will improve our quality of life here and now, as well as in the future when we have those memories on which to reflect.
And that's something I won't regret in forty years.
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