[rebekahb]

Originally Posted by c1pher

I watched my brother in law skrimp every penny to only end up with liver cancer and die at 60 before he could even reach retirement. We were very close and one of the things he said to me before he passed was that he wished he hadn't been so tight with money and enjoyed life from the fruits of his labor more often.

You never know when you're going to go. Not saying don't save anything, but you should also try to live a little while also saving for a future of not going to work. I work hard so I can enjoy nice things and experiences, but I also try to put something aside. Could I maybe retire five years sooner if I saved harder? Maybe but I do like to be productive and not having to be frugal.

I expect I'll be driving a econobox when I'm retired but can then justify it because I know the alternative is returning to work at that point, and know I already did a bunch of stuff while I was still really healthy. When you're 75, you're not typically going cross country hiking or jet skiing or whatever.

I'm sorry to hear about your brother in law. No one facing their last day says they wish they would have worked harder.

My husband and I live our lives very similar to what I bolded above. We both work hard and enjoy the benefits of our hard work. There's no guarantee that when you retire you will be healthy enough, alive long enough after, or even guaranteed tomorrow. We travel quite a bit and each time we do we look at each other & say how fortunate we are to experience the moments we do. We do save and if the bottom fell out tomorrow could live for quite a while on savings.

I don't know, there's more to life than the constant hamster wheel we run on. Life is meant to be experienced not worked away.