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bpt3 t1_jabgytf wrote

Reply to comment by MarcableFluke in When does saving become unhealthy? by Narrow-Imagination96

This is terrible advice.

They're setting themselves up for an earlier retirement, bigger down payment for a house, larger inheritance for their kids, or many other things down the road rather than just burning through everything that isn't earmarked as savings.

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manwnomelanin t1_jabhsuw wrote

Why would you hoard money with no purpose?

Its a tool, not a collectable

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mrdannyg21 t1_jackj3r wrote

This is really well said. Obviously saving is better than wasting but there’s definitely a grey area where you we are denying ourselves things we would enjoy when the additional savings have little marginal benefit. It’s important to have financial flexibility and emergency funds and all of that but also important to live your life. The balance of that is so very personal - depends on your priorities, health, kids, job, goals and a million other things.

For me, it took having someone in my life who was somewhat fiscally irresponsible for me to see how much I was hoarding, and how I was avoiding spending on things I’d actually enjoy a lot and had relatively minimal costs. So I’m glad OP asked this question because if you’re eating ramen because you’re paying down a 5-figure credit card that’s good, but if you’re eating ramen while having fully funded lifestyle, retirement savings, emergency fund, health insurance, outside investments, etc…well it’s worth taking a closer look at your priorities and financial targets. (Unless you just love ramen of course)

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bpt3 t1_jacabrx wrote

Because you might think of a specific purpose or have an unanticipated need later and you'll be glad you made saving a priority instead of a last resort.

I didn't say anything about hoarding.

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manwnomelanin t1_jace6bu wrote

> a specific purpose

This leads to the paradoxical line of thinking i mentioned before

> an unanticipated need

Isn’t that what an emergency fund is for?

You imply hoarding. You can spend thoughtfully while still enjoying the money that isn’t delegated to a specific savings bucket.

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bpt3 t1_jack858 wrote

I don't imply anything.

Additional savings never hurts, and it's always better to save than to spend frivolously. That's it.

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manwnomelanin t1_jackyi3 wrote

Whether you meant to or not, you did

Ultimately I agree if that’s the point you’re trying to make. Although I still think it’s poor advice in this context

Edit: I guess I don’t agree given my second sentence.

It may be better on paper, but that fails to consider emotional components which are important. You say it never hurts, but it is clearly hurting OP

We disagree on a philosophical level. I don’t think its healthy or worthwhile to avoid consumption like the plague. You should enjoy life a little.

To each their own

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RobfromHB t1_jae6zfu wrote

For what it's worth I didn't read that much into the comment. You both assumed too much of each other.

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bpt3 t1_jacsgl8 wrote

I wasn't aware I was talking to the sole arbiter of what someone meant by a statement, regardless of what the person making the statement actually said or meant.

You can continue this conversation with yourself as long as you like since you keep putting words in my mouth and completely ignoring what I (and the OP) actually said.

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manwnomelanin t1_jacteix wrote

> continue this conversation with yourself

You are right - this is much like talking to a wall

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MarcableFluke t1_jabhxdd wrote

>up for an earlier retirement,

Part of "Retirement goals"

>bigger down payment for a house

Part of "Short-to-medium term expenditure goals"

>larger inheritance for their kids,

Part of "Any other savings goals"

You realize people get to decide their own goals, right?

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bpt3 t1_jabi40v wrote

They might not be goals at the time, but having the money later gives you options that don't exist if you think the way you described.

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manwnomelanin t1_jabii87 wrote

This is just an endless paradox

Thinking this way, you will never spend money in anticipation of some hypothetical better opportunity down the line

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bpt3 t1_jacalwg wrote

No it's not, it's just making sure you're spending money for a reason instead of just spending everything that isn't associated with a specific saving goal you have today.

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manwnomelanin t1_jaceyx2 wrote

You can spend thoughtfully and still enjoy yourself.

You should be looser with the money leftover after allocating a portion to specific savings goals. You have to live a little

Especially in the context of OP’s situation who is clearly depriving themselves of basic life experiences.

Your advice alludes to spending money only on basic necessities and nothing else, even if that isn’t what you meant

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bpt3 t1_jacs2vq wrote

You keep saying I alluded to this or implied that.

Just read what I actually said, which you probably don't like to hear since it doesn't encourage frivolous spending.

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manwnomelanin t1_jacshcw wrote

Clearly, the implications were there. Again, whether you meant to or not.

Hence the downvotes.

I don’t think anyone here would disagree that you should spend all dollars thoughtfully. Clearly that isn’t what you communicated

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bpt3 t1_jact10m wrote

You can say clearly as much as you want, it doesn't make your opinion correct. It just makes you sound pretty annoying and ignorant of the post I replied to.

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MarcableFluke t1_jabi797 wrote

>but having the money later gives you options

Part of "Any other savings goals"

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bpt3 t1_jabiijy wrote

Ok if literally any theoretical future spending goal is covered under that, how does the rest of your comment make any sense?

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MarcableFluke t1_jabj1gq wrote

If someone is unsure about their goals and wants to keep their options open, then yes, that would be considered a savings goal.

>how does the rest of your comment make any sense?

Very well, once you understand it.

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[deleted] t1_jadmpla wrote

[deleted]

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bpt3 t1_jadzuc8 wrote

Sure, there is a middle ground.

I wrote what I did in response to someone who said it's pointless to save beyond savings goals unless you can't think of anything else to do with the money.

I would say that you should save excess money unless you can think of something worthwhile to do with the money rather than basically spending it on whatever you can think of at the end of the month to get rid of it, because you'll probably come up with something worthwhile at some point in the future and wish you had some extra money.

That doesn't mean you need to obsess over what you have, constantly worry whether it's enough when those concerns are not objectively valid, or not spend any money at all. Just don't spend money to spend it because someone told you saving beyond what you can think of right at the moment is "pointless".

Given the person I was responding to said that "any other savings goals" in his list can include saving in general for literally anything you haven't even thought of yet, I would say he actually agrees with me.

Edit: Sorry about your dad.

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RobfromHB t1_jae7gan wrote

Reasonable. Not everyone reading your comments assumed so much. This whole comment chain turned into a nit-picking back and forth rather than advice for the OP.

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bpt3 t1_jae9itl wrote

Yeah, it's reddit so I don't expect anything different. People live to read whatever they want into statements and then go off on that.

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