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We're not frugal, but we're not big spenders either. Thankfully the Mrs and I have no desire for flashy cars, expensive clothing, any ink, etc.
We do spend a little here and there on pedestrian items like her occasional Sbux coffee, a dinner out every now and then, or I'll throw a couple of bucks into the lottery pool at work when the jackpot is high.
However, we both invest the proper amount into our retirement funds, we pay our bills (with no CC balances), and we still somehow have enough to take two (cheap) cruise vacations each year. And the dogs are spoiled!
I guess we all have different levels of frugality and what others consider our spending habits to be (or not be).
I have one tattoo. It cost $100. Hardly affected my budget.
Did go into debt for my daughter's college. She's my only kid, and I didn't have a degree myself, and neither did her father, so we both encouraged her to go, although I paid for a much larger share than he did. That was worth it to me. After I retired and started to receive my pension and no longer had to pay for health insurance and commuting (the insurance was free once I retired), I worked part-time and dumped most of it on the approximately $60K in college loans, killing them in about two and a half years, as well as my car loan and other debt. Now I only have a mortgage, and I never carry a balance on credit cards anymore.
Never bought fancy coffee or expensive clothes to begin with. No matter how fancy and expensive designer clothes can be, they don't make them for six-foot-tall women anyway, so I couldn't waste money on 'em if I'd wanted to. Gave away most of the JCPenney office wear after retirement except for a couple of suits for the aforementioned part-time job.
I like to go out to eat, but the aforementioned part-time job often includes dinner or lunch, so I get some nice meals that I not only don't pay for, I get paid while I eat them. I occasionally meet up in the city with former coworkers for dinner, and I eat out regularly with a friend or two, but we go to local BYOBs that aren't pricey, usually Italian.
"If you quit smoking and saved the money, you could probably buy a Porsche."
"Where's YOUR Porsche?"
Hahaha, I quit smoking seven-and-a-half years ago. The next year, I bought a car, and one day I sat down and figured out that quitting smoking paid for my car.
that 100$ tatoo is a drop in the bucket....I find it bizarre that its even on the list.
To some $100 is a drop in the bucket, to others spending $100 on a tattoo means the electric bill doesn't get paid or no money is saved from that paycheck. (tattoo can be replaced with hundreds of other words...the point is the same)
Some people believe $10, $20, $100 isn't worth saving, others understand that even small amounts saved every week add up over time. I would guess it's one of the differences between the haves and the have nots.
Hahaha, I quit smoking seven-and-a-half years ago. The next year, I bought a car, and one day I sat down and figured out that quitting smoking paid for my car.
It's a Toyota Corolla, though.
I quit over 10 years ago (but still cheat once in a while-usually when I am around smokers ). I didn't buy a car because my driving days were well over before I quit. I don't think that it bought my house.
"If you quit smoking and saved the money, you could probably buy a Porsche."
"Where's YOUR Porsche?"
Saving $6/day by foregoing that pack of cigarettes really only "adds up" over the decades, if the saved money is wisely invested. If it goes into a savings account generating 0.1%/year, or even a CD generating 1%/year, there won't be any Porsches 30 years later. Even money that was invested in the US stock market 20 years ago, has hardly even doubled.
This is why indulging in small-luxuries is an entirely reasonable approach for "poor" people. That Porsche is only possible if there's capacity to save considerable amount of money, or to earn reliably high rate of return. Remove one of those pillars, and the savings are rendered unimpressive.
A used, lower-end 911 is around $50K, give or take. Ignoring inflation and taxes, that's 23 years of non-smoking (vs. buying one pack daily). Accounting for taxes and inflation, the calculation is even more dismal. If I save money in salivating anticipation of eventually buying a Porsche, but never quite amass sufficient capital, then I'd have injured myself thrice: (1) dashed hopes over an unrealistic goal, (2) foregoing a steady stream of small pleasures along the way, and (3) regret of having lived life wrongly.
One might even make the admittedly callous and sardonic argument, that smoking is a good investment. A heavy smoker would presumably die at an earlier age, well before onset of Alzheimer's or some old-age cancer unrelated to smoking itself. This saves years of miserable dotage and high healthcare costs. A shorter number of years in retirement frees one to spend more lavishly during the remaining years. If retirement lasts only 5 years, instead of 30, the 4% rule can become the 20+% rule. One could argue further: the behaviors that are devastatingly ruinous to longevity, are precisely those that, in the "right" context, are the best investment.
Hahaha, I quit smoking seven-and-a-half years ago. The next year, I bought a car, and one day I sat down and figured out that quitting smoking paid for my car.
To some $100 is a drop in the bucket, to others spending $100 on a tattoo means the electric bill doesn't get paid or no money is saved from that paycheck. (tattoo can be replaced with hundreds of other words...the point is the same)
Some people believe $10, $20, $100 isn't worth saving, others understand that even small amounts saved every week add up over time. I would guess it's one of the differences between the haves and the have nots.
I think this was the point of the article, at least the point I got from it. Not that no one should spend money on those things, but that people who make a decent income, but can't seem to save for retirement, and wonder where the money went --- here's your sign.
Saving $6/day by foregoing that pack of cigarettes really only "adds up" over the decades, if the saved money is wisely invested. If it goes into a savings account generating 0.1%/year, or even a CD generating 1%/year, there won't be any Porsches 30 years later. Even money that was invested in the US stock market 20 years ago, has hardly even doubled.
This is why indulging in small-luxuries is an entirely reasonable approach for "poor" people. That Porsche is only possible if there's capacity to save considerable amount of money, or to earn reliably high rate of return. Remove one of those pillars, and the savings are rendered unimpressive.
A used, lower-end 911 is around $50K, give or take. Ignoring inflation and taxes, that's 23 years of non-smoking (vs. buying one pack daily). Accounting for taxes and inflation, the calculation is even more dismal. If I save money in salivating anticipation of eventually buying a Porsche, but never quite amass sufficient capital, then I'd have injured myself thrice: (1) dashed hopes over an unrealistic goal, (2) foregoing a steady stream of small pleasures along the way, and (3) regret of having lived life wrongly.
One might even make the admittedly callous and sardonic argument, that smoking is a good investment. A heavy smoker would presumably die at an earlier age, well before onset of Alzheimer's or some old-age cancer unrelated to smoking itself. This saves years of miserable dotage and high healthcare costs. A shorter number of years in retirement frees one to spend more lavishly during the remaining years. If retirement lasts only 5 years, instead of 30, the 4% rule can become the 20+% rule. One could argue further: the behaviors that are devastatingly ruinous to longevity, are precisely those that, in the "right" context, are the best investment.
I don't know where you are getting your info, many Porsches are less than $50k. A used, lower end 911 can be bought for around $10k, there are several within 100 miles of my house that are asking around $12k for 911s on Autotrader. A 5 year old Porsche with less than 40k miles can be purchased for well under $30k.
You are trying to justify your poor decisions and small luxuries that cost dearly in the long run.
As a side note - Time makes a big difference also, 45 years ago, the convertible British sports car that I drove in HS, I bought for about $400 from working minimum wage summer jobs. Five or six years later, less than 6 months out of college, I could have bought a 7 or 8 year old used Ferrari Dino that they were asking about $4k for then, now that car would be worth close to $400k. I got a 3 or 4 year old used BMW 320i instead for about the same price, would be worth about what I paid for it now. It is not like I made a lot even when I was out of college, I was making about 60% of what most were making in my field and maybe 2x minimum wage back then because I went to school on a scholarship that had commitments but meant no student loans also.
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). I didn't buy a car because my driving days were well over before I quit. I don't think that it bought my house. 
