Article: If You Have Savings In Your 20s, You’re Doing Something Wrong

[Exterous]

Life is about balance and this is definitely towards one of the extremes

I don’t know about you, but I like to enjoy my life. I like to go out to eat, buy clothes I don’t “need” and spend money with friends on memorable nights out.

This goes back to a piece of advice a very successful friend gave me: “Don’t save money. Make more money,” he nonchalantly stated, pushing me into a taxi.

Great article for younger people full of great quotes like

When you care about your 401k, your life is just “k”

When you live your life by numbers, you strip yourself of poetry

People who are saving in their 20s are people who don’t set their sights high. They’ve already dropped out of the game and settled for the minor leagues.

I hope you still like poetry more than compounding interest when you are still working in your 70s

http://elitedaily.com/life/savings-20s-something-wrong/1214445/

 

[vi edit]

Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one. Some just stink worse than others.

 

[TheVrolok]

It's some sort of shitty satire right?

 

[notposting]

Holy hell, that one just hurts the brain. The complete lack of financial sense all the way down to the very little things. "Oh I'm broke and hungry? (because I be networking at da clubz) Well, I'll just buy fast food to eat!" Good job, you just turned several meals worth of money into a single crappy one!

Looks like the comment section is raking them over the coals, unfortunately they are getting the page views they wanted.

 

[Newell Steamer]

And, if you are Lauren Martin, you are a moron.

 

[PricklyPete]

She obviously didn't study math.

 

[waggy]

that's satire right?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

And, if you are Lauren Martin, you are a moron.

If your name is Lauren and clubbing is a big factor in your lifestyle, and you like to "live in the now", chances are a good chunk of your lifestyle is subsidized by people named Mike, Steve, or Chad - but you will probably never see a dollar amount attached to anything.

Which is just a continuation of the stuff a certain Mr. Martin silently did in the background for 22 years. (You really ought to call him. It's his birthday.)

I'm not saying women are [insert-mean-word-here], just that some of them - particularly young ones - don't even think twice about where the money is coming from. They just accept that they don't have to pay for meals or hotels, like, ever. It's narcissism.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

that's satire right?

I would say yes, but I actually have known people that short-sighted and shallow, who nonetheless thought they had some mind-blowing new philosophy totally figured out.

Poe's law, I guess.

 

[clamum]

Hopefully that's a joke. Incredibly fucking stupid otherwise, IMO.

 

[Svnla]

Look like the author needs to read "The ant and the grasshopper" story.

 

[glenn1]

There's a small element of truth in it but of course exaggerated. When you're young is the perfect time to do stuff that doesn't make financial sense because you have limited responsibilities and typically haven't settled into your long-term career yet. If your dream is to backpack through Europe for summer, be a band groupie and follow their concert tour around the country, move to California and surf full-time for a year or so - all only really doable when you're in your 20s and don't have much to lose. I'd gladly give up an extra $10k or so in my 401(k) to have followed a dream like that.

 

[CraKaJaX]

"I don’t have any savings, but I also don’t have any wants."

This is about where I stopped reading. Completely bullshit. EVERYONE has 'wants' from the start to the end of their life.

 

[Exterous]

It's some sort of shitty satire right?

that's satire right?

I'm pretty sure its not as it looks like its in the same areas as more obviously serious articles. Not that its an in depth, well researched article type of place

 

[mmntech]

I hoarded money like crazy all through my 20s. You know what? If I didn't, I'd be screwed.

The way the job market is today, if you can land a job that pays decent, save as much away as possible. That will hold you off through lulls where you're stuck working for peanuts or not working at all. Yeah, I've basically turned into my Grandma. I often go without even when I can afford it because I'm constantly worried about how the future is going to screw me over.

 

[Brainonska511]

Look like the author needs to read "The ant and the grasshopper" story.

"It's just like the story of the grasshopper and the octopus. All year long, the grasshopper kept burying acorns for the winter, while the octopus mooched off his girlfriend and watched TV. But then the winter came, and the grasshopper died, and the octopus ate all his acorns. And also he got a racecar. Is any of this getting through to you?"

 

[DrPizza]

There's a small element of truth in it but of course exaggerated. When you're young is the perfect time to do stuff that doesn't make financial sense because you have limited responsibilities and typically haven't settled into your long-term career yet. If your dream is to backpack through Europe for summer, be a band groupie and follow their concert tour around the country, move to California and surf full-time for a year or so - all only really doable when you're in your 20s and don't have much to lose. I'd gladly give up an extra $10k or so in my 401(k) to have followed a dream like that.

Pretty much this. You need to have balance. Too many people live shitty existences because they're so miserly with their money. There is/was (not sure if she's still alive) a multimillionaire in my area - she saved as much money as she possibly could. She never retired - why retire if working this year means that next year you have even more money to retire on. The thing that really stood out for those who've met her: she didn't have the hot water turned on in the house. That's a savings of $600 a year on the cost of heating the hot water! Cold showers. Apparently, you get used to it.

But, as Glenn points out, there are many activities that you can only really participate in when you're younger. Skipping out on those activities, just so you can retire with an extra $10k in your savings, seems to me (though probably not to everyone) to be a foolish way to live your life. You're not living your life - you're existing solely so that you can live your life 20 or 30 years down the road.

 

[kranky]

That approach would have worked fine in the 50's and 60's, when most places had pensions and you knew you'd work at the same place until you retired. It's not like that any more.

As Exterous pointed out in the OP, it would be wise to exploit compound interest by saving early.

Can't remember an online article where the comments so overwhelmingly rejected the author's viewpoint.

 

[OverVolt]

He doesn't want to be the only one holding the bag when the bill comes due.

Screw 'em, he can hold the bag I'm good.

 

[Drako]

LOL, the comments on that are golden.

That chick is a moron.

 

[BurnItDwn]

ehh, too many people spend too much and wind up owing everybody a bunch of money and never get any level of financial independence and security.

 

[OverVolt]

Was just watching that google "Human" youtube video, which was terrible IMO anyway because it kept cutting between people every couple seconds never focusing.

But anyway.

One guy said "You have to be happy with the simple things in life to ever get to where you want to be. Only then will opportunities open up for you." I agree with him. At least when it comes to working your way up.

 

[Ruptga]

Depending on how much you're making and how your local cost of living is, saving may actually be not worth the trouble. If you've got $100 per month after your basic living expenses, for example, will you be better off saving $1200 per year or spending that on yourself? Save and you will have 1200 per year, which is basically nothing and won't carry you through any rough spot, plus you're getting depressed because you're spending literally nothing on yourself and have no joy in your life. This is an extreme example, obviously, but there it is.

 

[OverVolt]

Depending on how much you're making and how your local cost of living is, saving may actually be not worth the trouble. If you've got $100 per month after your basic living expenses, for example, will you be better off saving $1200 per year or spending that on yourself? Save and you will have 1200 per year, which is basically nothing and won't carry you through any rough spot, plus you're getting depressed because you're spending literally nothing on yourself and have no joy in your life. This is an extreme example, obviously, but there it is.

So your happiness is derived from spending, got it.

 

[K1052]

A small part of me hopes it is satire but knowing ED I'm leaning to the serious camp on this one.

I've run into a lot of 20 somethings with the same mindset lately in SF so it isn't like these people don't exist.