Bears, that’s this person’s name, and there’s a question here. It is, “Our saving and investing rate is 60% in our mid-20s, which is incredible. How do we know if we’re being financial misers or just frugal? We save and then buy things or experiences that we want, just not very often. What do you think? How can we think about the difference between being frugal and being a miser or being a financial mutant and a financial miser? I have a question. I have some thoughts. I want to hear your thoughts because here’s what I think. Whenever we try to answer a question, I want to make sure that I carefully remove my biases from this. I want to make sure that I’m, like, I want to make sure that I carefully remove my biases from this. I don’t want the bias of the way that I live my life, the way that I view the world, to enter into questions because I want to give you good, solid counsel. I recognize some people are just naturally frugal. They just don’t spend a lot of money. The things that they do don’t cost a lot of money. They don’t need a lot of things. So yeah, I’ve got this income coming in. When I hear a 60% savings rate, my mind immediately goes to, ‘Oh man, this person must be really cutting back,’ but they just said, ‘Hey, if we want to do things, we do it. And if we want to have things, we have them, but there’s just not, we just don’t do it super often.’ So what would your thoughts, what would your response be? This is not scientific. It’s not analytical like a lot of financial content is. It’s more of a mindset thing. When you have those quiet times, like you’re on your back porch or, you know, and you’re just reflecting on your life and you’re saying, ‘Hey, am I happy with where things are? Do I feel like I’m living the best version of where I am?’ Because that’s your biggest fear, is you’re wasting your 20s because you’re only going to be in your 20s once. You don’t want to waste your 30s because you’re only going to be in that stage for a period. So you just need to be honest with yourself. And if you are doing everything that’s great, now because you mentioned you have loved ones, you have a significant other or something, do the exact same exercise thinking about the feedback you’re getting from them because that’s usually when I get comments from people saying, ‘Why are we living such a tight-wad life?’ Well, that’s an indicator of something, you know? If you’re finding that, you know, when you do make memories or you’re doing something and you seem to be the only one that’s happy but all of your loved ones are like, ‘Oh, we’re going to eat there again,’ or ‘We’re going on vacation,’ or ‘We’re not going on vacation this year because of this,’ that, I would just use that feedback as well and kind of reflect on that because I think there is a superpower in living in a consumption society like we live here in the United States where everything is telling you, ‘Buy more, spend more, you know, go do this to live your best life.’ Social media is just pounding you at all times. Everybody’s doing life better than you are. If you’re the person that looks at all that and you just kind of smile and internalize, ‘Hey, I’m happy with what I am,’ I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. But do be honest with yourself and say, ‘Okay, I’m only going to be in my 20s this period of time. Am I maximizing this?’ And if you can answer all that with a true smile and your loved ones feel the same way, keep living your best life. Just make sure you then kind of project it out, know where you’re going, know what it can turn into, and then just make sure you’re still asking yourself the questions, ‘Am I still going to be happy because I had a when I was in my early 30s?’ There was a husband that was in our peer group who had just crossed 50 and um, and he was like, ‘Hey, just make sure that when you’re doing all your goals and other things that you take into account that you will change as a person, both mentally as well as physically.’ And he was like, ‘So if you think you’re going to go hike, um, you know, some great mountain or go on this exotic trip when you’re in your 50s and 60s, just realize you might not physically be able to do that as well.’ And that’s always, it’s kind of like, you know, my, I had the pastor who, when he crossed into the 40s, he’s like, ‘Man, it was a fork in the road moment,’ you know? I kind of had to choose. That’s when I was going to work because health is wealth also. So just make sure you’re reflecting on those things too, Bears. But, but I wouldn’t get in a hurry to increase lifestyle too much. Like when I think back in my 20s, being a little, like, reflective here, it’s not so much that I wish I would have spent a lot more money because, like, as I got into my 30s, I was happy that, like, lifestyle increased and there was new stuff that we were able to do and that was all exciting. The thing I would have done in my 20s differently was, like, time. Like, I’d have gone to more, I would have gone to more movies on a Tuesday afternoon. Like, I’d have done more of that stuff if I could have done that stuff. It’s not necessarily the expensive things, it’s more the experience things, the memories things. I don’t know, that just, because you have a 60% savings rate, you ought to go figure out how do I find ways to go spend more money? Because if you do allow your lifestyle to increase, most folks just, generally speaking, their lifestyle gets higher in their 30s and then higher in their 40s and then higher. Like, your lifestyle increases through time. So you do want to be careful of where you set that baseline in your 20s and in terms of, like, lifestyle, not necessarily experiences. But I think that’s something to stay mindful of. Oh, for sure, because I’m ruined now. You know, that’s why we went from Tightwad Nation. I was like, I can’t tell people that anymore because I grew up tight and I always in my 20s, I was tight, probably very similar to like Bears here with the huge discipline. But then once you start tasting the better food, staying in the nicer hotels, can’t go back. You’re like, oh my gosh. That’s why you, you got to make sure. I’d rather you be conservative with those decisions, um, especially if you’re happy. Because that’s the thing is I think too many people in our, out there in the consumption world we live in, go get the nice stuff before they can afford it. And then when the rug gets ripped out from underneath them because they financed it all at $100 a month and actually, instead of building the quiet wealth that can actually work harder than you can with your back, your brain, and your hands, um, it’s much better to do it your way, Bears.
