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Spend while you’re young?

September 12, 2008 By Megan Smith

Yesterday, Slate published an article titled Spend your money while you’re still young – you’ll be happier.

Intriguing premise, since we’re always told that we need to Save! Save! Save! for retirement.

As explained in the article, the basic theory is “that you’ll get a bigger bang for your consumer buck by spending while you’re healthy, before old age starts to take the fun out of life’s indulgences.”

It’s a bit of a depressing premise if you think about it. We save while we’re young so we can afford to live comfortably when we’re old, but when we’re old, we’ll be so sick and crabby that we won’t be able to enjoy it. Personally, I would like to be old, healthy, and happy. And the study quoted in this article indicates that healthy retirees are happy – it’s the sick ones who aren’t.

Of course, I’m sure it’s still better to be old, sick, crabby, and able to pay bills than old, sick, crabby, and broke. So even though it might make you happy right now, you can’t exactly spend everything and not save for retirement.

So what’s the lesson here? If you have a family history of illness in old age, spend more of your money now, because you’ll be too unhealthy to take fancy trips when you’re old? Take good care of yourself and save your money because you’re so healthy that you’ll be living well past 100? I think it’s a mix of the two. Save money, but make sure that you’re still managing to have a little bit of fun while you’re young. Not too much, of course – you do still need to be able to afford retirement.

As the authors put it, this means that those retirees who are still living frugally should stop putting off that fancy dinner and go enjoy themselves while they’re still healthy to do so. And for the young? Seize the moment and live life to the fullest.

(But don’t forget to save!)

Filed Under: retirement

Comments

  1. Daniel Costalis says

    September 12, 2008 at 7:47 am

    I think with a blog like yours, and an article like that, the main lesson is moderation.

    Isn’t it so true in every aspect of life? Life your life never eating a piece of cheesecake, and you might as well just not live! Eat nothing but frosting, on the other hand, and you’ll be so sick… you might as well not live!

    Very good take on an opposing view, and nice to see someone can fortify their own view without completely tearing down someone elses opinion.

  2. chato says

    September 12, 2008 at 9:05 am

    I think this is both good and bad… I really did. I worked and my wife worked and for a while in our 20’s we were pulling in about 8g’s a month… so instead of buying a house we took of to Europe for 3 months then again for another 3 weeks a year later. Tons of fun, no kids an experience of a life time. Enter the kids, no work, no house, and stuck in a dead end job… Still I would not have change one thing… If you have it and you can enjoy it go for it.

    p.s. a lot of my friends that did the wise thing and bought home are now renting an may lost their homes too… so in the end I say “carpi de um” (spelling?? 🙂 )

    Chato
    http://mentalhealthhumor.today.com

    Chato
    http://mentalhealthhumor.today.com

  3. jennydecki says

    September 15, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    I live in an “and” world, not an “or” world. There is no save or spend. Most of my best experiences in my 20s didn’t even involve money.

    I’m still having fun in my 30s and am saving like a madwoman – because it is the people I talk to that make my day awesome, not the money I spend.

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