To prioritise enjoying life over maximising savings?

[BeSereneWasp]

I wouldn’t personally put saving money ahead of paying for the things that make life feel worthwhile - whether that’s experiences, travel or just enjoying day-to-day life. Of course having some level of financial security matters but I don’t see accumulating large amounts of money as an end goal in itself.

AIBU?

As long as you can stand on your own two feet should your circumstances change or you're met with unexpected costs, it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks.

That’s too vague to answer.

Are your purchases on credit cards and loans or is your income sufficient to pay for your stuff?

How old are you?

I think there’s a balance to be had to be honest…it doesn’t have to be one or the other does it??

You do you

But also live with any consequences of your decisions

Only you can decide the answer to that question

I mean within my means, not relying on debt. I’m talking about the mindset of not always prioritising maximising savings over enjoying life, rather than spending irresponsibly.

Up to you. Dh and I prioritised saving with the goal of retiring early. Life is definitely more worthwhile when you have the freedom not to work.

It's a balance, enjoy and save, rather than splurge and destitute or miserly with a huge bank balance.

Surely it depends on circumstances, and usually balance is best. I wouldn’t prioritise holidays over being able to provide for my DCs futures for example, but a balance of the two is fine.

Depends what you mean by "maximising savings". There is a huge scale between "living very frugally and never spending an inessential penny" and "never saving anything; spending every penny you have".

Most people don't save money for the sake of it. They save for

1. Things coming up - holidays, Christmas, birthdays etc and less frequent expenses like insurance
2. Short term emergency fund (in case white good need replacing, the boiler breaks or your car needs work, for example)
3. Medium term aims (to support DC as young adults; for house renovations, for "holiday of a lifetime", for example)
4. Pensions

If you save for none of these, then you are unreasonable. If you are saving "enough" for all of these then you are fine.

Not everyone makes retirement. My mum included. Not everyone earns enough or has circumstances that allow them to save for early retirement. I have a pension and am saving each month but i’m a lower earning (31k) . So i’m not prepared to save everything and not enjoy life while im able. Tommorow is not guaranteed. @BeSereneWasp Id always have some savings for emergencies/towards the future but not so it stops living your life how you choose. Small amounts add up.

It’s such a personal decision with so many variables.

I am sixty and absolutely love my job, so early retirement isn’t something that interests me at the moment. When I do retire, I will have the benefit of Final salary pensions from three previous employers, and a non contributory pension from another (those were the days!)

I own my house and only have about £20k left to pay.

So for me, so long as I have the means to replace boiler or similar, I am not too worried about making massive savings. I absolutely hate driving and won’t replace my current car when it dies. I live somewhere with excellent public transport.

So I am happy to spend a high proportion of my disposable income on holidays. I have six planned for this year so far.

My dad died at 51 and I have a managble but still serious medical condition so I have taken the live in the moment approach to some extent. I do spend money on holidays/dinners/clothes/attractions/my cat (don't have dcs yet!). However I did make it a priority to get on the property ladder in my twenties, and have achieved that. I also contribute 8% of my income to my retirement fund. I do want to have a safety net when I do retire.

That said, I have a fairly decent disposable income so probably need to do better in terms of putting it towards some of it towards minor stock investments as currently it sits in my cheque account accumating until I book my next holiday.

What are you saving for? Very different to save for a house deposit, pension, retire early to saving every month for the sake of it.

I don't know anybody who do the latter whilst having no disposable income at all to enjoy their life in the present.

surely very few people "see accumulating large amounts of money as an end goal in itself." Most people who save do so for something, whether that's a house, a new car, a holiday, retiring early, living a good life once they have retired rather than relying solely on the state pension, to help their kids out, for a sense of security...

Not just for shits and giggles.

You're arguing against a position most people don't hold anyway.

But what about your life in between? What if one of you didn't make it to retirement?

At the end of the day, people have different priorities, but I can't get on board with not enjoying life along the way. That doesn't mean spend recklessly though.

DH got made redundant at 57. We are savers. He doesn’t have to get another job as a result.
Saving gives you choices in the future, and it makes every day life less stressful.

I had a no fault car crash that wrote my car off. Fortunately I didn’t have to worry about the cost of replacing it on top of all the other stress.
When the washing machine breaks down, it’s a pita, but it’s not a crisis.

Savings are worth having and massively impact the day to day stress of life. They are how you know you can afford to enjoy your holiday.

if one of had died earlier than the savings would have been used to make life easier for the person left behind eg help with young children or being able to work part time instead of fill time.
tbh we lived overseas and had a fab life along the way. However, we always shared the opinion that if we wanted to enjoy that type of later we would need to save a good chunk of our money.

YOLO

As long as you have a plan for an unexpected event - losing your job, seriously ill etc. And a financial plan for retirement then live as you wish today. Personally, I consider pensions as a form of saving, just very long term. Obviously it's inaccessible until 55-60, but fine to rely on pension lump sum to clear mortgage/debt if you've paid enough in. So if someone told me they'd got no savings but we're making decent pension contributions then that's still being prudent.

I totally agree with you OP. I think if you can stash a decent amount in a pension and build up an emergency fund for unexpected things like boilers and cars, then why not live as you choose?

When someone starts one of those monotonous ‘how much do you have saved? threads, there’s loads of people jump on to talk about their £100k + stashed away and I think, ‘why? What are you saving for?’ Fair enough if you’re saving for something specific but I don’t understand the concept of having thousands and thousands stashed away when you could be enjoying the here and now.

So yes, my general plan is to have a decent emergency fund and then invest in my pension but other than that, enjoy life.

I am saving as much as possible to help my adult DC get on the property ladder.

I do agree with this to a large extent but we do save a lot every month for various things.
We could save a whole lot more but I enjoy doing things like buying lunch out when I’m working rather than bringing it (which I do sometimes), treating friends to dinner, going to gigs, spending more on the best ingredients for dinner, buying nice candles, splashing out on clothes etc. None of which is necessary at all but they are all nice to have/do and mean my day to day life is more joyful.
i have a colleague who spends £10 a week on her food shop, lives very frugally and prioritises spending her money on holidays. I wouldn’t choose to live 90% of my life so frugally so I could enjoy 10%. She is often grumbling about things she could choose to improve but opts to save instead. Not a mindset I can understand but she makes her choices and I make mine. We have very different lives - what works for one doesn’t for another.
And regarding my pension, I put into it and my employer makes a large contribution. Aside from that, we have some properties which we will sell when needed and beyond that I consider that my old age looked after. I’m not willing to put even more to one side because I have another 27 years until I retire, it’s a long time and I want them to be great years.

We have 120k in cash and 22k in shares (separate to our pensions) and we live our lives. We have 3 holidays planned this year and a few weekend breaks, concerts etc . I know we are very privileged, we save at least 2k a month. It’s nice to do both though. We also have 40k saved for the dc.

Unless you are saving for a specific goal, it does seem pointless.
Dh and I are saving for the DC’s university. They are currently 11 and 14 years old, and are both likely to go. I don’t want to limit their choices and so it’s important to me that we have enough money for them to live in whichever city they choose.
Once we’ve paid for university, I might spend all our money on fast cars and diamonds.

I agree. We could die at any point. Enjoy life now.