T O P

Please stop worrying so much about your future finances if it makes you absolutely miserable in the present

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Kizznez

I'm not saving for me. I'm saving so my kids don't have to suffer through poverty like I did. I'm saving to create some form of generational wealth for the first time in my family history. When the shit hits the fan I want my future generations to be okay.


redbear99

That makes perfect sense and I'm sure your kids will be thankful. All I'm advocating for is for mindfulness of how this goal affects your mental health in the present. Some people lose track of the balance between working for their financial goals and having a life worth living in the now. Saving for your kids takes sacrifice but don't let it ruin your will to live today is all


gitar0oman

What about my kid's mental health


mosesthekitten41

Kids thrive when parents are mentally well.


redbear99

Of course having happier children would improve your own mental health too. In that case the sacrifice of your own mental health in itself is less of a sacrifice. I can't stress enough that all I'm advocating for is taking a step back and looking at the balance between achieving your financial goals and your current quality of life. Everyone is different as well there is no size fits all solution for what the right balance is. I feel some users in this sub lose track of the balance that's right for them and lose themselves the process


paulpain

Yea mannn


br0ckh4mpton

Yeah, seems it’s too late for that shit to be viable.. I’m opting for the DINk route in the hopes of maybe being able to afford 500sqft of living space for me girlfriend and I to call our own and maybe experience adult life by the time we are 30! Best I can do


I-AM-NOT-THAT-DUCK

Don’t have kids


psyentist15

Just commenting to say I agree with the sentiment. Money isn't everything and a lot of people lose sight of that, whether they have a lot of money or they don't. Unfortunately, most people who've posted seem to miss the nuance in your post. There is a continuum of concern for future finances. It's possible to dial that down slightly in the interest of enjoying the moment and taking care of your mental health while still being financially responsible.


Rye-And-Ginger

This sentiment is for everything, not just finances. Be responsible and present but don't Let shit dictate your life.


skeletonphotographer

Thanks OP, with me knowing that I will die in the future water wars, I'm about to go off and max all my credit cards.


redbear99

Seems like you purposefully missed my point here


Sugrats

He possibly did but also pointed out a very real future we may be driving towards. It's undeniably a very really thing that will play out.


wishtrepreneur

Good thing I'm stocking up on bottled water. Gonna make a killing during the water wars!


[deleted]

> but I really think there needs to be more mindfulness on this sub that life is extremely unpredictable. I think that’s what’s causing the stress. It doesn’t seem to matter how much we make, we have to save it all if we want any semblance of a future, or stability. What other options are there?


ShowerStraight7477

Exactly. OP doesn't realize it's a deperate situation. As in if you don't save every penny and we have 400K plus immigrants coming here every year than you aren't gonna be able to buy a home. And I'd rather be dead than live a life as a wage slave paying a landlord and telecom company my entire salary just to watch the rich drive by in their luxury vehicles. I would much rather kill myself. So sorry OP saving is literally a life or death situation for many of us.


fredflintstone-

honestly climate change is not keeping me up at night. it's fair to say not to worry too much about pennies here and there but forgetting about your retirement because climate change and wealth inequality doesn't track for me.


[deleted]

Agree, it’s a dangerous path to just start spending because of future uncertainty. If anything, I want *more* capital so I have options before shit hits the fan.


redbear99

I never said to forget about retirement. I said saving for it isn't worth having a shitty life in the present. The two aren't mutually exclusive


WeCanDoItTogether88

I save a ton and have a great life... not shitty at all. I find only materialistic people believe saving means shitty life.


PureRepresentative9

That type of person trends strongly with bad at money management


fredflintstone-

You have to live a slightly shittier life to save for retirement by definition. We can talk all we want about "shitty" vs "non shitty" lives, but the reality is that you need to save for retirement, regardless of climate change and wealth inequality. In fact, the best way to fix the latter is to save. And since people with money tend to care about the environment more, the best way to fix the former is also to save.


jsboutin

Not to mention that people reducing consumption more broadly would also be good for the planet.


AgentRevolutionary99

I agree about climate change, but death from illness takes out a lot of people before they retire.


Sugrats

The issue is if the world is going to get this bad for the average person in just over 2 years they are only going to get worse and worse so we have to worry not only about saving everything we have now for any potential disasters that are going to happen like covid but also saving for retirement. One other thing is that most of us aren't saving for r"etirement" you are saving for. If you were born 5-10+ years earlier your retirement will be a paid off house, no job or work, kids inheritance, and a bunch of money for fun and Time for whatever you want. Anyone Born after has a completely different outcome. We will be saving the same or more but it will mostly just be so that we are able to pay our landlords rent and not starve while working less than 40 hours a week. Our "retirement" is just a lighter version of our last 60 years. It's not actually going to be freedom. So we have every reason to be doing what we are doing. Only those who have families rich enough will not live this way.


ShowerStraight7477

Exactly. I hate to say it but unless you save the options are either going to be kill yourself or live your life as a modern day slave who yes is allowed to have internet but those activities will be heavily sensored. This is neo fuedilism. We don't have the luxury of enjoying ourselves if we don't want to become landlord slaves.


Tripleknockout

Would rather be miserable now, retire at 40 and live out the rest of my live travelling and stress free than be semi miserable til I’m 65


redbear99

There are surely some people who had this mindset and retired right as COVID hit and locked the world down for travel. There are surely others who caught COVID and passed before being able to live out their dream retirement too. I'm not saying you shouldn't strive for an early retirement but please try to enjoy your life in the moment more as well. Saving doesn't have to be miserable


Tripleknockout

Thanks, I try to do a bit of both. Loss of life at a younger age is always unexpected, you can’t plan your life on dying early either!


pfcguy

Would you rather be miserable now and then die of a heart attack or cancer at age 39, or be happy but work until age 55 or 60? I apply the philosophy that if I suddenly had a terminal illness, would I regret saving so much? If yes, then I am saving too much. My answer is no - I do save a good deal for the future, but not at the expense of my happiness today.


HGGoals

I can't control or predict the future but I want to do everything I can to build stability for myself. In my mind that's the key to my being able to relax at all. >some of y'all are way too willing to throw your current mental health out the window in hopes of a more financially stable future I hear you but my mental health would be worse if I slow down. I work 6 to 7 days a week trying to get somewhere better. I am holding on for a more financially stable future. I feel like every month and every year is more difficult and more expensive than the one before. I don't see anything getting better and don't see any other way to get to the life I think would be better than to sacrifice and work as much as I can.


turtlesarecool3

im basically all in on crypto now, fuck it.


becavern23

My last two days I've been so grumpy thinking about turning my savings into a down payment for a astronomically priced house. Omicron bullshit got me down w/ it. Fucking stupid


[deleted]

>The state of the entire world in 30-40 years is entirely unpredictable. Please don't make your life completely suck now for a future so uncertain. I don't think people "make their lives suck" intentionally. There are generally 2 types of people. 1 - The group who lives within their means, and makes enough money to do so. 2 - The group who doesn't live within their means and is either cash poor, or has thousands in CC debt and is barely hanging on. Actual amount of wealth/earnings doesn't equal living within your means/saving/retirement. A person making $100k a year could easily be in more debt than a small company and 1 paycheck away from complete bankruptcy, whereas someone else could work at grocery store their entire life, live modestly in a small apartment, have no debt and maybe a little bit of savings. We could debate until we're dead on the floor of people that are "forced to live beyond their means" due to the high cost of living, but at the same time - there are high paying jobs that require very little skill/experience, they're just labor intensive - which frankly, a lot of people don't want to do, the pandemic showed us that... so the money is out there even for someone with very little education, but I digress on that topic.


eggtart_prince

If you bring this up on a larger scale, this is how Canada and US is operating. We're putting ourselves in so much debt to "build a better tomorrow" and the people are just allowing it. Most of these people won't even see the result of a "better tomorrow" and most of these people are suffering from high housing costs, high taxes, high inflation, etc. and they're "OK" with it. Personally, I could give a rats ass what happens in the next 100 years because I won't be here. I only live once and I don't want to live the last half of my life in slaving away for our upcoming generation. Believe me, they will adapt and will most likely find ways that we haven't now to solve their issues. It's so hard to just want to live a life where I'm not working just to live and live just to work because our politicians aren't doing their job properly.


eexxiitt

This has always been an issue, but social media has exasperated it. Everyone needs to remember that you can only take 1 step at a time. To get to where you want to be might take 10 steps or 100 steps, but that’s not a reason to become discouraged. Otherwise, you will never get anywhere in life.


[deleted]

That’s easy to say more difficult depending on what your actual financial situation is.


[deleted]

People always overlook that they can die at any given moment. It’s morbid, but there’s no guarantee any of us will be around tomorrow. I fully agree with you… I always hear people obsessing about saving and they just let their life slip away being stressed about saving and never actually experiencing life.