Selfishly Employed And Cheapskately Spend For Retirement

51, given a choice, I suspect most of us would prefer that too ;) It would be terrific to have infinite resources which allow one to indulge every single whim.  But I think the true key to living well (at any time and especially in retirement) is knowing and honoring one's level of "enough" even when surrounded by tempting alternatives.  "Enough" is a mindset and attitude which reflects one's values, priorities and goals, and of course varies by individual. 

I wish that the media would stop using unflattering terms like "cheapskate" and "miser" - no wonder saving, retiring debt, and living conservatively are looked down on.  Changing the labels might be a good way to start changing perspectives. 

 

Re: pearlbrown 1. Friday, January 18, 2013 - 7:19 PM

I wonder what happened to the term "thrifty". That, at one time, used to be an admirable trait. After all, we have government and military employees that can invest into a Thrift Savings Plan (TSP).

Shorebreak, I imagine the term "thrifty" has fallen out of fashion, much like Thrifty "Green Stamps" ;)

My heart goes out to the younger generation, many of whom are not being exposed to financial literacy basics at home because nobody there understands them either.  They are like lambs being led to slaughter by financial institutions and credit card lenders, it's probably going to have to become really KEWWWWWL to pursue deferred gratification and rational consumption or, alternately, for a popular figure to endorse it before they'll get on board.  I put the chances of that somewhere between slim and none given the constant "buy buy buy" "more more more" media messages, but stranger things have happened.