Money: save every penny or "yolo"?

[Uncover]

Hi,

I'm a 28 years old guy and I work as an accountant earning around 600 Eur a month, in Romania. I grew up in a rather modest family, on the countryside with my father earning barely enough to survive, so we worked hard, learning the saving mentality, rather than the spending mentality. 

But this question crossed my mind when a coworker asked me if if I will buy the Retail verison or Warcraft to play together (aroune 50 Eur for the expansion plus 13 EUR monthly subscritpion). As much as I wanted to play with him I pondered heavily. I see it as I see people smoking, a waste of money in the end; even tho I very much enjoy the free version of the game. 

However, what struck me was that he said something like this "if we take things like this, being too tight with money we aren't gonna enjoy anything in life". And I see him dressed in rather expensive clothes, driving a nice Mercedes, has a nice gaming laptop, warcraft subscription, basically, he spends his money on everything he enjoys. On the other hand, I'm quite on the opposite, I wear the same leather shoes I was wearing more than two years ago, I wear pretty much the same clothes, since they didn't tear :)), I eat cheap food, I'm skinny, even though I have money for this stuff. I'm saving as much as I can, maybe because I know how it is not to have money. The largest spending was that I bought myself a rather cheap WV golf 5 out of necessity, around 2300 Eur. 

Should I adopt a little of my friend's mentality? Shall I buy Warcraft? :)) My monthly expenses will be the 150 eur flat rent, and the ocasional car expenses or other; the point is that leaves me enough money after salary. And I have some savings. 

A side note. What warcraft taught me, is that I can't get to the next level if I don't upgrade myself. 

Your insights much appreciated. 

[Thought Art]

@Uncover Finances are pretty personal. People who buy lots of things tend to not be wealthy. 
 

Do you want to be wealthy? I’d rather be wealthy than have nice shit like your friend. 
 

You can buy the things you like, like warhammer… I mean, find a healthy balance. 
 

It’s probably not about swinging the pendulum too far to either side. 

Edited January 6, 2023 by Thought Art

[Adodd]

As with everything, life is about balance.

[Lyubov]

Too loose and you will really feel it when you’re broke

Too tight, you might have some stability but you will probably miss out on some beautiful experience and some worth while purchases that will genuinely improve your life.

Balance, like what’s already been mentioned. And also make mistakes and learn from them. Do not be afraid to make mistakes. We learn from mistakes. 

[Arthogaan]

Do you think he is happier than you because of better clothes or car?

I would guess no.

I would save as much as you feel comfortable with so that you can YOLO in your future for the things you trully care about. You will be able to attend 1 month vipassana reatreat while your friend probably will need constant dopamine hits from buying stuff and will be forced to work 9 to 5 for most of his life. Of course this is huge generalisation but I too am from modest family from Poland and natural ability to save money is the best thing I got from my parents.

[universe]

I would ask myself why even play WoW. Aren’t there better things to do?

But I also bought the collectors edition back in 2004 and played the beta 

[Matt23]

Balance.

 

[Blackbeat]

Buy Warcraft III Reforged, yes OP

[Michal__]

Put at least 10% of everything you make to something like S&P 500 vanguard or if you can find a better investment then do that. Don't withdraw the money for a few decades.

You can spend the rest freely without worry.

 

[BipolarGrowth]

7 hours ago, Michal__ said:

Put at least 10% of everything you make to something like S&P 500 vanguard or if you can find a better investment then do that. Don't withdraw the money for a few decades.

You can spend the rest freely without worry.

 

10% isn’t likely to do a whole lot. It’s still better than not doing anything at all though. 
 

I would buy the damn game if you think you’ll enjoy it. You don’t have to buy a fancy car and new clothes all the time just because you’ve bought the game. As long as you are frugal in the same ways you’ve been, this single purchase will make no real difference on your finances. Even giving yourself a purchase like this occasionally will be fine. 
 

The real problem is you need to make more money if you don’t want to always be maximally frugal for the rest of your life. 
 

$160,000 after 30 years of inflation will not give you a long or comfortable retirement. 

Edited January 13, 2023 by BipolarGrowth

[Michal__]

19 hours ago, BipolarGrowth said:

10% isn’t likely to do a whole lot. It’s still better than not doing anything at all though. 
 

I would buy the damn game if you think you’ll enjoy it. You don’t have to buy a fancy car and new clothes all the time just because you’ve bought the game. As long as you are frugal in the same ways you’ve been, this single purchase will make no real difference on your finances. Even giving yourself a purchase like this occasionally will be fine. 
 

The real problem is you need to make more money if you don’t want to always be maximally frugal for the rest of your life. 
 

$160,000 after 30 years of inflation will not give you a long or comfortable retirement. 

Yeah, makes sense. 

More money = more money for now & more money to invest.

In his country 600$ is now enough to live. Assuming it will be something like 2000$ in 30 years 160000/2000/12 means 6.66 years of retirement.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Michal__

[EugeneTheSage]

I'm saving 30% of my salary: 10% for financial 'airbag'/financial freedom, 20% for major purchases like a new PC or so. The rest I spend almost without constriction, I rarely watch on price of foods while buying 'em. Earning 800$ in Ukraine.

I personally like investing in 3D graphic courses (I'm a 3D modeler) - it's as much fun as WoW and will increase my future earnings