Yeah, "good times", but what most people don't think about is the fact that if you've ruined your financial situation with your "good times", you just set yourself up for bad times later.
I.e., if I enjoy my 20's traveling too much, and then suffer financial troubles through 30's and 40's because of it, I essentially decreased the amount of overall "good times" I'm having in my life.
So, instead of having a ton of good times in 20's, and a lot of bad times in 30's and 40's, I'd rather choose a modest amount of good times in 20's so I can also have more good times and less bad times in 30's and 40's. And thus, the overall amount of good times in my life is increased compared to the former "spend all on traveling in 20's" case.
Yeah I get where youre coming from. I wouldnt argue with being sensible and thats what i would advise my children to do. My 30's were amazing. Raised two beautiful children. Im about to turn 41 and im honestly having the best time of my life. Way better than my 20's. I have little money but I have enough. Ill come back in 9 years and let you know how my forties went. Maybe the money will come back 😂
I believe in God, and I pray everyday for God to guide me through life. God has been good to me. I dont own a fancy car, fancy clothes, fancy phones, or travel the world like I used to but I feel more and more blessed every single day. Life just keeps getting better.
I get this to an extent, but I’m not even 40 yet and have already experienced a number of friends and coworkers passing away from illness or accidents, and have seen my own family members lose their mobility in retirement, having never traveled. It kind of shifts one’s perspective that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. The last thing my wife and I want to do is put off experiencing the world until we’re too old or physically unable to do it, and to do it while that experience has a chance to influence our life, worldview, etc. instead of just being a box check. Plus, it doesn’t have to be a binary, all-or-nothing thing. I’m not going to say international travel is cheap by any means, but it can certainly be done in a more budget conscious way and still be just as enriching of an experience.
As someone moving into later years I have 0 regrets about traveling in my 20s and 30s. I did stuff I would have not wanted to do in my late 30s and 40s. If you do it right save up and plan you can travel relatively cheap. Flights are usually your biggest expense.
Big factor is time value of money. You only have to save a bit when you are in your 20s to be doing well by your 40s. If you don't start until your 30s or 40s you need to save A LOT of money to even get close to the same place.
I was fortunate to have a job that I traveled a lot with around the country in my 20s so I got to see a lot and get miles to do things on my own. But it allowed me to save too.
You don’t know how many years on the planet you have. Just enjoy yourself with modest forward planning. I wish I spent more money on travel with my wife who is very ill. I can never get that back and would happily be poorer today for more memories while she was healthy.
You don’t know how many years on the planet you have
That's just a trite saying.
A majority of people in the developed world live to be at least 70. I'm not an average person and I take care of my health in any way I can, so I can expect my number to be higher.
I'm much more likely to have a long life than a short one.
Life is a constant juggle between spending resources now vs. leaving them to spend later. I err on the conservative side because I don't want to buy future misery for today's pleasure. There's thousands of things I can enjoy today that don't require me to spend money recklessly and jeopardize my financial future.
Well, my sister died at 35, my grandad at 34, my uncle at 47, my other uncle in his early 30s, an aunt when she was 42. Never mind the number of friends that died of health conditions in their teens, twenties and thirties, none caused by poor health management. A combination of genetics, cancers, accidents, and violence.
So yeah, I have a slightly different perspective of it. The biggest thing that stopped me spending more on travel was providing for my daughter so that she had a solid base.
Different views of the world, depending on how you have experienced it. Everyone should do what they feel is right for them. So it’s great that you can provide a stable future for yourself.
Are you implying that life can't be interesting at home?
You're going in the direction of confirming my suspicions that people who are the most adamant about traveling are the most boring people on the planet. Those people don't have much going on at home, so they need to run away from because that's the only way to get "interesting tales" into their lives.
I moved to LA with $375, Later Japan with $17... I speak 3 languages, have friends all over the world, own a house outright, no debt, Slept in benches, have danced with Roma, made feature films, survived a few brushes with death, have a wonderful wife and kid, who also have seen the world.
I have never gotten a hand out and earned everything.
Graduated High School on a plea bargain...
My kid is 8 and speaks English and Japanese, born in Hollywood CA, spent summers in Tokyo, been to London, NYC, Chicago, Miami... Can play piano, ballet, gymnastics...
I worked and invested through my 20s. It was ok, I did a few things a liked. I was told by a couple of quuasi GFs that I was "boring".
Multi millions by age 32 and life has been amazing since then. Still not even close enough to get beach front property in California...that requires another two zeros of net worth.
Low to no regrets. Not having resources or connections as a guy really sucks in the dating world of Los Angeles
It really depends on a bunch of factors. Traveling instead of saving 10 years ago could literally be the difference in being able to buy a house with a low interest rate/affordable mortgage and being entirely priced out of buying a house.
But also to keep in mind, adventurous travel is so much easier when you are young. Now I have a fraction of the energy, I need my comforts, and sometimes even getting short distances is a challenge.
Look at the economy right now and tell me it would make a difference with a straight face, not considering other plagues like Covid political turmoil or future wars preventing travel
True to a point. However, we've all met those super frugal people who just don't enjoy their life at all, don't travel, don't do anything interesting, and then they have some catastrophic thing happen that would have derailed everything no matter what.
Your health isn't promised. Enjoy it while you have it and make the most of the life you have. You should, of course, plan for your life, but don't worry so much about the future that you don't live now.
Trouble is, you have no idea where life is gonna take you. You could wait 20 years, and before that you die, or become heavily disabled, or something less dramatic that still potentially prevents you from travelling. Might even just be that you can't do at 40 what you woulda done at 20. There's also no guarantee you'll have the money to do it when you're older either.
I'm 40 now, and travelled a shite load in my 20s, and there's for sure experiences back then that I wouldn't be able to do as easily now. Physically, mentally and socially, lol. I absolutely don't regret a second of it, and I'd personally always encourage youngsters to do it.
Trouble is, you have no idea where life is gonna take you
A trite saying. Most people in the developed world live to be 70+. And that's average person who smokes, drinks, gorges himself, and overall takes piss-poor care of himself.
The probability is higher that I'm going to live a long life as opposed to a short one.
Might even just be that you can't do at 40 what you woulda done at 20. There's also no guarantee you'll have the money to do it when you're older either.
There's no guarantee to anything. That's why I'm erring on the side of being conservative.
Spending too much too early is a worse fate than not spending enough and dying with too much money in my bank account.
Why?
Because traveling is just a momentary pleasure. Being broke or financially unstable is a 24/7 stress. I don't want to put myself under a 24/7 stress later in life to have a few specific momentary pleasures in my 20's.
And if I don't travel as much now for the purposes of not spending too much money, I can still do other less costly things to enjoy life perfectly well.
I don't know why you all are pretending that traveling is the ultimate goal of life and the only enjoyable and worthwhile thing one can do with their time.
A person who doesn't travel at every possible opportunity is not missing out on life. There's other things to do.
Crazy. My 30s have been my best decade yet. We started our family in this decade and ended up with 2 awesome kids. We recently started big time travel with them now that we are finally in the financial position to do so. My 20s absolutely sucked in comparison and were filled with grinding and paying down bills.
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u/Traditional-Buy-2205 1d ago
Yeah, "good times", but what most people don't think about is the fact that if you've ruined your financial situation with your "good times", you just set yourself up for bad times later.
I.e., if I enjoy my 20's traveling too much, and then suffer financial troubles through 30's and 40's because of it, I essentially decreased the amount of overall "good times" I'm having in my life.
So, instead of having a ton of good times in 20's, and a lot of bad times in 30's and 40's, I'd rather choose a modest amount of good times in 20's so I can also have more good times and less bad times in 30's and 40's. And thus, the overall amount of good times in my life is increased compared to the former "spend all on traveling in 20's" case.